Painting the Drama of Earth, Sea & Sky
Whether painting a sunset over the Atlantic Ocean or a rocky creek bed in the Rocky Mountains, the heavens and earth inspire Cheryl Browder to pick up her pastels.
By Kristin Hoerth
Picture an early evening in coastal Maine. The sky above the ocean is filled with thick clouds that have just started to turn shades of pink. As the sun sinks below the horizon, there comes a point at which the dusky blue of the sky and the dusky blue of the sea are virtually indistinguishable.
This appears in the Summer 2024 issue of Pastel Journal. See the full issue HERE.
This is the moment pastelist Cheryl Browder captures in Over the Sea, a painting that deftly balances exuberance with subtlety—and expressiveness with restraint. Using a carefully limited palette, Browder crafted the water with just a few suggestions of pink reflections and cresting waves. The horizon is merely a whisper, a soft line in muted gray.
Up above that horizon, though, is where the drama happens. The clouds soar upward, their rosy glow intensifying and then lightening, until they reach their final expression in delicate, creamy-white flourishes at the upper edges.
Looking Upward
Over the Sea is a perfect example of Browder’s passion for painting the sky. “The array of colors in the sky is amazing,” says the artist. “Every color of the rainbow is up there. I especially love dusk, with all the pinks and purples. I’m also drawn to the shapes and softness of the clouds and how they take on personalities of their own.”
Heading West
Browder grew up around coastal scenes like the one that inspired Over the Sea. Her family lived north of Boston and spent summers in Maine, where she was able to indulge her love of art. After taking art lessons throughout high school, Browder headed off to Massachusetts College of Art (now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design), in Boston, and earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, in 1980.
Right after graduating from college, Browder’s life took a big turn when she got married and moved to Gunnison, a small town on Colorado’s Western Slope. It wasn’t until Browder was in her 40s, and her children were more independent, that she found herself missing art. So, in 2000, she began taking plein air oil-painting workshops in Colorado and New Mexico with well-known Western landscape painters, including Michael Lynch, Matt Smith, and Scott L. Christensen. “I’d never painted outside before,” she says, “and it was an eye-opening experience. Those lessons gave me a solid background in all the basic principles of values, color, and composition.”
A New Medium
After working in oil for a while, Browder began to experience some frustration. “I found it challenging to put down on canvas what I was seeing in the landscape,” she says. “I had several of Albert Handell’s books, and I admired his pastel paintings. I also had an old set of Rembrandt pastels, so one day I just decided to pick those up and see what happened.”
That experiment was a huge success. “I was like a fish to water,” Browder says. “Using pastel came so naturally. I loved the feeling of being able to draw and paint at the same time. I also loved the immediacy of having all the colors at hand. There’s no preparation, and you don’t have to do any cleanup. Once I started working in pastel, I never turned back.”
Gathering Inspiration
These days, Browder usually gathers inspiration for her pastels by heading out for a hike with minimal equipment in tow. Out on the trail, she often indulges her love of drawing and works in her sketchbook; on other excursions, she simply takes photos to help her remember what struck her about the scenery, the light and the colors on that particular day.
Back in her studio, Browder sketches out different compositional possibilities. “I might move trees around, change the shape of a mountain, or add some cows in a pasture,” she says. “I’m not 100 percent faithful to what I see on location. I like to manipulate things to make the composition stronger.”
“I’m not 100 percent faithful to what I see on location. I like to manipulate things to make
—Cheryl Browder
the composition stronger.”
Looking Ahead
Regardless of the landscape subject, Browder is interested in finding ways to simplify the scene and bring a more abstract sensibility to her compositions. Her list of goals is a long one, and she’s eager to tackle them all. “There are so many things I want to try,” she says. “I don’t see my inspiration fading anytime soon.”
Demonstration: Sun on the Creek
Step 1
Browder began by sketching her composition onto dark-gray Pastelmat paper with a Polychromos pencil. She rendered a fairly accurate sketch to get all of the shapes exactly where she wanted them. Notice that the initial pencil sketch is still visible, especially in the foreground, even after dark values were laid in to define the large shapes. “I was trying to connect the dark masses and the shadows across the whole painting,” says the artist.
Step 2
Working on all sections of the painting at the same time, Browder slowly built up more colors. “The violets are down in the water, but I also carried them up into the shadows on the far side of the creek,” she says. She spread the oranges of the rocks at the center into other parts of the painting, too, such as the lower-right corner.
Step 3
The artist refined her drawing while correcting the shapes of some of the rocks. She also added more details and brought in some of the highlights. “I tried to get a lot of color into the rocks,” she says, “and then get the water to read against those rocks.”
Step 4
Browder continued building up the mid-tones and working toward the lights. As she added details, she frequently stepped away from the easel to make sure her drawing was still reading correctly from a distance. She ended up toning down the rocks in the background because they stood out too much, noting, “I wanted to keep the focal point on the orange rocks in the middle ground, where the sun was sparkling.”
Final
To finish Sun on the Creek (pastel on Pastelmat, 8×10), Browder made some final refinements and adjustments, which are especially noticeable in the foreground water and the toned-down light greens of the leaves at the top of the composition. “I wanted the sun to read off of them, but I didn’t want them to distract from the orange rocks in the focal point,” says the artist.
About the Author
Kristin Hoerth is a freelance arts writer and the former editor-in-chief of Southwest Art magazine.
About the Artist
Cheryl Browder has lived in Colorado for almost 40 years, where the stunning natural setting provides boundless inspiration for her plein air and studio landscapes. The artist has been drawing and painting for most of her life. She took art lessons from an early age, and continued her studies at Massachusetts College of Art, graduating with a B.F.A. in graphic design, in 1980. She’s a member of the Pastel Society of Colorado and a Signature Member of Pastel Society of America.
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