Birds & Blooms: Realism Meets Impressionism

For Lisa Regopoulos, the true excitement begins when Realism meets Impressionism in pastel.

Massachusetts native Lisa Regopoulos says if she wasn’t a painter, she’d be a garden designer. Many people, in fact, tell her that her gardens remind them of a painting. “Gardening is a creative extension of my artwork,” she says, “and it involves many of the same concepts, such as color and value.” Because she has extensive resource material right outside her studio, the artist finds it easy to paint florals. She prefers to paint them en plein air, as with Under the Cloak of Winter but, if she can’t, she either uses her outdoor sketches as references or sets up an arrangement in the studio. Birds are frequent visitors to her gardens, and they, too, have worked their way into the artist’s paintings.

Indoors or Out?

In the right season, Regopoulos spends most of her time outdoors, painting and gathering photo references. She carries only her most essential items for maximum portability: a Heilman backpack pastel box with an 18-inch easel attachment and a sturdy Vanguard tripod (an Alta Pro 2+ 263AGH). During tick season, she uses bug spray and wears tick gaiters. In winter, she dresses in layers and uses hand and foot warmers. She also brings a small tarp or piece of cardboard to stand on, especially if there’s snow on the ground.

If Regopoulos must spend time indoors, her studio is well-equipped. Beneath a large window, wooden trays filled with neatly organized pastels sit on tables. Beside them, pastel pencils rise up in holders like bouquets of tulips. A nearby cart holds her PanPastels and other materials. Positioned at her Best Classic Dulce easel, she can see all her supplies at once—and her gardens, too.

Process and Technique

Although Regopoulos loves to paint a variety of subjects, she applies the same fundamental process across all of her paintings. She first considers orientation and size, preferring to work large, in either horizontal or vertical format. “I like my paintings to have movement and energy,” she says, “and I find it easier when my entire arm and shoulder are involved.” (For plein air pieces, she works smaller, usually on a 9×12-inch surface.)

After creating a thumbnail sketch, she jots down information about light, shadows, potential problem areas and, most importantly, her intent for the painting. She makes preliminary sketches and notes in a sketchbook, using a Tombow Sakura Gelly Roll pen or pencil.

Because Regopoulos considers color choice so important for creating mood, she first explores options with a small pastel study. “I adjust what I use to what fits in with my color plan,” she says. For example, in her “Snowy Owl” series (see Winter White, above), walnut ink, which has a sepia tone, creates a pleasant color harmony when combined with PanPastel and soft pastels. For her series of barred owls and hawks (see There’s No Place like Home, opposite, and An Elevated Perspective, bottom right), she prefers Sumi ink, which can be more bluish-black or reddish-black. Once satisfied with her color choices, the artist selects a sheet of UART 400 paper, either the dark- or natural-colored. She sometimes works on LaCarte pastel card, Art Spectrum Colourfix or Lux Archival. If working on the natural tone, she may use an underpainting of watercolor, ink or NuPastel, with 91 percent rubbing alcohol. “I never use the natural paper ‘as is,’ especially outside, as it causes a glare,” she says. Although most times the underpainting ends up being representational, lately the artist has begun to ink in her design with a brush in an abstract way.

Regopoulos works into the underpainting or inked using a variety of pastel brands, including PanPastel, Girault, Sennelier half-sticks, Terry Ludwig, Schmincke, Henri Roché, Blue Earth, Unison, Rembrandt and NuPastel. Kneaded erasers and a blue shop towel for blotting or lifting areas of paint are always handy. Although she rarely reworks a plein air painting, preferring to use them as references for future works, she’ll sometimes rework a studio piece. “I may even wash it off,” she says, “which usually leaves me with a beautifully toned board.”

Raptors and Songbirds

As a landscape painter, Regopoulos is an advocate for preserving the environment and open spaces. “Capturing the essence of a place that could someday be gone forever is so meaningful to me,” she says. “The addition of birds into my landscape work came naturally.” Most recently, the artist’s muse has been raptors, especially snowy owls. Elusive, long-distance travelers from the Arctic, the birds enchant her with their power, resilience and focus. “They’re a symbol of inner wisdom, transformation and change, which I relate to in my own life,” she says.

She often paints birds in a series, noting that the excitement holds her interest and evolves in each pastel she creates. Besides observing raptors in the field, she photographs them with a Canon Rebel T7 and a 600mm zoom lens. The birds’ environment is also important, so she makes sure to capture information about that as well.

