Honeoye Lake Heat

"Honeoye Lake Heat" - 12"x 18"  pastel

One super hot day this summer, I found this beautiful little park at the northern end of Honeoye Lake in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY.  There is an absolutely spectacular view straight down the lake.  When I painted this in August, I knew I wanted to enhance the intensity of the color in the sky.  It was a hot, humid day with loads of haze and some of the color was lost. Today was the day to take care of that issue!  Punched up the color and now it's finished.

Millennium Marsh

On Wednesday, February 13^th, I did a pastel demonstration for the Suburban Rochester Art Group. I do enjoy doing demos, even if it's still a bit unnerving for me to stand up in front of a group and discuss what I do. I guess my love of pastels and painting en plein air helps me to over-come my fear. I usually get a lot of great feedback and I'm always happy to be able to share my knowledge with anyone who will listen.

The demo I did was based on some photos I took this summer of Montezuma Wildlife Refuge's Millennium Marsh. The view overlooks the marsh and the day I was there it was hot and sunny. A beautiful day, with just enough haze to make things interesting. The demo went very quickly – about an hour of painting time. When I was done, the painting was pretty loose, but I was able to convey that value is more important than anything else in a painting.  It is painted on a piece of Wallis paper which I had done a painting on once before.  The original painting had been unsuccessful so I had wiped it out and I reused it here.   Once I got it home and in better light, I decide to work on it a bit more.  The pictures are of the piece after the demo and then after some refinement.   I like seeing them side by side. 

9"x12"                                                        

Fields of Green

 Sometimes I just can't get out to paint due to a lack of time.  So this time instead of just ruminating about it, I looked over a bunch of photos I'd taking during my daily travels to find some inspiration.  I did this little one based on several of those photos.  You can see the unfinished edges on this one.  Ordinarily, these are covered by the mat.  Just something a bit different.  SOLD

5"x7" currently unframed and unmatted

for more information about this painting, please click on

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColetteSavage 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/112550073/original-pastel-landscape-painting

Clouds Over Canandaigua Lake

Clouds Over Canandaigua Lake - available 

This has been a tough summer for painting for me. Rainy, over-cast weather is not conducive to working in pastels. Even this particular day, which started out sunny, changed into one with tons of clouds and a very brisk wind blowing across the lake at me. I really loved the pattern of the cloud shadows across the hills in the distance, however.  And yes, the color of the water really was pale green!

Can be viewed at the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery in Canandaigua, NY.

Size: 12"x18"

Keuka Lake Morning

I was doing a show in Hammondsport NY at the southern end of Keuka Lake, located in a beautiful part of the Finger Lakes, but had no paintings of the Finger Lakes area. After being asked repeatedly if I did, I decided I needed to create one. I got there early before the show opened the next morning, went to Champlin Park on the southern end of the lake and painted this.

size 9" x 12"

Conesus Sparkle

The water was clear and sparkling at Conesus Lake on this spring morning. A few years ago, we'd had the opportunity to stay at a cottage on Conesus Lake and being here now brought back a lot of nice memories. SOLD

Finger Lakes Iris Garden

This was done at Borglum's Iris Gardens, located at the highest point right between two of the Finger Lakes, near the village of Hall. In the spring it over-flows with iris, peonies and daylilies of every shape and color. It is an amazing sight to see. This is what heaven must be like: acres of beautiful flowers everywhere. Sadly, the day we were there, a thunderstorm cut our painting session short when a huge crack of thunder exploded over our heads and the rain sent us scurrying for cover.