Bob Palmerton 

As the weather turns for the worst in Michigan, it is time to revisit my collection of photographs that I use as inspiration and reference points for pastel paintings. I chose an old shed photographed about 15 years ago off Judd Road in York Township, MI. There is a lot of green lawn in this photo. So I will shift the focal point, the shed in the center, off to the left, which will reduce the lawn mass, and I will also strive to leave out a fair amount of detail of this gras

This is the final version of Early Sun, a 12x12 pastel painting done on an acrylic underpainting. You can read the blog about the underpainting here. What better frame to go with a brilliant yellow-orange theme than a black frame! Here is the framed version of the painting (please ignore the reflections; it's not easy to photograph a glass-framed painting)! I discovered something shocking after doing this painting. The painting is based on a reference photograph I took abo

Early mornings on humid summer days bring out an ethereal veil of the landscape, with a hazy look that almost blurs the nearby foliage and turns the distant tree line to a bluish cast. Here's the reference photo: The photo does not capture the haziness that was present that morning. And although the sky is clear, on an earlier trip (without camera) there was a dramatic cloud structure expanding up from the horizon. So time to use my "artist's license" and make some changes.

I recently re-arranged my pastel palette, which revealed an abundance of blues. So I thought I would take advantage of such a variety and do an landscape underpainting in blue. Below is the reference photo. The scene is at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along Route 2 in Northwest Ohio. This particular location is along the Crane Creek Estuary Trail. I highly recommend a visit to this wildlife refuge along Lake Erie. There were a number of bird watchers and photographers