I painted this piece inspired by a vibrant autumn sunrise near McMinnville, Oregon. I used Henri Roche pastels, on Ambersand Pastelbord. This piece uses just 7 pigments, and I definitely enjoyed relaxing into more familiar “brush strokes” with this piece. As small as it is, I started the piece with some concern that many years of painting much larger pieces (typically 24″ x 36″, often larger) would make some movements that “feel right” for painting fine-tuned in some hard to define way that wouldn’t work for pastels, nor for such small surfaces.

I did recently begin to work a little larger in pastels, doing some 24 cm x 32 cm pieces, which feels pretty comfortable, but also makes me painfully aware of how much more space they need for storage!