Tracey Maras

Inspiration can come from anywhere and at any time.  But rarely does our source of inspiration provide us with perfection.

It happens. You are comfortable with painting. Yes, you know you have room for improvement and growth. But you enjoy painting. And then you get lost.

While some may have curio cabinets filled with nick-nacks, I have rocks.  Smooth rocks, rough rocks, satiny, shiny, sparkly, large rocks, small rocks, really, really small rocks, if it is a rock, I am intrigued by it.

Over the years, I have learned that there are infinite ways in which pastels can be manipulated as a drawing and painting medium.  Examples range

No matter how I tried, my conifers always looked flat and uninspired, not unlike a green frosted sugar cookie.

I am a planner (and not ashamed to admit it).  While I may spend time sketching for fun, when beginning a new painting, I always have a plan.

Tracey Maras shares her thought process on revisiting a painting, long after its initial creation.

Do you work from photos or from life? This is not an either/or question. There are pros and cons to either approach and I prefer the best of both worlds.

“What if?” can lead to a stronger painting. We hear it all the time… “Just because it is in the photo doesn’t mean we have to paint it that way.”

Isn’t it exciting when you stumble onto something that is totally new?  That is what happened when a colleague and I were developing a series of workshops on creative underpaintings for pastel.  While experimenting and asking “what if?” the technique of “Floating Pastel” was created.