My husband Joe alerted me to a car show happening a few miles from our house.  I planned to go on Saturday of the weekend event, being held in the parking lot of Motte's Farm Romola Barn on Highway 74 in Romoland, California.  Armed with digital camera, lunch and notebook, I spent the hot sunny morning perusing the old cars, trucks and motorcycles which filled the parking lot.  I snapped photos of my favorites, from different angles and spoke to the owners about their automobiles.

     I was particularly excited about the deep cherry paint job on a 1956 Chevy BelAir, as well as the front grill work.  The photo of the front view turned out great and of course I had to paint it.  I have seen artwork of cars and car parts done in pastels.  At first the soft chalk seems to be an unlikely medium for rendering a cold, hard , metal object, but it worked well for illustrating the smooth surface and rendering the reflections.  So that is why I chose to do Cherry Belair in pastels.

     I used the grid method for drawing the outline of the car, as well as placing details, including highlights and shadow areas.  When I was satisfied with the composition I traced it onto the final paper.  I then tested colors, layering pastels to achieve the exact shade in the photo of my subject.  When my palette was determined, I began coloring, laying in, smoothing and blending the fluid medium.  I enjoyed seeing an image of an old-time car emerge on my paper.

     When I got to the stage of drawing the grillwork, getting the lines straight, evenly spaced and crisp, proved to be the biggest challenge.  That is when I started thinking, "Why do I always choose to do the hardest projects?"

     This 12" x 18" pastel on 90# paper, framed in silver metal became one of my entries in the Riverside County Fair in Perris, October 2019.  As an amateur, as a miscellaneous subject in pastel, Cherry Belair placed first.  Showed in Arts Council Menifee gallery in Kay Ceniceros Community Center, Menifee, California.

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