Pastel

The first time I ever saw a unicorn

| Gina Lento

The first time I saw a unicorn, I was on Chincoteague Island. I was painting plein air in the woods on Assateague… I was trying to capture the memory of when Paul Beebe saw Misty for the first time…I rubbed my eyes, (ended up with pastel all over my face), but yes, it was still there! A REAL unicorn! It shimmered and it was almost ethereal, like it was a vapor, or maybe it was a mist rolling in. I don’t know but I’ll never forget when I saw that unicorn!

The unicorn

This was a painting that I did several years ago. I came across it recently and thought it would be perfect for an assignment/prompt from Carla Sonheim’s ‘Best of 365.’ I added the unicorn with Procreate.

As far as painting it on location in Assateague, this is true and I actually was trying to capture the feeling Paul Beebe had when seeing Misty for the first time (as described in the story; Misty of Chincoteague.’)

Maybe some day I’ll meet another unicorn on Assateague.

Siamese Kitty

| Gina Lento

My mom used to have three bratty Siamese. When the last one passed away, my sisters and I figured we’d see more of her. Nope. She adopted two homeless cats soon after the last Siamese passed away.

Here’s a Siamese kitty that I know my mom will love!

Also, these paintings below will be in the wet paint show and sale tomorrow and are available to purchase!

Last Alive After Five of the summer

| Gina Lento

Tonight brings the summer to a sad close….yes, we still have a little over a week to Labor Day, but tonight was the final AA5 of the summer☹️.

This is also the week of Paint the Great South Bay. So far it has rained, I was swarmed by flies and bit by a yellow jacket. (Little bastard died for that one.)

I was out painting this evening and did this painting

And took a photo and turned it into a postcard for my mom (see if you can find kitty)

I had a rough week which led to a lot of this

Here is my set up and you can see how the painting came together….

More to come!

Fundraiser Painting

| Gina Lento

Taking a break from Zombie dolls to do this post….

 I was honored to be asked to paint during the Dia de los Muertos Celebration, a fundraiser for our local historical cemetery.  I frequently sketch and paint at the Lakeview Cemetery, so I was more than happy to donate my time and a painting for a good cause. 

The morning of the event, John and I went out Fire Island so I could take a sunrise photo of the lighthouse.


I took several photos and decided on this one.  The next step was to sketch several thumbnails, cropping the photo to determine the best view to paint. 


After I picked my favorite, I sketched the image on the pastelbord so that once I set up at the event, all I had to do was to start painting.


And here is the painting before it went home to it’s new owner:

Plein air again

| Gina Lento

Tonight was sketch night and I pulled the pastels out again…. I started this around 6 and the sun sets on the South shore at 7:09 so I didn’t have much  daylight toward the end of the painting session.  It still needs some tweaking if I wanted a polished piece and there is enough information here if I wanted to take it further so I am content with this one.

Sketching with pastels

| Gina Lento

So I decided to combine sketching and pastel.  I went to the local wild life refuge and sketched goats and an alpaca.  I didn’t have any plan in mind except to just try using the pastel sticks to actually draw with them.  I liked how these turned out and I think I will go there more often to try other media and do the same exercises.

PS, the goats were more active and it was like trying to sketch a school of fish.

The Artful Flea

| Gina Lento

Once a month, on second Saturdays, Chincoteague has an arts “flea” market.  I wanted to do one more painting before this evening’s wet paint sale so I tackled painting the market.  This was a ton of fun!  I usually sketch big markets and crowds of people with ink & watercolor, but this time I used pastel.  I loved doing this painting and plan to do more of these in pastel!

Today’s Chincoteague Paintings

| Gina Lento

Yesterday I passed a house that had a bunch of mermaids in the yard…..I went back there early this morning and painted the mermaid in the lifeguard chair, then I painted the hanging mermaid this afternoon.  Both of these will be available for sale tomorrow evening.