Oil Pastel and Paint Stick

I tend to use oil pastel in a non-traditional way, layering colors and scraping them away, then adding, then scraping. The scraping acts as what I call 'reverse shading', where the scrapes themselves represent the light tones and I scrape (draw) them in, in addition to shading with pastel around them. The process takes time, but I think the results speak for themselves!  -  All artwork on this page by Wayne R. Flower - Prints for sale: Email waynerayflower@gmail.com for Pay Pal information. Please specify which drawing(s) you want prints of and quantity. Please support artists!

Akhenaten's Return

Based on an idea I had about the Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaten reincarnating and ending up as a street-person.

Oil pastel - Original = 3' x 2' - prints available (11" x  24")

Man Leaving His House For the Last Time But He Doesn't Know It

Based on the idea that when we walk out our front door every day, it may very well be the last day we are alive. This idea stems from almost dying myself a few times. Even though I created this person from my mind, as I finished the drawing, he began to look more and more familiar and then it hit me that it was a combination of my mother and father, who are both deceased, I did this entirely subconsciously.

Oil pastel - Original = 3' x 2' - prints available (11" x  24")

Spokane

Loosley based on my memories of Spokane in the '80s

Oil pastel - Original = 10" x 10" -  prints available (11" x  24")

Girl on Steps

I suppose this was inspired by all of the low income children of single-parent families who were my peers throughout my youth.

Oil pastel and paint stick - Original = 10" x 10" -  prints available (11" x  24")

Garden of Remembrance (revisited)

This is a drawing based on a 'digital etching' (what I call black and white drawings I have done in the primitive drawing program Microsoft Paint, chosen for its single bit rawness) called 'Garden of Remembrance' (see this drawing in the 'Digital Etching' section of this blog). The original drawing was based on a woman I saw at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, Ireland in 2003. She was facing the setting sun and it seemed she was remembering a relative who had passed in the Easter Uprising.

Oil pastel - Original = 3' x 2' -  prints available (11" x  24")

Morning News

This drawing is special to me because it represents the first large-scale oil pastel drawing I ever did which put me on the path to drawing a few others. I drew it for an art class I was in at the time, in 1987 at Boise State University. When it hung in the hallway at the school, it was the first time my artwork was hung and viewed by the public. I did my first art show shortly after, a show which was put together by my professor, mentor and friend, James K. Russell, and was made up of the artwork of his promising students. The sweetest moment was when one of my art teachers from my junior high school (who had been a notorious bitch to me and my friends) and another renowned painter who also taught at the same school were very closely examining this drawing and discussing it. This picture also shows the beginnings of my fascination with urban settings and with trees, which continue to be themes in my work.

Oil pastel - Original = 3' x 2' - prints available (11" x  24")