Untitled 294

Untitled 294.  Pastel.  Approx. 4" x 6".   

Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

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My photo + waterlogue app.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 293

Untitled 293.  Pastel.  Approx. 4" x 6".   

Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

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Cute Rumi feets.
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Part of a lovely mosaic table.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 292

Untitled 292.  Pastel.  Approx. 4" x 6".   

Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

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Gadjo knows what part of Fennec is the warmest.

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I love aspen leaves in the fall...

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 286

I've had almost no time lately to paint, but I've done a few small pastel works.  I'm excited about this one, because not only do I really like it, but it's also kind of a new direction for me.

Untitled 286.  Pastel.  Approx. 4" x 6".   Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

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Fennec has his head shot. He's ready for any auditions that might come his way.

I haven't blogged for a while... My life feels completely crazy juggling so many things. I'm kind of exhausted lately.

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The other day I went by a client's (I guess technically I'm supposed to call her one of my collectors, but that always sounds so pretentious to me) to drop off a couple of small paintings she is considering.

I got to see a bunch of my art in situ. Her house is so perfect for my pieces--she has an ultra-modern house with all white walls and a ton of light.

Here's one of my oils on linen. It's 36" x 36" (looks small! Her wall spaces are seriously massive).  She bought it about three years ago, before my divorce:

And here is my group of small white paintings, oil and cold wax on museum panel. They are 6" x 6" each and she bought them last year. She has them in a little alcove with this awesome bench. So perfect:

She has good taste, don't you think? ;)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 269

This is another older pastel.

Untitled 269.  Pastel.  Approximately 4" x 6."  Purchase information: jala [at] jalapfaff [dot com]

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More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 183

Pastel on UArt, approx. 4"x 6".

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I was going to do a general update on things today, but I'm unfortunately living in migraine land today. So, maybe next time.

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In India.

$115.00 - Untitled 183 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 167

Pastel on PastelMat, approx. 4" x 6".

This one also is very new, and was sold during Open Studios. Thanks, Boulder peeps, for supporting your local artists!

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Gadjo gives Lynxie a thorough chin bath:

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I had just washed these little tomatoes and was about to eat them when I realized they look like a little Chihuly installation. Had to go get the camera.


I can eat them now.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 165

Pastel on UArt, approx. 4" x 6".

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The bath...

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At the weavers' cooperative, Hyderabad, India.

$115.00 - Untitled 165 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 151

Pastel on UArt, approx. 4" x 6".

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I love the very long nose that Gadjo is developing.

Sleeping next to the cat grass. Maybe it keeps his head cool in this hot summer?

$115.00 - Untitled 151 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 147

Pastel on PastelMat, approx. 4" x 6".

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Why is Gadjo sitting patiently beside this beat-up old rug?

Because he knows there's something inside it.

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Rooftop temple, India.

$115.00 - Untitled 147 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Untitled 121

Pastel on PastelMat, approx. 4" x 6".

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Looking out over the wall from the Air Palace, Jaipur.

$115.00 - Untitled 121 (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Serrano pair / Lynx doppelganger

Last night's pastel. We are very proud to have grown these serranos in our new little vegetable garden. And they are hot!

This photo is very blurry. I apologize--it was taken with my iPhone. I just had to take it when I saw Lynx next to the litter bag and it struck me that he has a litter-bag doppelganger.

$115.00 - Serrano pair (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Loriann's Vista revisited

I've been living with the pastel I did before, that I called Loriann's Vista, and realized I didn't like it that much. I'd had too much fun with color and overworked it a little, and lost the quiet tranquility that I'd been after. So I brushed some of the color off (with a hog-bristle, which seems to get rid of a lot more tooth than I would like on the Sennelier paper--anyone got a better method?) and got back down to a ghost image. I worked back up from there, trying not to use too much pastel, sticking to a monochrome (it's actually kind of a very dusky gray-blue-purple, even though it just looks plain gray on the screen) and just concentrating more on value and the feeling I wanted to express. 

Thanks again, Loriann, for the photo use.

$115.00 - Loriann's Vista (Ready to Frame)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Mountain

A little pastel sketch which started out as a pure abstract and ended up evolving into a small mountain.


More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Channeling Agnes Martin again

Ah, how I love subtlety. I feel like when you see a very subtle image, your eyes and brain race around the image looking equally for pattern and for dissonance. I like these subtle paintings to be very serene but with just enough irregularity (in color, value, line spacing, etc.) to keep the eyes and brain awakened.

I paint an alla prima oil portrait from life in a class once a week, small oils at home perhaps four days a week, with the other two days given over to pastels (whenever I can no longer face one more day of washing brushes). I love both media so much, but for such different reasons. I never thought I'd like pastel because I love the juicy-ness of oils so, but it's the purity of color, the immediacy, and the potential for subtlety that I love about pastels. Though I do hate the dry feeling on my fingers, I usually am so into the pastel painting that I don't really notice it till it's time to clean up. Then I run for the sink with that creepy "aaagghhh, I'm all dessicated" feeling. (I've tried gloves and even the little rubber fingertip thingies, but immediately discovered that I can't stand painting with anything on my hands.)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Pastel memories

Our art materials instructor, Michelle Philip, a year or two ago, had us make pastels by hand. It was really fun, though a lot of physical (hand, wrist, arm) labor, too--kind of like dealing with a really stiff bread dough.  At the time we made them, I had never used pastels before, and I made these really funky, ultimately somewhat unusable shapes. Michelle had a good laugh when she saw them. They turned out beautifully, in terms of texture, softness, and color, if not in form.

$295.00 - Small Landscape (Framed)

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com