This 35 minute video by Michael Chelsey Johnson is like a Christmas present. He presented "The Fine Art of Pastel" at 3 Masters Speak, in conjunction with the Sedona Area Guild of Artists (SAGA) Exhibition "SAGA: Visions of Fine Art", November 24, 2013. Click this link to go to Michael's website to view the video and a slideshow. And, especially for PSST plein air painters, take a look at his blog.
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Admittedly prejudiced toward pastel, but Carolyn Hancock, Sharon Haney, Joan Eure, and Missy Gates thought the pastel paintings were the stars in Art League of Fort Bend's Fall Show on November 2. The ALFB show included all media, but for the first time, pastel was judged within its own category. Mark Stewart was the judge and awarded the following:
I attended a pastel demo by Bob Rohm on July 19. In two hours, he talked, gave tips, answered questions, and completed a beautiful landscape all the way from drawing, block-in, and wash to a perfect finish. This poor quality, cell phone photo does not do it justice. These are my notes; I think they are accurate but apologize if I misinterpreted anything. Check out Bob's website; - and I highly recommend his book, The Painterly Approach, available on Amazon and ArtistsNetwork. Landscape: cliff with shallow water river. Cliff is brightly lit, trees on top of cliff. Reference photo in black and white, as well as color. Setup: mounted Wallis paper clipped to a sturdy support, with cardboard folded underneath to catch pastel dust. French easel. First, decide on eye level of viewer, to indicate horizon line.
Drew the large profile masses with a tan/sienna Nu-Pastel, using a very light touch. Using the same pastel, he indicated the darker areas with a little more pressure. Still using the same pastel, on the cliff, he used a light touch to block in midtone areas, using the point of pastel, then massed in the darks with side strokes and heavier pressure. All of the massing is done in a thin layer of hard pastel to get an idea of where the composition is going. Nothing detailed. Refine as you go. Decide on what is most important section. In this painting, it was not the water reflections but the light on the cliff wall. There’s lots of water in lower area of painting; “if it works, fine, if not, I’ll just cut it off.” Block-in: Light salmon color for lights, dark green for trees, dark red for the darks in water, medium turquoise for blue of water, dark purple at bottom of tree line. For alcohol wash, best to use a soft brush. For water or mineral spirits, use a stubby cut-down hardware brush. Alcohol tends to soften the glues so brush gently. With water or mineral spirits, can scrub aggressively. Alcohol darkens. Water/mineral spirits lighten when dry. Bob Rohm procedure: Look for extremes: darkest dark, lightest light, most intense color, sharpest or most dominant edge. Establish those with local color pastels, then nothing else will be darker, lighter, more intense or sharper. Put 3 or 4 colors of the same value in hand: how do they look next to one another; if it work here, it will work in painting. Reflections in water: duller, cooler, less rich. Must be directly below object. A dark object will reflect lighter, a light object will reflect darker. He works on the center of interest almost exclusively at the beginning, almost to a finish before continuing on the extremes. Sky meeting tree line has a coolness because of the green tree light bouncing up.
Linda Dellandre with gold medal for Master circle
Thanks, Linda Dellandre, for this news and photos from IAPS Convention We had a fabulous time, so much so that we forgot to get pictures of all of us together that were there! The Gold Medal for Master Circle is quite heavy with my name engraved on the back. Apparently it is dipped twice in 24k gold! I hope the official pics on the IAPS website are better and come up soon. There were 23 recipients and all but 1 were there to receive their medals. My painting, "The Sea," won the Bronze Medal in the Master Circle Juried Exhibition. Wow, 2 honors, in one convention! The Paint Around - with attendees just watching avidly for the next stroke of genius on the paper. Stan Sperlak is working on Desmond O'Hagan's start, and Debra Stewart is working on Kim Lordier's start. Kim is in there, working on Liz Haywood Sullivan's image. They turned out 5 of the best paint arounds I have ever seen! Desmond O'Hagan's demo. He had lots of great tips about "getting rid of your white", and how to layer warm and cool to make great highlights where it counts! Liz Haywood-Sullivan's demo. Relationship between water and sky - she is very cool to watch - she uses alcohol to paint out her first initial light pressure (dark color) strokes of pastel. She even will take a pastel in hand, take a brush with alcohol on it, and pick up color directly from the pastel! Have never seen that before. And then there is the "candy store," where the vendors sell everything pastel for some great prices! Also, they have demonstrators in their own booths, and you can try out all the products. So much fun! Buffet outdoors in the courtyard on Thursday evening - so much fun! Live band and dancing, lots of laughs and getting to know other pastel "families." And Then the Finale! The banquet on Saturday night was so wonderful - everyone dressed up and the food spectacular. The gavel was turned over to Liz Haywood Sullivan, the new president of IAPS, and Urania put the medallions around each recipient's neck. Our keynote speaker was a gallery owner who gave a very informative and exciting talk on presenting your work to galleries. And as a final note, there was an absolutely beautiful memorial to Maggie Price, Her daughter spoke, and they ran a slideshow of Maggie's life. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Maggie really did so much for pastel, including getting the Pastel Journal started. Nearly everyone in the room had read at least one article by Maggie Price in their careers! |
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