I’m back from a
I didn’t have my easel as we’d decided to travel light and only come with hand luggage (which was fantastic!). So I sat, with paper on a small board resting against a table, and got to work. I had to apply the soft pastel quickly as the light was changing and clouds were coming in!
The pastels I’d brought with me were a small box of 30 half sticks by Sennelier. This was part of an award I’d received at a Pastel Artists Canada (PAC) exhibition and I’d yet to try them. The box was small and light – just what I needed. However, I didn’t take time to look over the assortment and so I was in for a bit of a shock…
Let me take you through the progress of this piece. I only got so far working en plein air. It just didn’t feel complete so I worked on it back in my home studio. I continued with pastels from the set of 30 Sennelier box, choosing not to take the easy route and find colours I really needed! The limitations of the pastel selection definitely played into the outcome.
Here’s my thumbnail. I decided to include the small hot water heater as it’s such a part of backyard life in this village. I liked the ordinariness of it, and how it works as part of the composition.
I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on the charcoal drawing as I knew things would shift as I progressed in pastel.
(The iPhone photos are a bit dark as I was sitting in the shade of a palapa!)
I decided not to do all the areas of middle value in the same colour as I often do. Much of this area is covered with the blue but I decided I also wanted to get the warm colours of two towels in right away.
You can see the place I deviated from the value plan is in the sky. As I worked, I realised the set has no light blue! I chose not to apply the yellow I’d used in the other light areas for two reasons: the first being if I covered the yellow colour with any kind of blue, it would turn quite green and second, there would be no light blue available to help alleviate the greenness. Better to cover the area with mid-value blue then add a layer of whatever very light colour I chose to use.
Some of the troubles I ran into with the set of 30 pastels was that there were certain colours missing and in certain values. For instance, as I’ve said, there’s no light blue in the set so, for the sky, I used a very light green layered over the mid-value blue to lighten it. It still ended up being closer to a mid-value than the light value I had originally planned.
Sometimes these type of constrictions can bring up amazing possibilities but often times, it’s just frustrating and offers mud-making opportunities! Here though, the mid-value sky helps to show-up the light-value wall.
You can see I’m sticking fairly closely to my original value plan. 
Pen and ink thumbnail
That was it for work en plein air. The clouds moved in and all the glorious light and shadow disappeared.
Once home, I opened up the pastel to have a look. I liked the brightness of it and decided I wanted to emphasize the warmth even more.
I got frustrated with the lack of light blue pastel! I wanted parts of the wall to look darker and although I did have an ochre sort of colour, I wanted to add the dynamism of non-yellow colours. So I tried the mid-value blue on top. Ugh – mud! Mixing colours of different values is a recipe for making the proverbial “mud”! But I just had to try since my choices were so limited.
I warmed up the hot water heater and solidified the yellow wall beneath it. Then I worked on the beach towels on the clothesline. I looked at a few of the photos I had taken of the blowing towels and chose a couple of towel shapes from them.
Eek!!! It’s beginning to take on a muddy-ish look!! Can I save it?
I’ve pretty much decided on the pattern of the cast shadows made by the beach towels on the clothesline. But the rest of the cast shadows from the plants and trees overhead are giving me a headache!
I decided that the saturated colours and lightness seen through the portal opening on the left were too bright, attracting too much attention, so I darkened and dulled much of it. I also simplified it to put the emphasis back on the beach towels on the clothesline.
I decided to darken the wall below the hot water heater as I felt it was taking attention away from the towels on the line. I added more of a pattern on the black dress to give it a bit more interest. I went over the sky area to give it more ‘blueness’. I shortened the hot water heater shelf so it wouldn’t butt into the tree.
What else?
I added more highlights to the beach towels and I added some of the red colours into the cast shadows to include those colours in more areas of the painting.
Final tweaking and it’s done! I tried to increase the movement of the beach towels on the clothesline by breaking their edges in places. I did the same with their cast shadows.
Deciding that I didn’t like the
I was bothered by the way the end of the highest banana leaf looked and so changed it to a more blunt end.
That’s it! I thought and signed the piece. Then I realised I hadn’t added the colourful clothespins!! Duh! I used colours from the pastels I’d already used although I was tempted to dip into the Sennelier box for others 🙂
So that’s one of my paintings from my getaway in La Manzanilla, Mexico. I’d love to hear if you learnt anything going through this process with me. Let me know something that stands out, either in the process or in the painting itself.
And that’s all for now! Until next time,
~ Gail
20 thoughts on “Beach Towels On The Clothesline – My Mexico Painting”
Your articles always inspire me. I love your color choices and the way you simplify complex subjects.
Thank you for sharing your work.
Oh thank you thank you Pat!! Comments like yours keep me inspired and motivated!!
What a lovely painting! And an informative blog post as always! I often wonder what kind of blue should I choose for shadows? Does it have to be a cool blue? Your choice isn’t really a cool blue, is it?
