Ascending Beauty

Ascending Beauty is part of a project I am completing, where I am depicting people's stories of resilience within nature to heal the disconnect between human beings and the rest of creation. When we see ourselves as being one with nature, we protect the natural world and respect all the diverse life forms which inhabit it.

I began working with pastels in the spring of 2018. This painting was done the following summer in June. I am largely self-taught as a pastel painter, and have not had artistic training beyond high school, which was 26 years ago. From the moment I experimented with some cheap $5 pastels, I became hooked. The new found love of this medium had me looking up and reading about the different qualities of pastels and eventually I bought my fist set of Sennelier 1/2 sticks. I could hardly believe the difference it made to graduate from my Faber Castells and Grumbacher pastels up to these professional grade pigments. That made me curious about Blue Earth Pastels and I bought the intro sets for portraits and landscapes and the moment I held them in my fingers I was in love with the buttery softness and the new effects I could add to my paintings. There really is no turning back after you have gotten the higher grade pastels! I have found I only use my student grade pastels for under paintings now!