Wednesday 25 May 2016

Inspired by Gullfoss Waterfall ( Iceland )

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Pablo Picasso

The soft pastel painting below has been inspired by Gullfoss Waterfall at Iceland. This is 
my second waterfall painting using soft pastel medium. To view my earlier painting 

Gullfoss is a tiered waterfall with a total height of 105ft or 32 mts. It flows with an enormous 
force and as it falls the mist rises to a great height. Painting this scene was a pleasure and I
completed it in two layers of soft pastels. I am not into fixing the final layer as I feel it
darkens and dulls the artwork. 

Through this artwork I have tried to capture the flow of the water, the energy, the rhythm,
the spray and the mist. It was a lot different from working on forests and mountains. 

Original soft pastel painting of The Gulfoss Waterfall at Iceland by Manju Panchal

The Flow
Soft Pastel painting on Canson Mi Teintes paper
Size 6.5" X 8.5"


With this painting I decided to  make a few changes in my step by step technique that I follow
because the last time I created the waterfall painting, I landed up using a lot different colours
and was not precise about my colour mixing.

Therefore instead of using my entire miscellaneous collection of soft pastels, I decided to 
create a "Small palette"  of only the required soft pastels. I pretested the pastels on a piece of  
paper to check out if I was getting the desired colour of all the elements in the painting, be it
rocks, mist or flowing water.Then I went ahead and placed them in a small cardboard box, which
in turn became my "MINI PALETTE". As the painting progressed I added a few more
colours but on the whole this worked out good for me. It avoided a lot of confusion and I 
managed to complete my work without overworking on it.

Mini pastel palette created by Manju Panchal

Mini Pastel palette with
desired soft pastels

Over a period of regular use the soft pastels gather dust at its sides. It then requires to be cleaned 
up. I have posted earlier about CLEANING PASTELS. you can browse through it.

My soft pastel collection right now is in a mess and I will be cleaning it up before embarking on 
my next painting. 

The art in me is my biggest inspiration. It drives me on to draw, paint and sketch. 
No matter how busy I am, I make it a point to take out time for myself and my art. Thanks for
spending your precious moments and browsing through my works. It means a lot to me.

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