ON the only sunny day this week I did a small landscape oil pastel painting in size of ca. 15X20 cm or 7×8 inches, which I finally cropped to the square format above. Here is how that piece developed. 1. Selection of the picture frame> I liked the fast changing light on this day with [...]

I roamed the woods again on the weekend. I saw some old tree stumps polished by wild boar, woodpeckers,tits and nuthatches busy and the leaves of wild Arum showed here and there already. I finally settled down in front of a pine tree stump. The sketch is about 26X23 cm in size. I used in [...]

It was really very chilly on this cold February Sunday morning when I did this small plein air study of bare trees under a grey sky. The rain was drizzling on and off. Each year in February I have enough of the winter season and can’t wait to see the fresh colors of spring. The [...]

Buy a framed print——————————Buy a framed print This table with two series of 4 images per sketch show my favorite process when I use oil pastels for small plein air studies. I carry a selection of thick paper or board pieces which are primed with oil colour with me. On site I choose which piece [...]

A typical November day, drizzling rain, moist air and a colossal grey sky with slowly moving clouds. I tried hard to capture those thin clouds that smoked from the wooded hill named “Burgberg” in the background. I have been there on top to meet the “Schreckstein” which translates to “the stone that scares you”. And [...]

For the next small oil pastel sketch in the woods I selected a detail view of some trunks in the background. Is started with black and a dark grey as basic colors for the trunks and added other, lighter colors on top. Over time one learns about layering and depending on the wanted result may [...]

Last year I altered a book, an art book with nice strong paper. I bought it two or three years ago, cheap, cheaper than a good blank sketchbook at a couple of Euros and knew that some day I would make something of it. In winter I painted all pages with thinned oil colors to [...]

I did a bit of an investment and bought the 48 color neopastel set by Caran d’Ache, after I had tried the smaller one. An altered art book, overpainted with thinned oil color will suit me as support for a series of oil pastel sketches I want to do this year. Drawing with oil pastels [...]

A friendly reader mailed me two incredible text quotes, one from Sartre and one from Vaclav Havel, which I want to post here. From Nausea by Sartre “So I was in the park just now. The roots of the chestnut tree were sunk in the ground just under my bench. I couldn’t remember it was [...]

A couple of days ago I went to the same place I started the forest diary sketchbook on a grey afternoon in January 2009. I started with a humble sketch in ink, black and white,which still reminds me of those insecure days when the financial crisis hit. Now at beginning of autumn 2011 the scenery [...]