A Pastel Painting

Here is an abstract pastel piece that I painted on Friday. I used my Panpastels and some black charcoal paper that I happened to have.

The piece measures about 6 inches square, and while the photo doesn’t show it, I matted it in a black 8x8” mat.

I actually create the real piece when I am matting it, moving the mat window around until what I see pleases my eye and harvesting the composition then.

I feel like I am back in Kindergarten when I use my pastels, and truly enjoy playing with pure color. Especially on black paper. The colors on a black background remind me of jewels on black velvet. Yummy!

And I know abstracts aren’t for everyone, but I just love getting lost in the shapes and colors and textures.  :)

I do struggle, though, with feeling like I “have” to add some words to the piece, just because I’m a calligrapher.

I keep telling myself that I can make both… Pieces with words and pieces without. Just because I’m primarily a calligrapher shouldn’t mean that I “have” to do anything, right?

What is it that Loretta LaRoche says?
Don’t “should” on yourself!  :)

And I have really tried to get the lesson that you should make stuff that you love, and not worry about anything else. Like whether abstracts are popular, much less what other people think, or heaven forbid, if they will love it. But it’s a hard lesson.  It just is.

I try real hard to ignore all that and just play.

Recently, though, I have realized again that I make better stuff not only when I create something that I like, but also when The Making of It makes me happy, too. When I enjoy the actual process. And this piece is a sample of that.

Now if I really had moxie, I would spray some glitter on it! Ha-ha! Maybe on the next one. Then I can have 4 categories: with and without words, and with and without glitter. Ha-ha!  :)

To more joy in creating,

XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