Paintings in Pastel by: James Geddes

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Pastels created on UArt Pastel boards and Paper, Wallis Museum sheets
mounted by Dakota Arts, PastelMat or Canson papers.

My pastels are under painted with either Nu Pastels and gamsol, gauche or watercolor.

Soft pastels include: Rembrandt, Sennelier, Great American, Girault, and Diana Townsend, Unison and Terry Ludwig.

Pieces shown here are  images of original works with digital frames created on the computer. We print giclee prints with or without linen mats.



These paintings reside in my collection or in private collections both purchased and commissioned works.
Limited Giclee prints may be purchased here.

 

2008 was my first year painting. I wanted to learn to paint with watercolor and after some miserable attempts, I was finally able to produce some enjoyable works. During that time I purchased an inexpensive set of pastels and started to become more intrigued by them. By 2009 I had begun to explore pastels and became infatuated with the media. I find the sequence of pastel painting in layers more suited to my thought process which grew from working with layers in Photoshop. I am still very fond of watercolor artwork and I regularly paint and under paint my pastels with watercolors.

The art I have displayed here is from 2009 and 2010 and are all pastel works.  If you have visited here before, you know that before 2007... I didn't paint at all. I am a professional photographer and sketch artist. I retired from instructing high school students in photography and I was our high school curriculum specialist. 6 years ago we moved to Washington. Nancy and I now live on Whidbey Island, Dugualla Bay to be more precise. This wonderful location has allowed my inner soul to flourish and allowed me to pursue my passion for creating art.

The works displayed here are photographs of original paintings that I use for giclee prints. The prints may be ordered for purchased here: Giclee Prints. The original works are in my personal collection or in private collections.

If you would like to purchase an original, please contact me directly. Thanks for visiting!

Latest Additions

"Road to the River"
12x18 Wallis Pro - Under Painting Richeson semi-soft pastels and Gamsol 7/26/10


Red Barn Lavender Farm
24x18 on Wallis Museum - Watercolor Underpainting
Thanks to the wonder owners of the Red Barn Lavender Farm in Ferndale WA


Alger Forest
18 x 24 Wallis Museum Mounted on Canson Board - Under Painting with Watercolors.
7-9-2010 - Revision 7-15-2010



Listen to the dunlin:
18x24 Wallis Museum "Dunlin Calligraphy"
7-5-2010


The Arborist
16x20 Gesso-Pumice Ground on Foam Core
(Digital Mat for Web Display an Giclee Printing)

The Family "G"
12x16 PastelMat
Back Row: Our Son Corey, Me, my dad Jack
Front Row: my wife Nancy, my mom "Babe" and our daughter Meadow


"Summer Swing" 12x18 Wallis - dry nu pastel under painting
Resulting painting from a recent trip into the farming communities of Buckley and Enumclaw WA -
old barns, horses and fields of new spring grass & buttercups! AND kids playing!
 

 

James Geddes

        Examples


Do you remember learning something new as a kid and just wanting to do it all the time? And sharing the joy that this new found experience brings? Well, that's what it is like for me with pastels and watercolors right now...

In 2007 I decided I wanted to learn to watercolor paint. I knew nothing about it what so ever. Ask my first instructor, Melody, who was amazed at how unfamiliar I was with concept of paint and paper. I have sketched youth sports players with a
WACOM tablet for years as well as other subjects. But that is NOT paint on the paper! My short session with her led to embarrassing disasters. But, as I used to tell my photography students, failure is a large part of the learning process. So I continue to watch DVDs, read articles and books and visit galleries - when I am not busy with my photography work.

In 2007 I purchased a beginning watercolor DVD from
Julie Cohn which I would highly recommend. I had fun with Susie Short's DVD on clouds and skies, John Lovett's instructional DVD brought a knew prospective to watercolor for me. Then I found a TV program on "Create" channel featuring Sue Scheewe who instructs in watercolor. Susan is more than a great artist. Her many years of teaching all levels of aspiring painters has helped her to develop a method of instruction with interactive components that allow you to "watch", "read", "hear" and "practice".  Sue's step by step instructions is where I finally "got a clue"! Her DVDs coupled with the instruction books with exercises are a perfect learning experience.

I am NOT a professional artist, I'm a professional photographer. But I love exploring art and I am not afraid of falling on my face... it took years for me to develop sketching from photographs using the WACOM tablets, I am sure this will take a lot longer...

At some point I became drawn to pastels and I have been enjoying my growing passion for them. Pastels allows some drawing as painting or as well as painting. 2009 has been all pastels so far. Some of the 2008 works toward the bottom are my beginning pastels. These are my first attempts, they are crude but I learned a lot from each attempt. I find pastels to be so vibrant in color and entirely different experience than watercolor. I truly enjoy both methods of painting and also mix the media.

I am continuing to paint and learn on my own by visiting other pastel artist websites, investing in DVDs by artists who instruct workshops, books by renown pastelists and visiting our local galleries. Here,  I am sharing the journey of learning how to paint.