DJ Geribo

Yesterday I spent the day at my friend Shirley's house. Although the goal was to paint, we managed to spend an almost equal amount of time catching up on news and also discussing a variety of art-related topics. I brought my oils with me but decided I wanted to try out the water-soluble pastel painting sticks I had recently purchased from Jerry's Artarama. I must say, I was intrigued by the term 'water-soluble' in the same sentence as 'pastel sticks'. So, I took them out and in combination with my Aquastroke watercolor brush pen, I played around with a couple of paintings. One was a small still-life Shirley had set up. The other was the head of a Dachshund puppy on the cover of a book she had.  I really enjoyed using this new medium and enjoyed the relatively dry pastels with the watercolor. I felt like I had a lot of control but that I could also be more free with it, if I wanted. It was so strange to feel like I was using a hard pastel stick and then softening it up with water to create what looked like a watercolor painting. I think these sticks, like the watercolor pencils, will be great for use when on the road.