The Spanish Dancer - original oil pastel portrait sketch by Connie Chadwell

She does flamenco dancing, and she looks like she could be from Spain, but the model - Laurie - is actually of Irish ancestry.  I hope Laurie sticks around; she's really a wonderful model and it's so hard to find good ones.

This quick little painting is oil pastel on Ampersand Pastelbord, 10 x 8", and was a pleasure to do.  The Pastelbord is so forgiving and after the oil pastel is dry, easy to frame, as well.  Oil pastel performs beautifully on so many surfaces and I love almost all, the exception being canvas.  Although many oil pastel painters like to work on canvas, I'm not one of them.  It just never works for me and there are so many wonderful papers, plus Pastelbord, that finding a great surface for oil pastel is easy.

I really could go on and on about the joys of oil pastel, but it's getting late, so I'll save that for another post.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Sold