Speaking of Art Blog

Autumn Gold, pastel, 12x12"

This is my latest painting that I created as a demo for the students in my recent COLORS OF FALL pastel workshop that I taught at the Chesterton Art Center.  While I’ve used yellow before in paintings, this is only the third time I’ve majored in yellow as the main color.  These are my first two times:

Tulip, pastel, 18.5x18.5"

Sunflowers and Friends, pastel, 9x12"

Yellow is a challenge when it plays a major role in a painting.  According to a few pastel manufacturers I’ve spoken to about the color yellow, it’s also not an easy color to create as a stick of pastel.  I wrote a blog post last year about yellow and the inherent problems it can create as far as its coverage on the surface is concerned.  Here is a link to it: https://www.maryannpals.com/blog/176389/the-problem-with-yellow

my photo of aspen trees in Colorado Rocky Mountains

About 2 weeks ago my husband and I returned home from a wondrous vacation to Colorado.  Up in the Rocky Mountains the aspen trees were already turning bright yellow.  It was magical.  So, I guess I was mesmerized enough by yellow trees when I returned home that I decided to tackle a yellow tree painting based on a photo I took at the Indiana Dunes National Park last fall.  But what I came to realize rather quickly is that creating depth with mostly yellow can be very challenging.  Since there aren’t all that many shades of yellow in nature (it has the smallest number of shades of any color in the rainbow) and because it is very translucent, it automatically dictates that a painting of mostly yellow is going to be high key (meaning having very few dark darks).

So, what did I do halfway through my painting?  I decided to abandon my reference photo and create more whimsy and frilly lace-like leaf details to add interest to the painting because the depth just wasn’t coming through.  I also added several other analogous colors in the mix to change things up.

Yes, witnessing shocking yellow trees in autumn really is a gorgeous sight to behold, but creating one tree full of only yellow leaves on paper with pastels is another story.  That task involves daring to experiment and accept something that is not quite what was originally imagined.  I am reminded of a sentence I have included in my official artist statement for many years now: “Nature says it best.  I just embellish the tale.”  With yellow, that is definitely true.