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Ambiguity in art: art work having several possible interpretations or meanings; of an uncertain nature. The cloud-like forms look a bit like the start of trees. To get away from the idea of trees and thinking about the potential of ambiguity in art, I reintroduced the red, brightening up the greyed red below and covering much of the green. Ambiguity in art gives us the chance to add to a painting’s texture.

In over 35 years of painting, my artwork has evolved from representational imagery depicted from direct observation – either still life, figure, or landscape – to statements focused on the patterns and rhythms of color and light. Trying to work while entertaining children in a small studio, I became fascinated by the children’s exuberant, freewheeling application of color and line, and in a revelation, I knew that “ Using hard pastels, lay in color with broad strokes followed by another wash with alcohol * Using preferred studies as reference, apply color (hard pastels for underpainting) with constant emphasis on the juxtaposition of colors, value, and color temperature (warm vs cool). * Set aside photo reference and refer to it for detail reference only * Continue with soft pastels and address the painting with beautiful color relationships and with values that direct the viewer around the picture plane

The reason I’m not that keen on black paper is that I can’t go lighter AND darker on the paper. As well, everything on black paper has to, by necessity, be lighter than the paper (since it’s dark) whether it’s a middle value or a light value. Because of this, sometimes it’s difficult to judge just how light (or not light) a colour is because most of your pastels are going to look light against the black paper. (In a previous blog, I had written about my experience of using black paper but that time my subject was mostly middle and light values which meant I was doing a lot of covering up of black paper! )

Since I haven’t done a blog focusing on a closeup look at a single painting for a while, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to present you with a pastel work done by a lesser-known female artist. Navarre uses grey pastel to render the woman’s grey hair (is it powdered or is she not so young after all? ). Sooooooo what do you think of this painting by the lesser known female artist Marie-Geneviève Navarre? And to finish off books I’m presently reading about female artists, I am soooooo enjoying Ninth Street Women a book that looks at the lives of five women painters – Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell (a favourite of mine! ), and Helen Frankenthaler.