THE ELEMENTS

Expanded Digital Edition Content

DEMONSTRATION: Starting With Big Color Blocks

Step 1

Joyce uses the first layers of pastel (Mount Vision Pastels) to make large abstract shapes on a 24 x 36-inch Ampersand Pastelbord. She paints the water at the same time as she paints the sky. “Water usually reflects what’s in the sky, so while I have that color in my hand, I paint both. I vary my strokes for water and make the marks more horizontal, as water moves horizontally.” She reflects the cloud shapes in the water with long dark side strokes using the whole side of a Mount Vision Pastel stick.

Step 2

She then blends the edges, softening the light and making the tooth ready to receive more pastel. “Pastel is the best medium for capturing dramatic lighting effects because you can layer light over dark and scumble colors across each other without mixing them,” she says.

Step 3

She scumbles clouds across the bright skies, then it’s time to add the darks, such as the horizon line and the shoreline. At the horizon line, she indicates that there are two parts of an island that was split by a hurricane.

Step 4

Next, the artist adds the sea foam and waves. Using horizontal side strokes of the pastel stick, she creates the illusion of clouds reflected on the water. She refines edges but saves detail work for the birds. “I’m endlessly inspired by the ever-changing light and landscape,” she says. “We artists are lucky to be able to capture this place, at this moment. We are seeing history unfold before us.”

Sandpiper’s Sunset

2021, pastel, 24 x 36 in. Studio

Expanded Digital Edition Content

(TOP_ Herons Rising, 2019, pastel, 24 x 36 in., available from Woodfield Fine Art, studio from plein air studies • (ABOVE RIGHT) Sunset Over St. Pete (St. Pete, FL), 2021, pastel, 12 x 16 in., available from artist, plein air nocturne • (ABOVE LEFT) Fleeting Moment, 2019, pastel, 24 x 36 in., private collection, studio from plein air studies

Expanded Digital Edition Content

Autumn Grasses

2020, pastel, 12 x 16 in. Available from artist Plein air

Dirty Laundry (Heritage Museum, Largo, FL)

2020, pastel, 18 x 24 in. Available from artist Plein air

Plein air setup in Staunton, Virginia

Expanded Digital Edition Content

Dunedin Marina (Dunedin, FL)

2019, pastel, 12 x 16 in. Private collection Plein air

Backroads (Staunton, VA)

2016, pastel, 16 x 20 in. Private collection Plein air

Sand Key

2020, pastel, 12 x 16 in. Private collection Plein air

Tim Bur

2019, oil, 6 x 12 in. Private collection Plein air

STEVEN WALKER

SIMPLE PLEASURES WITH A TWIST

This Georgia painter looks for nostalgic scenes he can make more compelling through simplification and the depiction of fleeting light effects.

——— BY BOB BAHR ———

Memory plays a crucial role in painting — even plein air painting. An artist working on location paints what is in front of the easel, but that view, that vision, is going through the mental filter of the painter, where it is altered by memories and feelings. Also, the scene is stored in short-term memory as the artist looks away and focuses on the painting surface.

In the long run, memory informs an artist’s idea of what feels romantic, warm, and nostalgic. Oil painter Steven Walker says he likes nostalgic scenes, even when they don’t evoke direct or specific memories in him. The artist has lived in a number of locales, and he paints views from across the country with the kind of heart-tugging warmth and humanity that appeals to viewers, even if the scene is nothing like what he grew up with or knows intimately. In this way, he may be tapping into our collective idea of warm memories.

He can do this in part because his painting approach involves a somewhat contrarian streak

STEVEN WALKER paints while taking in the view from his front porch.

stevenwalkerstudios.com