California Landscape

 

This is a digital painting derived from layered photographs and a variety of layering effects. I'm pretty sure that the photographs I used were taken, for the most part, at Upper Park in Chico, California.

Prints and prints on canvas and other surfaces are available at Fine Art America.

"Strange Autumn" New Multilayer Digital Photography

 

This reminds me of the mood of the nation this autumn—grey, foreboding. It's really a multilayer digital art piece using my photographs of the sidewalk and autumn leaves along the edge of "landscaped" area of my apartment complex. I like the abstract quality of this piece. Available as a print, framed print, or print on canvas, acrylic, metal, etc. on Fine Art America.

Foxtail Jungle

I'm probably going to have to call this Image 3 of my "Foxtail Series." I didn't think I was going to have a Foxtail Series but I didn't expect to have a "Grass Series" either and that's gone on for many years now. What I liked about this image is that I did not use any software purposely to make it look like a watercolor painting. That's what happened after I layered the same photograph about 7-8 times, using different Photoshop layering techniques on each layer. Very fun! Prints, framed prints, prints on canvas or metal or acrylic, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

In the Weeds Again Revisited, Oil Pastel Painting

In the Weeds Again, © 2021 by Sheryl Karas

I have done at least eight versions of this same patch of meadow plants. I like the undulating forms of the stems and branches of this plant as it grew tangled upon itself and blew in the breeze. I also like the glinting golden light caused by the setting sun hitting the scene from an almost horizontal angle. This version is done in oil pastel and oil colored pencils. 

The original is 12" x 12" on cradled panel with black painted sides. Unlike most of the other pieces in this series I have not decided to mount this one. I think it needs a lighter treatment, perhaps a floater frame. Contact me if you're interested. Prints and prints on canvas, metal, acrylic and wood are available on Fine Art America. 

Spring Meadow on the Trail

 

I draw and paint this same spot on a trail I walk down near my house in every season. It's so full of life and abundance in just a tiny space. Good reminder of life's ability to regenerate itself over and over again. Biodiversity to the max!

Contact me about the original (currently unframed, oil pastel and acrylic on cradled panel). Prints, print on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Springtime Emerging

I finished this one a few months ago but I'm just getting around to framing it now. It's probably my favorite of all the ones in this series yet! These are magnolia flowers just coming into bloom from more than one angle combined. I'm enjoying exploring a contemporary version of cubism. It allows me to show motion and the concept of portraying the multiple things we as humans notice in an environment that a single snapshot could never express. I'm not sure if I plan to sell this one except as prints. For the time being I'm keeping it for my private collection. It's mixed media but mostly oil pastel.

Springtime Grasses on the Path

This is my first experiment using oil pastel pencils and oil pastel. I have techniques for getting sort of fine lines with oil pastel using stumps but pencils are so much more efficient. This is yet another in what seems like an endless fascination with grasses and other wild meadow plants found along the nature path Paul and I walk down several times a week. The original is 12" x 12" on cradled panel. Contact me about the original. Prints, prints on canvas, and products made from this image are available through Fine Art America.

Art Show at Tin Roof Bakery Cafe All February

I have a solo art show starting Sunday at the Tin Roof Bakery & Cafe at 627 Broadway St #170, Chico, CA for the whole month of February! The Tin Roof is our favorite cafe in town -- for real, we're there almost every week. And we often really enjoy the art exhibits there. I'll be showing mostly my acrylic and mixed media (pastel and acrylic) paintings. If you live near Chico, come on by, grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich or pastry (the best in town) and see my art! (And yes, it will be for sale.)

"Winter Branches, Summer Soil", © 2019 by Sheryl Karas

I've been remiss. I finished this piece months ago but neglected to post it here. I did an earlier version of this as a purely digital creation. It's multiple image photography of the trees I can see outside my bedroom window in the light of a street lamp. I liked it but it never felt "finished" to me. I wanted to remove a few things, emphasize others. And I wanted to make it glow, the way I see it so many nights when those lights turn on. So I printed it large (36" x 36") and painted over it with metallic paint. The original is currently available directly through me. Prints and prints on canvas are available through Fine Art America.

Springtime Trees, Oil Pastel Painting

Springtime Trees, © Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

The first painting I did as a child that I truly loved was an Impressionist style oil pastel of trees in the forest in the Fall. (I still have that one more than 50 years later and still like it!) So this piece harkens back to those early days, only this time the subject is Springtime. Trees on the edge of a sunlit clearing bursting with flowers and life on the Chico State campus made me feel happy. So I did this painting of it in oil pastel on a sanded and lightly textured ground on panel. Like many of the pieces in this series, I'm doing the opposite of what many people advise: the usual advice is to simplify. Instead I combined multiple impressions of the same scene, making it more dynamic and complex—and real in the sense of what it meant to me! The original is available. It is 12" x 12" mounted on a 16" x 16" panel painted black. Contact me for more details. Prints, prints on canvas and other printed items made from this piece are available on Fine Art America.