By the way, I don’t know which Sennelier selection you have got here. I bought the Seascape set and absolutely love this selection of pastels! I can’t even bring myself to integrate them with my other pastels. (But I don’t restrict myself to this set when painting.) Just ordered the Urban set too. Yummy! 😀
Regards, Gabriela
Thanks so much Gabriela!!
Okay blue for the shadow. There is that general rule that says if it’s sunny then warm in the light, cool for the shadows. Overcast cool day – cool in the light, warm in the shadow areas. Having said that, there is so much that can affect the colours eg reflected light that I say also look and SEE what’s going on. Run your eye back and forth between light and dark comparing and asking, Is it cool? Is it warm? Also, in this case, I had a limited palette of colours to choose from. Buuut layering colours can work well as long as they stay (preferably) in the same value range.
The Sennelier set I used here is their 30 Assorted half sticks. I LOVE their 40 half-stick set. Like I say, I won this particular set but having used it, I wouldn’t recommend it as a starter set (unlike the 40 half-stick assorted selection which I do recommend). Just too many colours/values missing.
Hope that helps!
Great work Gail! I’ve just got into painting with pastels and don’t have a vast amount yet. I feel that I am always looking for a colour I don’t have and get so frustrated. I love how you worked successfully with a limited palette and made it work, resulting in a gorgeous painting. I have no excuse!
Thanks so much Jaey!!
That’s the thing about pastels, there’s no easy way (unlike paint) to mix them. So we layer. Try taking a sheet of paper and making two layers of any colour (in the same value). This kind of practice is fun and can be done when you can’t get into painting. (AND the added bonus is, it will likely help you want to get working on a piece!) It builds your capacity to create new colours from a limited palette.
Gail Sibley, sharing your thought process is so helpful to me – I often have these back and forths in my mind and it’s good to know that it’s ok. Perhaps what I need to remember now is to make them more part of the painting process rather than a ‘beating me up’ sort of muttering in my head.
Oh my gosh Angie, absolutely!!
They ARE part of your process, about making decisions, about value, colour, and design choices!!
Embrace your mutterings – they are you helping you!
You have a great blog – and ability to pass along great information, not to mention your enthusiasm. But about the sky – I see there are two light pastels in the set, white and ?very light green? — anyway, is there no way to mix Sennelier soft pastels? The Sennelier oil pastels mix beautifully. Or did you decide not to mix white into the mid to dark blues?
(But I’m biased toward mixing. Mostly I work with oils, mixing colors with only four tubes, cyan, magenta, yellow and white.)
Hi Dave – glad you like the blog 😀
Mixing – I love mixing!! In soft pastels, I do that by layering (rather than blending). This is what I did in the sky: I put down a mid-value blue (since there isn’t any light blue) and then layered over the light green. This lightened the overall feel of the sky. I prefer ‘mixing’ colours of the same value but in a pinch, as was the case here, I layered a light value over a mid-value colour.
When you say “mixing” I am wondering if you mean ‘blending’ ie with a finger or some other tool? I rarely blend, loving instead the sparkle of colours underneath. I liken it a bit to glazing or even more so, scumbling, in oils or acrylics, where you can still see the original layer below.
Hope that comes across as clearly as I hope!
I love your blogs because they show me your thought process. Really appreciate that as well as the step by step pictures. Between those two, things make more sense. I look forward to each blog. Thank you so much!
Anne I’m so appreciative of your comment. It means I’m doing what’s needed to be helpful. And helping you makes me feel soooo good!
That was fun going through the process with you! I definitely can relate to some of your struggles! I just bought the 20-pc box of Senneliers to try. Will see what happens. Your beach towels and bathing suit waving in the wind shows through and reminds me of how nice it is to be at the beach. As always, thanks for sharing!!
How lovely to hear it was fun Ruth!
I’ll be interested to hear how you make out painting with only the Sennelier pack of 20!!
I love when you take us through your process step by step, blow by blow. Thank you! Makes me want to paint!
Makes me want to do a little jig when I hear that MaryLee!! I hope you picked up your pastels 🙂
As always I learn a lot from your thinking process of your step by step execution. I am also frustrated by a limited palette of soft pastels in my meager collection but I fall upon mixing too. Thanks, it inspires me.
So glad you found it helpful Cheryl!
Yes! the limitations in a palette can be sooooo frustrating!! At the same time, that limitation can push our work into places we would never normally go and that can often be a very good thing.
I really enjoyed the final painting! It’s beautiful! I did think the water heater was a little distracting, but then, I’ve never been to that part of Mexico and maybe they are more important to the story you’re telling than I can see. Thanks for your blog and all you do!
Thanks Betty for reading and checking out this blog post!!
I’m glad you like the painting. It was very personal piece but certainly in another situation, I may have left out the hot water heater!