Gathering references of snowy owls proved difficult because they’re around only for the winter, and conditions for on-site painting can be harsh. If the weather is agreeable, however, the owls roost for long periods, making them great models for painting. Even so, Regopoulos keeps her distance, knowing that they’ve traveled far and need to rest to be able to hunt.

Recently, she has been working on a series featuring both birds and flowers, using just her memory and experience as references. She inks the paper at random, with a brayer, using different papers and colors. “The abstract quality excites me,” she says, “so much so that I’ve begun to work with this as an underpainting more.”

Buds and Blooms

One would think that painting flora would be easier than painting birds from life. It isn’t true that flowers stay still, however—especially peonies, one of Regopoulos’ favorite subjects. “It’s amazing to see how fast they open in the heat of the summer,” she says. “After an hour, it doesn’t even look like the same flower, so working fast is important.” Although she generally uses UART paper for floral pieces, when painting flowers en plein air, she turns to pre-toned Art Spectrum Colourfix paper.

When painting indoors, she may arrange flowers in a posy way, noting that “the tight arrangement makes for some wonderful overlapping of petals and great diagonals.” She puts cut flowers in water, as studio lights make them wilt quickly. If laying the flowers flat for a composition, she makes sure to insert the stems into floral water tubes. Finally, she always takes a photo first in case she can’t finish painting right away.

Tips for Bringing Creativity Into Bloom

Complex Backgrounds

Many of Regopoulos’ paintings feature complex backgrounds. “Simplifying a busy background and making it mysterious gives the painting depth without competing with the focal point,” she says. To achieve this, she first works out a composition, paying special attention to subordinating the background. When she transfers this design to her paper, she draws only minimally. “My objective is to have a painterly feeling, so I want to keep my detail for specific areas, such as the bird’s face and talons or specific flower petals,” she says.

After letting an underpainting of ink and PanPastel dry, she paints the background loosely. “By keeping areas of the painting vague and not giving away the whole story, I can enable viewers to linger and form their own ideas,” says Regopoulos. She likes to use PanPastel, a pan-format pastel that can be applied with a makeup sponge,  for these areas because the soft touch creates a sense of mystery.

For her raptor paintings, the artist may randomly ink the paper with a brayer; other times, she may be more deliberate. If there’s a very light area, such as a snowy owl’s head in the sun, she’ll try to keep that area clean to more easily build the light effect. She may also lift areas of ink with a cloth or paper towel, or rub with a paintbrush. When she gets to the main subject, she takes more care to separate it from the background. She follows the direction of feather growth, layering dark first and then light. She’s not interested in creating realistic feathers. “I like to suggest them,” she says, “picking specific ones that help tell the story.”

When she gets to the eyes, beak and talons, she moves to pastel pencil, taking care to soften edges as needed. Adding fine detail here helps to further subdue a complex background. Where branches play hide-and-seek in the background, she lets some of the ink show through the pastel, layering dark over light, finally exposing some lighter areas with a kneaded eraser. The result: a variety of interesting edges that don’t compete with the center of interest.

Creative Journey

Regopoulos’ path to becoming a full-time artist was a meandering one. Although she loved to draw from an early age, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business and worked as a paralegal for 20 years. During that time, while also raising her daughter, she took night classes at the Worcester Art Museum, in Worcester, Mass., attended pastel workshops at the Sharon Arts Center, in Peterborough, N.H., and taught private art lessons in her home.

After her daughter left for college, Regopoulos turned to art full-time. She rented a studio, began holding larger classes and took a teaching position with the Fitchburg State University’s adult learning program. It wasn’t long before she was teaching throughout New England—and even hosting the occasional workshop abroad. “The biggest surprise for me,” says the artist, “was discovering how much teaching helped me to improve my own work.”

Is This Painting Finished?

After an hour or so of plein air painting, it’s wise to pause for a moment and do a quick assessment. Ask yourself the following questions:

When working in my studio, I have a similar list of questions. I take a picture with my iPhone and look to see if any part of my painting appears “off.” Then, after a bit of time, I look at it in different light and with fresh eyes. Sometimes I think being in my studio makes me work on my pastels longer than I should. I usually end up liking my workshop demo paintings better than my studio work. Maybe that’s because I’m under a time constraint with the demo pieces, so I have no time to obsess about anything.  —Lisa Regopoulos

Author Bio

Michael Chesley Johnson is an artist, workshop instructor and author of the book Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.

Meet the Artist

Lisa Regopoulos is a member of the IAPS Masters Circle and a Signature Member of the Pastel Painters of Maine and the Pastel Society of New Hampshire. She serves as coordinator of The Plein Air Adventure group, an organization of artists from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine.