Fiona K. Lau Studio

Hydrangea

2009-11-15T07:55:00.001-05:00

Drawing of Hydrangea

Graphite on Paper

12" x 9"

Kruger No. 14

2009-11-01T14:30:00.003-05:00

Kruger No. 14

Pastel on Paper

19" x 12.5"

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I had worked on this painting for about two weeks. I had decided to take a "mixed media" approach for this painting. The first layer of paint was dissovled by brushing with denatured alcohol. Different marks were also made by rubbing with fingers. A layer of dry pastel was applied. This was followed by spraying with water and letting the water drip down, carrying some pastel pigment with it. I then fixed the surface with fixative spray. The process was repeated over and over again to achieve a varied texture of wet and dry that layered one on top of another.

Untitled

2009-10-22T16:22:00.002-04:00

Untitled

Acrylic on Canvas

22" x 30"

This is a break from pastels. Actually, I have been working on this painting in the past few months. It has a lot of different textures with the use of collage and different mediums.

Kruger No. 13

2009-10-15T18:27:00.004-04:00

Kruger No. 13, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"
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This painting is also done on a piece of white Kitty Wallis paper . I have decided to change things up and do a more abstract version of the piece. It was a lot of fun playing with composition, colours and textures. I am quite happy with this piece.

Kruger No. 12

2009-10-12T10:59:00.002-04:00

Kruger No. 12, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

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Today's painting is done on a piece of white Kitty Wallis paper which has a heavily sanded texture. It is more difficult to paint on a white background compared to black. The rough texture also made the pastels sit on top and some rubbing was required to distribute the pigment more evenly. I have brushed a first layer of paint off with a soft acrylic paint brush to fill in the paper surface. The image was painted again on top and some of the pigment was again brushed away to give a more varied surface (e.g. stripes of light in the sky).

Kruger No. 11

2009-10-10T16:17:00.003-04:00

Kruger No. 11, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

This painting was done also on a brilliant red-orange Sennelier LaCarte paper. I've used the cool colour scheme. I have left as much of the background to show through in contrast with the colour of the painting.

Pastel No. 10

2009-09-27T21:04:00.002-04:00

Kruger No. 10, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

This painting was done on a brilliant red-orange Sennelier LaCarte paper. I've used the cool colour scheme. I've consciously left as much of the background to show through in contrast with the colour of the painting.

Pastel No. 9

2009-09-24T18:16:00.003-04:00

Kruger No. 9, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

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Finally back after a two day break. I continued on with this series of exercise. This painting was done on the same mid-value blue Canson paper as Kruger No. 8. Of course, the difference is the colour scheme used. I think this painting worked better than the last but this one is done on the "rough" side of the paper which I usually do not prefer.

Pastel No. 8

2009-09-21T19:02:00.003-04:00

Kruger No. 8, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

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Today's painting was done on a piece of medium blue Canson paper. This is the least textured of the pastel papers and my paint doesn't respond very well to this surface. I was trying something that would look different from the series so far. I'm not very happy with this painting but at least I tried something different.

Pastel No. 7

2009-09-20T15:56:00.002-04:00

Kruger No. 7, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

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It was a surprise to find that I only have one piece of mid-value blue Canson paper. I had to choose whether to paint with a warm or cool scheme. Since I am not as comfortable painting in an all-cool palette, I decided to practice more with this painting. I also chose the "rough" side of the Canson paper which can be difficult with the large "valleys" on the surface of the papaer. As I painted the scene, a calm and quiet mood developed so I just followed where the painting wanted to go. To put in a focal point that would energize the scene, I put in a bright yellow-bordered path.

Pastel No. 6

2009-09-19T12:57:00.002-04:00

Kruger No. 6, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"

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With the same raw sienna LaCarte paper as yesterday, I used a cool palette today. The effect is quite different. The warm painting vibrates with energy but this painting is much more subdued and contemplative. This could almost be a snow scene.

Pastel No. 5

2009-09-18T19:28:00.003-04:00

Kruger No. 5, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"
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Finally, the paper has a much different colour background this time. This was done a raw sienna coloured Sennelier LaCarte paper. It is warm neutral. I painted with warm colours first this time to avoid yesterday's mishap. The warm colours are really vibrant. It seems the background provided greater harmony with the warm colour scheme of the painting. I suspect the effect would be quite different with a cool colour scheme. I do tend to like to let the background peek through. With a contrasting colour scheme and surface, the effect would be different. I wonder if the background colour also affect the temperature of the painting as well so I do tend to choose the opposite colour temperature for layering.

Pastel No.4

2009-09-17T18:46:00.004-04:00

Kruger No. 4, Pastel on Paper, 10"x10"
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Strangely, I was supposed to paint this with warm colours but I did it in cool instead! Like a lot of my artist friends would say, "Who did that? I didn't do it!" Anyway, I decided to add warm colours on top and ended up changing it to a primary triad. The overall value was also changed. Although I'm usually a "dark" person, I'm trying to paint in lighter values. But, this is the last entry on such a dark surface. When I started learning how to paint pastels two years ago, my teachers warned about really dark or really light surfaces because they are much harder to judge the values of the paint being applied. Having painted on mostly mid-value papers, I tried a piece of dark blue LaCarte one day (this painting is also done on this paper) and really enjoyed it. I like the special mood that it seems to bring naturally.

A New Pastel Exploration

2009-09-16T17:59:00.001-04:00

Inspired by an article in a recent issue of the Pastel Journal, I have finally decided to do a series of paintings from the same image. Although I have wanted to do this for a long time, the repetitiveness of the exercise is not really motivating. Pastel is perfect for this exercise because it is a very rapid process that doesn't any use of solvents or drying time. I'm setting the goal of doing one of these paintings each day! It's not easy when you have a full-time job but it certainly gets me going.

This series explores the interaction between the value and colour temperature of the surface and the chosen colour scheme of the painting. I have chosen a range of papers that have different values and colour temperatures - from black to white. The paintings will either have a warm (yellow to red-violet) or a cool (yellow to blue-violet) colour scheme. Both scheme will be done on the same paper for comparison. The effect is quite interesting.

Kruger No. 1, Pastel on Paper, 10 "x10" Kruger No. 2, Pastel on Paper, 10 "x10"

My first painting is a cool colour painting on black Canson paper while the second one has a warm colour scheme on the same paper. I haven't been painting in pastel for probably about a month now. Having just finished an acrylic painting, I did feel rather rusty. The warm colours of the No. 2 has much more energetic feeling.

The third painting is a cool colour painting again but on a dark blue Sennelier LaCarte paper. I love LaCarte's beautiful texture. Most people don't know that the surface is actually made of vegetable material. I look forward to tomorrow's painting. It'll also be one the same paper but with warm colours.