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The low key painting: Gail Sibley, "Peppers in a Bowl," Schminke pastels on Wallis paper, 6 x 6 in

What’s a Low Key Painting?

Talking about a low key painting seems appropriate at this, the darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere anyway!). So what is a low key painting? It’s one in which most of the colours are predominantly dark in value and often subdued (i.e. not bright colours). I’ve just uploaded a video of me

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Pastel Demo At Opus A Marvellous Experience!

Opus Art Store Pastel Demo Wow, did I ever have a fun day on Sunday doing my pastel demo!! I can’t believe I’m saying that what with a bit of anxiety days before around the whole thing – what was I going to paint? how nervous would I be? how would it turn out? I got

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Painting dried roses – step-by-step

Pastel of Dried Roses My plan for this post was to show a step-by-step progression of my pastel of dried roses in a vase. The roses were a gift from my honey for my birthday in August but it wasn’t until well into September that I painted them. They were beautiful when fresh and still

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Gail Sibley, "Two Daisies in a Vase," pastel, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. An example of a high key painting

High Key Painting – What IS That??

I’ve just uploaded a video about high key painting and what it means. Have a look and let me know what you think. Here’s the set up I was painting. You can see the beige paper behind the daisies that I reference in the video. If you squint, you can see that the centre of

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Gail Sibley, "Trees And More Trees," pastel on Wallis paper, 12 x 9 in

Plein Air Painting Of Trees…And More Trees!

  So much for getting this post out by the end of August! What can I say – the summertime craziness has discombobulated me. The Alaska cruise with my family was lovely (bar getting bitten by some insect which blew up my foot into an ugly puff ball). It was so wonderful to get together

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Painting on location at Vesuvius on Salt Spring Island

  I have been back and forth to Salt Spring Island over the past few weeks, visiting my Mum and Dad and painting on location. It’s been so wonderful getting back to plein air painting. The weather has been superb – warm enough not to need a sweater but not so hot as to be

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All About How to Paint Glass Objects – a new video!

I’m happy to tell you that I’ve posted another pastel demo video on YouTube. Yay! This time, it’s about how to paint glass. Have a look and let me know what you think!     To begin, I did a small thumbnail sketch to sort out my three main values and to decide if the

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Blurred Boundaries #5 – a pastel progression step-by-step

  Hellooo!! I’m back again after all the craziness of getting two shows up within two weeks of each other – Emergence in the middle of May, Caught Red Handed at the end. Wow! And coming up, an open studio (Fernwood Art Stroll) this weekend. After that, it will be life as normal, well, sort of! A couple of

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This Painting Was Finished Before I Knew It!

  Have you ever had the experience of a painting that was done before you knew it? Well, this painting was finished before I had a clue. I couldn’t think of what more to do – should I add colour, should I add more detail, should I…what? It happened so quickly that I couldn’t believe

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9. The pastel is finished! I simplified all the squiggles at the bottom and also brought in some darks to keep the eye wandering around the piece (and not out over the edge!).

A completely abstract pastel and how I got there!

Whoo hoo!!! I have taken all my new pastels in to be framed for my solo show which opens 16th May 2014 at Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island. Let me share a piece, an abstract pastel, that will be in the show. I have been working on a series of pastels called ‘Vertical Landscapes’.

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