“Living in the Texas Panhandle, we certainly have sky in abundance,” says Bethany Fields. “The views high on the flat prairie are a seamless low horizon in a complete 360-degree circle. It’s like being on the ocean, except our ocean is grass and the clouds roll by in waves. When I’m not seeking to paint trees (something hard to find unless you’re nearby in beautiful Palo Duro Canyon), I’m painting skies and clouds. I love to increase drama by composing my paintings with low horizon lines. This gives the clouds plenty of upward reach and drama. The skies here are famously blue with beautiful sunrises and sunsets, mostly due to the amount of dust in the air from our equally famous wind. I haven’t met a cloud I didn’t love — except one that has hail in it!
“I work almost exclusively on sanded papers, which I tone myself with isopropyl alcohol or watercolor, or use a pre-made toned surface. My technique changes a bit depending on the time of day. For early or late glowing light, I start with a warm surface (usually golds or peaches), which helps me to build the warm colors in the clouds and sky. I use a lot of negative painting marks, carving into the toned surface with my sky color. I don’t like to layer too much pastel as it gets chalky. I want my paintings to breathe.
“For mid-morning clear light, I paint in sky colors first, carving and building the layers of the cloud formations. Having great sets of blue and violet pastels helps immensely. I rarely, if ever, use pure white pastel. Much of the nuance of my colors is built by varying values of blue, purple, peach, and warm yellow. I avoid gray pastels as well. In general, I like to interpret and push color a little.”
In her 5 Step Pastel Painting video workshop, Jill Stefani Wagner demonstrates how to paint realistic skies during a sunset, create paintings that radiate with an inner light, and much more.
