Today is the first day of #the100dayproject! This morning, I grabbed my oil pastels as the sun came up and began to highlight the ridges of the Jemez Mountains on the northern horizon. The blunt tips and slippery, waxy texture of the oil pastels make it difficult to render a lot of detail—but they also enable one to cover ground more quickly.
Alongside my sketchbook, you’ll notice two luscious coffee-table books featuring one of the inspirations for this project, the landscapes of Wolf Kahn.
One of my very favorite American contemporary painters is Wolf Kahn. Born in Germany in 1927, he escaped to the UK on the famous Kinder Transport boats, before being reunited with his family in the US in 1939. Part of the second generation of The New York School, he studied with Hans Hofmann. He was a talented portraitist who chose to focus mainly on landscapes, and was renowned for his skill at creating dramatic color combinations and mastery of the medium of pastels.
Drop by tomorrow to see Day 2!
