Pastel Conference - Day Three

On Saturday we only had one workshop each and so we worked on rearranging our new pastels all morning, then headed over to the conference to buy a few colors that seem to have been neglected in our original purchases. Plus we got some kinds of paper that had been recommended by some of the presenters by UArt and Wallis. Also Allan got some newly released Richeson Hard Pastels and I got some small sets by Sennelier.

Then off to our workshops. Allan attended a workshop by the California pastel artist Kim Lordier and as she worked out some of the issues with her demo painting, Allan was able to see how to make fixes on some of his own paintings. He was very interested in her work as she paints scenes from the Monterey Peninsula which is where he is from. And she does many seascapes which is what he is primarily interested in painting.

My workshop was with Margaret Evans who is a pastel painter from Scotland. She had a very different approach to underpainting by using gouache with watercolors creating an additional texture on the sanded surface of the paper. She used mostly products from Art Spectrum but had pastels from all of the major pastel makers. In the photo to the left, Margaret is standing next to the easel with a photo of the scene in Venice, the painting with the initial gouache water color washes, and the value sketch. In the final painting to the right, notice how the buildings look like they are faced with plaster, this is an effect of the pastel scumbled across the gouache underpainting. Margaret also starts with her lightest lights on a dark paper. The paper color in this painting was midnight blue but all of the paper is now covered with pastel so you only see hints of the paper color here and there. Margaret likes the gouache technique as it adds to the painterly qualities of the painting. She invited us all to come to Scotland for a workshop, but not to expect any weather like we had in Albuquerque. She said that if it isn't raining in Scotland, then it is a good day. And both Allan and I had another great day in Albuquerque at the conference where we were also having fun meeting new people and seeing some of the people from our pastel association in Phoenix. We are both so energized and cannot wait to get started on some of these new techniques and products. And we still have one more day to go.....