Water lilies.

I was blown away when Stan, aka-natureluv from Flikr gave me permission to use his photos as a reference. Still shaking head in disbelief. His photos are some of the most beautiful photos I've seen. My favorites are of his ponds, the water and reflections with light playing with the ripples. He is like Monet with a camera. Wonderful mind blowing images. Thankyou so very much Stan.

At the moment I'm enjoying the immediacy of pastels over oils. No mixing nor cleaning up after of brushes and palettes (only pastel dust). No waiting for layers to dry. So I continue my learning.
This pastel of water lilies I prefer to think of as a study.

Pastel after one of Stan, natureluv's photos. On Canson-Mi-Tientes Tex, 40 cms x 27cms.

Willows at Hever Castle

I worked on this pastel yesterday for about 3 hours. I did a water color under painting, laying in the darks and left some of the water color free of pastel. I didn't do as many layers as in previous pastels and didn't feel the need to fix any of the layers. I was trying for an impressionistic feel.
I see this piece in my minds eye as an oil, big, 6' x 4 1/2...maybe even bigger.
The reference photo can be found here http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/photo/hever-14

The photo is by fellow artist Michael Yates, Hever Castle, Kent, Uk. Michael has some stunning photos. Thanks for sharing them Michael.
Pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes, 45 cms x 35 cms.