Caught in a Web Between Time and Space, (Berries in a Net), New Oil Pastel Painting

© Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I'm playing in this piece with combining multiple impressions seen on the same walk: berries on a tree, plastic netting falling down. The berries in real life were not in the net. This is an invented image. But I like the juxtaposition of natural and manmade, a barrier being warped by the weight of the berries and the impact of space and the passage of time. 

The original piece is 12" x 12" oil pastel and acrylic gel medium on cradled panel mounted to 16" x 16" on another cradled panel painted black. It's called "Caught in a Web Between Time and Space." Contact me for more information. Prints, prints on canvas, and other printed items made from this piece are available on Fine Art America. 

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, New Oil Pastel Painting

Storm Drain with Autumn Leaves and Shadows, © 2018 Sheryl Karas

My latest oil pastel. I'm exploring the abstract in "real" life . . . except this isn't real. I combined 2-3 photographs, all done in the same photoshoot, to come up with a starting place for this piece. This is a progression of the pieces I did to break out of artist's block by looking for things to paint in my own boring apartment complex. I loved this rusty storm drain with bits of dead leaves stuck in it but I wanted it much more colorful. I also like another storm drain that I used in an earlier painting and thought I'd combine them. I guess it appeals to the graphic artist in me. It was also a challenge and great fun to draw and paint, despite using the composite photo as an underlayer. I eliminated and added things as I painted, tried to see inside the original photograph on my computer to emphasize what I saw there. Fun, fun, fun!

Update: I just got this piece into the National All-Media Juried Show at the Chico Art Center! It starts September 7th and runs through the end of the month.

SOLD !!!  Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Awareness (Berries, Leaves and Flower Buds)

Awareness -- © 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I'm finding working with oil pastel very challenging but fun! This is my latest. I'm calling it "Awareness" because it's what I became aware of AFTER I tripped on the raised up sidewalk because I was lost in some internal drama! I'm exploring the intersection of multiple images lately in some of my work. I'm interested in the multiple levels of reality we can be aware of if we're paying attention at all, the variety of impressions our brains pick up on whether we're consciously aware or not. In this case it was the sidewalk, the sky, overhanging branches, berries, leaves and flower buds.

Contact me about the original. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Sharing My Process for Fall Into Winter, Pine Branches and Maple Leaves in Oil Pastel

Fall Into Winter, © Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I've having lots of fun exploring oil pastel as a serious medium for my work. This piece was done in phases.

First Step: taking lots of photographs of leaves and branches over the years so I have quite a nice file of images to use in my work.

Second Step: combining the images in a variety of ways in several layers in Photoshop using a variety of layering techniques. This piece used three photographs and I don't know how many layers because that file is long gone. 7-8, maybe?

Third Step: trying a number of ideas in three different software applications to explore various color combinations and looks. This led to many more layers being merged with the original photographic piece.

Fourth Step: At this point I had to pause. Should I use this new image as a "reference" photo to draw from or as an underlayer—a digital underpainting—and add pastel on top? I go back and forth on this decision quite a lot as I work both ways and have lots of art class / art critic demons who have way too many opinions in my head!

Fifth Step: I say "NO" to the critics. Am I really supposed to throw hours and hours of work away just because it was done with unconventional techniques? I print the piece dark to use as an underlayer.

Sixth Step: Using gel medium as glue, I applied the print to a cradled panel I previously prepared with 3-4 coats of PVA size. The sizing keeps acids in the wood from leaching out and discoloring my final work but, despite what the advice is online, the gel medium ought to do that, too. I think. I don't know so I prepared several panels awhile ago.

Seventh Step: I added a a light coat of clear gesso to the top of the print. I usually use two coats of gesso but this time I only added one. This created a texture I usually try to avoid but because this image is so multi-dimensional I wanted to see what it would do. I liked it! You can't see the texture well online but it is kind of cool in the final piece!

Eighth Step: I scumbled oil pastel over the underlayer. Sometimes I smeared and blended colors together using eye shadow applicators and a Staedler Mars retractable stick eraser that we sell mostly for engineers to use at the art supply store I work at. I don't use the eraser stick as an eraser. It just happens to be cheap, easily cleaned, and firm enough with enough give to be great as an oil pastel blending tool! At this point I made a number of significant changes to improve the composition and get rid of distracting elements. The final result is entirely covered with oil pastel except for tiny bits where the original photographically-derived image shows through as a darker textured color layer.

