Enid Wood Demo May 1, 2021
Imagine you walk down the flower aisle in the grocery store and can visualize this mixed bloom bouquet as a painting!

That was the basis for Enid Wood's floral demonstration for PSST members. Enid matched pastel pencil colors to the dominant color of each finished flower and loosely sketched shapes on Uart 500 dark. 
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When she added the first stroke of PanPastel, its brilliant yellow popped and set the stage for the remaining orange, hot pinks, reds, and purples. Enid blended and embellished the creamy PanPastels with pastel pencils and soft pastels (mainly Rembrandts). Enid's strokes are controlled and precise. A joy to watch her tulips bloom. 

Dawn Emerson Demo April 10, 2021
Every artist who has been a lover of pastel a few years has encountered many different pastel techniques and has a closet full of different pastel supplies. Most likely Dawn Emerson surprised every one of us in her demo for PSST on April 10th! 

She worked pastel into a wet background of Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colour--in black. She applied the oil paint with a brayer, and used the brayer to build the suggestion of the horse. Pastels, unthinkable tools, and Dawn's energy resulted in an unexpected, dynamic horse racing through abstracted forms and colors.

The first image below is Dawn's completed demo painting; the second horse and the egret are Dawn's preparatory paintings. PSST had submitted three images from members prior to the demo. Lisa Daigle submitted the photo of her horse, Savannah, and Liz Czerewaty submitted the egret photo. The bonus of Dawn's demo was the owner of the photo Dawn selected for the demo --- would receive the final painting. Lucky Lisa!   

Just one benefit of membership in the Pastel Society of Southeast Texas: recordings of PSST demos are available on the members only page. Join/renew here.

The March 4 program for PSST
PSST members and guests got a behind the scenes treat, with a "zoom through" view of products carried by Dakota Pastels. We got a close up view of popular brands carried by Dakota, from pastels to papers, from pencils to boxes.  It was a fun, conversational tour with April, who provided the following resources. 

Dakota's new YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOFrYwdR4mDyS2a9DU9dWXw, includes videos on pencil sharpeners, with more content being added daily!

Video link for the Dakota Pochade box (shows Tripod mount plate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY5G4rBBRhs&feature=youtu.be

A very handy pastel comparison chart: https://www.dakotapastels.com/files/pdfs/Hardness2021-Chart.pdf

So many artists love the Terry Ludwig Eggplant pastel, that Dakota prepared this graphic showing comparable darks in other brands.

Jen Evenhus demo February 6, 2021
Who would believe how beautiful--and colorful--cacti can be! Jen taught us that color can be imagined if the value and temperature are right and that imperfection can be welcomed. 

Jen starts with an underpainting of random colors washed in with alcohol or turpentine. She preselects a range of pastel that identify with color swatches. (Tip: check out design-seeds on Pinterest). After a loose charcoal sketch of the cactus, she works into the dark values of the cactus, lightly, then more heavily on the light areas. Her final step is the background, carving negative spaces that make the cactus pop up and out. 

Jen gave quick tips throughout the demo, from the pastel tray attached to her easel to draping a towel over her arm to clean the pastels. The last image below is her finalized painting--stunning and loose. Click the images for full views and look for the textured strokes, especially on the lights.