Southwestern Landscapes in Pastel by Alene: 5/10/09

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Cactus!

CACTUS!
25 x 19 on LaCarte Paper

Today I felt like doing a Cactus! With the exclamation point... I want someone to walk into the room and the first thing they notice is CACTUS!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Turquoise Cactus

Needs some stars, or a moon, or something. Not sure yet.

Turquoise Cactus

18x12 on Mi-Teintes Paper

Sunday, May 10, 2009

More Cactus

Here are some of my cactus series. Most are older, especially the last few shown, and back then the photo quality was poor, so they don't show up clearly on the blog.

Little Green Cactus

Leaning Cactus

Moon and Cactus

Good Morning Cactus

Spike

Ike

Stars and Spikes

Sunset Cactus

Green Spikes

Neon Spikes

Cactus Moon

About the Artist

Artist Bio

Alene paints southwestern-inspired landscapes in pastel. Her formal art training began after her academic training in forestry and earning a doctorate in natural resources recreation. She started painting in acrylics and mixed media, then discovered pastels as her favorite medium, studying under pastelist Alene Rucker of Mesa, Arizona. She now lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she works from her home studio.

As an outdoors enthusiast and longtime ultraendurance runner, she loves to run in the desert and mountains. Her paintings are inspired by the sights, sounds, and energy of the landscape in the colorful and rugged places through which she runs. Alene observes the subtle and dramatic changes in light and shadows throughout the days and seasons, and re-creates these in her paintings. She accentuates the effects of wind, sun, weather, and time, and emphasizes motion in the skies, using rich textures of paper and bold colors of pastels to draw the viewer into the scene and share the feelings of being there.

Her work has been described as "imaginative and inspiring" and "a sense of wonder in vibrant color". Alene says of her work, "When I'm running, I go way back on trails into places that most people never see. I see old buildings and structures remaining from the past, they remind me of how we used to live in a simpler time. The elements of the desert and mountain landscapes inspire me, clouds moving across the sky, colors in the rocks, energy in the trees and plant life, I try to capture all of this in my paintings."

Southwestern Landscapes in Pastel by Alene

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Cactus!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Turquoise Cactus

Sunday, May 10, 2009

More Cactus

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