Pastel over Watercolor
Finding My Way
Tag Archives: pastel
GoodByes and Hellos
Pastel over Watercolor Underpainting
Rainbow Voices
Pastel over Watercolor
Once Upon A Time
Oil on Canvas
In the Canyons of My Mind
Pastel
“A friend sent me a photo she took that looked like a horse running in the clouds – and soon my daydreams took over. I journeyed, and painted the canyons of my mind where I found my young stallion at the corner of my mind’s eye, waiting to take me out of this world. I was able to see myself lying back low along his hind quarters; my hair sweeping against his hocks seemed to spur him on. Hoofs pounding and feathers flying, we joined others on a golden bird that took us on a flight beyond Earth’s boundaries and into the Heavens!
”
~ Kim NovaK, Artist
Horse Heaven
Pastel
“Over so many years I have lost too many four-legged loved ones that I thought I could never live without, yet I survived. Maybe being married to a large animal veterinarian helped me to accept the inevitability of their loss as part of the cycle of life. I was able to move on, trusting that the time and place would come for all of us to be together again. It has never been easy, yet I was left with all those incredible memories to relive in my mind…and the possibility to paint them!
This pastel is of Hunka Hunka, my happy Haflinger driving horse and good friend; he thinks he is living in the pastures of Heaven right now. I painted him rolling in a field of wild forget-me-not flowers…where I shall always, always picture him forever more!”
~ Kim NovaK, Artist
Mountain Man
Pastel
Devotion
Pastel
The Magic of Music
2010 Britt Music Festival
Pastel
The 2010 Britt Fine Arts Poster is a print of Novak’s original pastel piece “The Magic of Music.” She describes her approach to her work, saying “Much of my art consists of surrealistic storytelling. Sometimes I like to paint pictures of trees with human faces and bodies whose gestures suggest images of my fantasies or a dream.
“Often while attending the concerts that are held under the stars by southern Oregon’s ‘Britt Music Festival’, I allow my mind to wander off into the forest that surrounds Jacksonville. I think about the trees and imagine their reaction to earth-shaking percussions, and the voices and musical instruments as they echo through the valleys and over the hills. I wonder how the forest and its creatures could not help but react with feelings and emotions as they witness these concerts?
“This painting, ‘The Magic of Music’, is where my fantasy has taken me, to a place of happy harmony – a place where music blends the folklore of the woodlands with pure freedom of expression.“
In My Mother’s Arms
Pastel over Watercolor Underpainting
“As I painted ‘In My Mother’s Arms’ I was thinking back as a young girl when my Mother refused to let me leave the nest – An older boy with piercing eyes brought me a dozen roses and asked me for a date – but she wouldn’t let me go. I pouted and watched the flowers wither and fall as I sat by the window feeling like a prisoner. I wanted to experience all of life that night and couldn’t understand why not. I remember the feelings clearly and I wanted to paint my feelings, and so I wrote:
In the watercolor under painting I formed the long drips to give the feeling of the prison bars that kept me in…the carefully woven nest was my caring mother.“
~ Kim NovaK, Artist