Stonelick Covered Bridge, Clermont OH, Spring Morning

12x20"Light fast colored pencil on linen mat board.  This piece is created for an exhibition honoring the newly renovated Stonelick Covered Bridge in Clermont County Oh. The references are mine, taken while hiking both sides of the river on a lovely spring morning. I found the shadows and multicolored reflections in the river fantasy-like, the carmine red bridge playfully reflecting itself in the stream. Pure Walt Disney! Using Mineral spirit to  spread color and layer values, I used  q-tips,  cotton balls and an old paint brush. To add detail and sharp contrast, I broke so many pencil points on the textured surface with my tick marks and fine line work, my studio looked like a colored pencil massacre. I often choose linen mat board as my surface because it allows me to add layer upon layer, much like an oil painting, starting with darks and ending with lights.  Look closely and you will see the many colors used to build this river-scape.

Go quickly!

This is a little piece I started Friday and finished today.  It measures 10 x 6.5" and was painted on a silk mat board. Due to texture and reflection it is a little difficult to photograph. This is the best I can do today.  Anyway, the point is, after hours and hours of work on a bigger piece, with no end in sight, I decided to stop for a bit to do something easy and fun.  This is called Roadside.

Don't blow it!

With one painting awarded Best of Show, Judges Award and People's Favorite; the same painting reproduced into giclee with four prints already sold; another painting used on the cable show BAR RESCUE;  an artist demo on landscapes published in Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Magazine, and yet another painting to grace the cover of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, one could say that things are going well for Pepper Portraits LLC.  Yet, I've been doing this long enough to realize that a cluster of good fortune usually comes after months of drought and grueling work. Maintaining momentum is the trick.

Margi of Pepper Portraits LLC, doesn't always paint portraits.

Here I am with my Rip Van Winkle Creek  hanging in CPSA District Chapter 119  Exhibition. We have at least 100 colored pencil works exhibited  in this beautiful show. Learn how I painted this piece in my artist demonstration for  Ann Kullburg's CP Magazine, January 2013 issue.

I don't just paint portraits....

Here's my Rip Van Winkle Creek painting finished and ready for a good home.  It presently hangs in The Row House Gallery in Milford Oh. (www.rowhouse.com.)  It will soon hang in the  CPSA Chapter 119 show in Mariemont OH.  If interested, contact Row House Gallery.  My artist demonstration of the creation of this piece will be in the January issue of Ann Kullburg's Colored Pencil Magazine.  Stay tuned.