Ninth Step: I photographed my work so I can use it for reproduction and social media. This gives me a chance to look at it through different eyes. I almost always catch something I want to improve when I post a work in progress online. I'll photograph it again at this point if I do but I didn't have to do that this time.

Tenth Step: I covered the final piece with a couple of light coats of Holbein Hard Gel Medium to the tops and sides. This is experimental as acrylic isn't supposed to work on top of oily media! But it DOES seem to work. My original experiments using Liquitex Self-Leveling gel have held up for years. I've also used Liquitex Acrylic Gloss Medium/Varnish, Matte Medium, and Glossy Gel Mediums. They all work but have different effects. What I like about the Hard Gel Medium is that it is hard enough to draw on top of easily, it adds a light sheen without being super shiny, and it preserves the textures of the work underneath. But you have to apply it lightly without diluting it. (Don't use water!)  I also make sure to brush it on in the same direction as my handwork.

And now the piece is done! Well, maybe. I might add a more glossy final coat or one final additional Hard Gel Medium coat (I'm undecided). I'm also thinking about how I want to present it. It doesn't need framing under glass—that was the purpose of using acrylic medium. I could just add framing wire and hardware to the back and hang it as is, but I keep imagining it mounted onto a larger wood panel or framed without glass.

I have prints and prints on canvas available on Fine Art America.

Green Sage, Wild Grass Abstract Pastel Landscape

"Green Sage, Wild Grass", © 2017 Sheryl Karas

This was a study I did for a larger piece now hanging in the lobby of the Chico Breast Care Center. I was experimenting with techniques for creating a pastel painting that did not need to be framed under glass and this was the first one that succeeded. I tried out lots of types of marks and types of pastel in this piece, never meaning to present it for sale. Years later, I look at this and love the freedom and spontaneity in it, thinking it really does stand on its own. So I finished it and will eventually frame it (not under glass). In the meantime, prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Arts America.

Okay, this is finished now. It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel. Then I mounted it on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang without framing (although I suppose you could add a frame if want to, but no point in adding glass).

Bottlebrush Flower Abstract Pastel Painting

"Bottlebrush Flower Abstract", © 2017 by Sheryl Karas

This piece was so much fun to do! Using a multiple image photograph I did before as a reference, I decided to try out my new art materials to recreate it. The image was an extreme macro (close-up) of a Bottlebrush flower with an overlay of wild grass blowing in the wind.  I liked the juxtaposition of the almost stiff pincushion-like Bottlebrush flower and the softness and movement of the wild grass. The materials were Nupastel and Pan Pastel (pretty much powdered pigment in a compact) that I applied with sponges and eye make-up applicators.

The original is done on cradled panel with multiple layers of fixative and acrylic medium so it does not need to be framed under glass. I am planning to mount and frame it without glass. In the meantime, I have prints and prints on canvas available on Fine Art America.

It's framed now! It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel mounted on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang. Interested? Contact me at right.

Cymbidium Carnival in Acrylic and Pastel

Cymbidium Carnival, © 2017 Sheryl Karas

I posted a digital photography version of this before but I decided to recreate it in pastel and acrylic (mostly acrylic at this point) on acid-free matboard mounted on cradled panel painted black. I like it but, wow, was it challenging to do! I call it modern day cubism but I've added experiments in color use and transparency. The original is currently available. It is 18" x 24" including the black border. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Cymbidium Carnival

Cymbidium Carnival © 2017 Sheryl Karas

My latest. I started a much more mundane painting of Cymbidium Orchids but found myself frustrated and bored. So I took myself back to the computer to try my hand at composing another piece and one thing led to another. This was made by combining multiple photographs and digital painting techniques to evoke the movement of tropical breezes through the flowers and foliage. Framed and unframed prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.

Winter Trees in Bronze and SIlver

Winter Trees in Bronze and Silver © 2016 Sheryl Karas

I just realized I never shared my Winter Trees series here. I've taken multiple photographs of the trees I can see from my bedroom winter and layer them together in a variety of ways. This might be my favorite version but I'll share at least one other in a future post. Prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Art America.

Bottlebrush Abstract

Bottlebrush, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another Bottlebrush macro, this time layered with paint splatters to approximate the intention I had when I took the photograph. I was attracted to the blur of white anthers contrasted with the red filaments of the flower and wanted to emphasize that instead of the plant itself.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.