Barrel of Leeks, 9 inches by 12 inches, pastel on paper - click to see a larger image

From earlier this summer, this painting was inspired by a trip to the farmer’s Market. Using a combo of soft and hard pastels, some of my favorite moments were in painting the coppery parts of the roots and the cool shades in the bucket and greens. 

In case you were wondering, pastels come in a variety of hardness. The harder ones can give you a finer line, The soft ones work more like oil paints. Both use the same pigments as wet media like oils or watercolors and the consistency depends on the amount of binder used to hold the stick together. I’m a huge fan of the harder pastels, which I don’t see used as often as the softs, because of the ability to create depth and new colors through layering them on top of one another. The softs come in handy for strong pops at the end and they don’t blend well at all.

This painting is available and part of the Ephemera collection. Please contact me for purchase information. Thank you for reading!