DKG Arts Gallery Blog: Artist’s Spotlight: An Open Artists’ Discussion on Creation, Technique & Opportunity

Linda Tracy– Connecticut State Organization – Theta Chapter

Briefly, tell me a little bit about yourself as an educator and as an artist?

I am a retired choral music educator, having taught at the middle school and high school levels, and have also conducted community choral groups.  Currently, I am the artistic director for the a cappella ensemble, Take Note! based in Mansfield, CT.  My love of painting resurfaced about 10 years ago, when I decided to try my hand at an acrylic painting class being offered at my community center, and this whole new hobby took off.

Your images, ‘Brandon and Lucy on the Journey’ and ‘Rodney the Rooster’ are both done in pastel.  Are pastels your favorite medium or do you work in other mediums?  

Although I started in acrylics when I took that art class at the community center, during one of the classes, the teacher, who was by trade a pastel artist, introduced us to pastels, and I was hooked.  Maybe it was because it’s so tactile (apparently, I love getting messy!)  You are holding the pigment in your hand, and your hand is the paint brush.  It just took a hold of me.  At times, I do think about trying acrylics again, and I have dabbled in watercolor, but pastels are my jam!

 Where do you find inspiration for your work? 

I’m basically a landscape artist.  I wish I could say I take these great photographs as I walk through nature, but my photos aren’t as inspiring as photos my friends have taken!  If they post something on Facebook that I’m drawn to, I’ll reach out to them and ask if I can use it for a painting, and they’re so excited and flattered when I do that. I’m really drawn to water and sky (I have trouble keeping my eyes on the road when I drive if there are some spectacular clouds in the sky!)  I’m a sucker for sunrise and sunset shots. I love autumn!  I could paint autumn scenes forever. There are online websites where you can search for free photos of specific subject matter, and I’ll often visit those sites for some inspiration. I stress the word inspiration, because free isn’t always free.  The painting “Brandon and Lucy” has a story behind it.  I found the autumn scene and went to work on it.  It was sitting on my easel for a few weeks because I got stuck and didn’t know how to finish it.  Then I got a call from my son Brandon and his fiancé Lucy, saying they got married!  The Covid pandemic had put their wedding plans on hold, and then one day they just decided not to wait any longer and they got hitched!  So now I knew how to finish my painting.  I put them in the painting, crossing the bridge and starting their new life together.  They got married in October, so it was a perfect scene for them. I gave it to them as a wedding present.

Many people are leery of using pastels as they tend to “over smudge” or continually touch their work resulting in a flat piece.  Your work illustrates a layered and colorful technique?  Please explain to our members your process of working in pastel. Any tips?

Funny you should mention that, as I am one of those over blenders (but I’m working on it)! It’s dangerous to do that because you can create “mud” in your painting.  But when I do that, I consider it creating a neutral color, and then going back over that area and layering other bright colors over neutral colors will make those ‘brights’ pop.  For my underpaintings, very often I’ll use a blending technique where I put in all the values of the painting, then take a piece of pipe insulation foam and rub in the color and blend some of the colors together to create my roadmap for my painting. It creates an out-of-focus look but is effective in covering the whole canvas so there are no plain spots poking through.  Then I can concentrate on choosing the colors that I want and the areas that I want to stand out.

Pastels like paints come in many varieties, varying from chalky to oily.  Do you have a favorite type?  Same with paper, textured or smooth, what do you use? 

I use soft pastels only.  There are gradations of hardness to the pastels.  The harder pastels are good for preliminary work, like the underpainting, to set the roadmap to your painting.  Then the nice, buttery soft pastels bring out the richness of your work.  I work on sanded paper because you need something that will grip the pastel.  Sanded paper also lets you do a wet underpainting, which is a lot of fun to do.  It’s kind of like you get to paint your painting twice!  I’ve tried oil pastels, but I just don’t get them.

‘Rodney the Rooster’ is a dapper and colorful fellow! Do you work from a photograph or capture the image from memory?

I work from a photo 95% of the time.  On occasion, I’ve painted something from my head if I just want to take some time to paint and not plan.  Being a landscape artist, I must admit that painting “Rodney” was totally out of my comfort zone.  It was a challenge activity from an artist I follow and learn from.  Her lesson one week was about painting animals, and she told us to find a picture of an animal and paint it.  I found “Rodney” and loved his fun colors.  I pushed the color even more than what I was looking at and just had fun with it.  He was my very first animal painting, and I finished him in about 90 minutes because I just let myself go and didn’t pressure myself to create a “good,” frameable painting.  And then a friend of mine saw the painting, loved it, and bought it!  Now, “Rodney” is framed and living in someone’s kitchen!

What is the best piece of artistic advice you’ve been given?

“Even in front of nature, one must compose” is a quote from Edgar Degas which I strive to follow, and it’s an ongoing struggle for me.  It’s important for your painting to have good composition before you put all the time and effort delving into the painting process.  If you are painting from nature, you shouldn’t feel like you need to paint exactly what you see if it isn’t compositionally sound.  You should feel free to take out a tree or move a rock if it makes your painting flow better.  That’s why it is hard for me to paint from photos I take myself.  I’m a very black-and-white thinker, which probably isn’t a great quality to have if you want to be an artist!  I can see something is getting in the way of motivating me to paint the scene, yet I get paralyzed when tasked with making it a better composition.  I’m still a student and always will be.  There’s always something new to learn!

Do you have any tips for others looking to attempt pastels?

Make sure you look in the mirror before you leave the house after painting.  Chances are, you have pastel dust on your face!  But seriously, get the best pastels and paper you can afford in order to avoid frustration.  You won’t know what you can produce if you’re using cheap materials.  Make sure you get sanded pastel paper.  There are un-sanded pastel papers that have no grip at all, but it is hard to work with and you’ll get frustrated (I certainly did!)  Even using fine sandpaper from the hardware store to practice on will work.  It’s just not archival, so it won’t last for years.  But it’s great to practice on and will save you money.

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