Celestial Painting Session

My niece Celeste, whom I sometimes have called "Celestial", came over this week to paint. She had an in-progress canvas and wanted me to advise her on where to take it next. Celeste is as fearless a painter as she is in most parts of her life. She'd been experimenting with texture. My advice earlier had been to add some complementary color and lighter values to the dark blue. She was not happy with the result.

I brought out the pastel pencils and chalk pastels so she could experiment with color. Once sprayed with fixative, most of the pastel disappeared, but it did show her what adding depth and highlights with color would do to the painting.

I brought out the paintbrushes and paint then, and she painted in some lights and darks. She achieved a look of depth and mystery, I think. Some of the larger crevices look like places to be explored.

I thought the painting had an under the sea look, but Celeste thought it was celestial. She took it home to work on it some more, but before she left she humored me with a Vanna White impression.