My latest oil pastel (OP) painting is from a landscape image that seemed to capture all the right ingredients for a warm summer afternoon. I imagine that this little place provides walkers a needed slight breeze as they walk the path leading to the hill-top.
What captured my attention and drew me in to paint this scene were the distant hills, grasses and the foreground tree. I decided long ago that trees are a subject I can’t study enough, so I thought this photo offered me the right challenges. I love painting tree bark with oil pastels; letting the first layers of oil pastels sit over night provides great textures when dragging the OP over the hardened layers.
I’ve provided several images, the finished painting and two close-ups of the foreground tree and grasses. The original image was from photographer, Steve Lyddon’s collection on pmp. Hope you enjoy!
The Hill
The Hill tree details
The Hill – grass details
Oil Pastels by Mary 
You’re sooo talented!!! Really love your paintings.
Wow Cha this goes back a long ways – thank you so very much. Thank you for the compliment , but you are the talented one and it’s been my pleasure to have found your blog – your portraits are stunning. Have a beautiful summer!
HI Mary. Thanks for stopping by my one and only OP picture! Wow! I’m so impressed with your work. It has inspired me to go back and look at using OPs again.
Thank you so much, your comment made my day! I hope you do take an opportunity to paint with oil pastels, they are artist friendly and some wonderful effects can be achieved with them. Be sure to get artist quality, the OP will be more smooth making it easier to blend and move around the surface. Thanks again, can’t wait to see more of your work.
Lovin’ the tree piece. Simply lovely.
I enlarged my screen. These old eyes couldn’t read the itty bitty text and WhaLa! I found the comments. 🙂
Hi Mona: Well you made my day – appreciate your review and comment! Thanks ~ Mary
BTW, even my progressive glasses don’t always help . . . oh well
Hi! I just nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award– check details on my page at http://helpwithyourlife.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/second-liebster-blog-award/
Thank you so much! I’m flattered that you would nominate me – appreciate that you thought of my blog. Will work on my acceptance over the weekend. Thanks again – Mary
The texture is amazing! Great job. 😀
Thanks Patricia! I really like painting tree bark, the oil pastel handles the same way with rock formations.