Gorge (on page 29), she wanted to emphasize the dramatic
drop of the waterfall, so she chose a long vertical format.
Crimmin organizes her compositions by making a notan
or value sketch of the large shapes and transferring the
shapes onto a piece of UART 400 paper mounted on Gator
Board. She then underpaints the entire surface using one
or two relatively warm colors, one cooler than the other.
“Next, I layer local color and neutrals to make that local
color—either shadow or light—start to build the rounded
forms,” she says. “I remind myself as I work to allow some
of the underpainting to peek through.”
As the painting progresses, Crimmin allows time to
“listen” to the painting, to let it suggest areas where she
might eliminate or add elements that aren’t in the original
scene. “In the case of the waterfall series, I often add extra
drips of bluish water or carve out additional rocks in the
spray by using a small brush to dust off the white pastel,”
she says. She also uses the brush to unify sections of the
waterfall into more pleasing shapes. “The result might make
it difficult to locate that exact waterfall again, but I Iike the
composition better than what Mother Nature gave me.”BEING BOLDER
Rocks are another of Crimmin’s favorite subject matter. As
a New Englander, she says they feel like home to her. She’s
spent time observing the differences between layers ofsedimentary rocks that have been worn away by rivers and
the color-flecked granite found in the region’s mountains
and shorelines. “Breaks in rocks are particularly appealing,”
she says. “Some of them are wide and then they flatten off,
and they’re really fun to play with. I use the edge of a Terry
Ludwig pastel and push it back and forth to make straight-
edged cracks in rocks.”
Crimmin manipulates the rock features to suit each
painting, adding a crevice to help guide the eye in a certain
direction or flecks of coppery red to brighten a composi-
tion. “They have purples in them when they’re in shadow,
but they also can have oranges and ochres and hits of blue,”
she says. “If they’re wet at all, there’ll be sky reflections
on them, and they’ll reflect in the pools of water. They’re
forgiving, but they also have great personality.”
She works with a variety of pastel brands: Terry Ludwig,
Nupastel, Sennelier, Diane Townsend and Blue Earth. The
more she paints, the more confident she has become in
finding the right color. She’s especially fond of small, flat-
tipped watercolor brushes, which she uses to smooth pastel
strokes, make narrow lines when using a large pastel or
brush off pastel from the underpainting. “I can use it to pick
out a line at a slightly different value from the pastel that’s
gone onto the paper,” she says. “I can create little marks just
by knocking down. What will happen is that whatever’s
underneath will show through. If it’s lighter, it’ll show
through lighter; if it’s darker, it’ll show through darker.”26 Pastel Journal JUNE 2019