Sante Fe Cityscape Three, pastel painting by Carol Engles

8 x 10 pastel and watercolor on paper. This painting is really bright. So if you don't like bright orangish red, this painting is not for you! I cooled it down a bit with the aqua and the grey. Contrast of color and shapes/lines is something I pay a lot of attention to because it creates interest in a painting. To me if I paint an abstract piece with a green pasture and a blue sky, that approach is too realistic and defeats the purpose of the abstract process.