Gail, Author at How to Pastel

How To Store Pastel Paintings

Sunday, 16 August 2015 20 Comments

Well after last week’s hair-pulling experience, I am DELIGHTED to present my newest Pastel Painting Tip video: How To Store Pastel Paintings.

When plans go sideways, what to do? You write a blog post about it. I had a plan. Really I did. And it was a good one. Shoot video, edit, upload to YouTube, and write a post. No problem right? Wrong! I shot the videos alright but the problem came when I tried to upload

pastel picks: Jorge Gomez, "The Mediterranean Sea," soft pastel on Canson, 8.3 x 11.7 in

July’s Pastel Picks

Tuesday, 4 August 2015 10 Comments

It’s time to share my pastel picks for July. As always, a difficult decision to choose just ten pastels but here they be. They’re chosen from the many delightful pastels I came across over the last month.

9. Gail Sibley, View From Sherwoods, pastel on Wallis paper, 9 x 12 in. Small tweaks made and I called it quits. I may still need to look at it in the studio but for now, this plein air pastel is finished!

Plein Air Pastel Of Big Rideau Lake

Tuesday, 28 July 2015 10 Comments

I’m home from my wonderful trip to Ontario where Cam and I visited various family members. Kicking myself for not taking more photos! However, I did have time to do one pastel en plein air 🙂 It’s one that I did of a beautiful view of Big Rideau Lake from Cam’s Mum’s porch. The weather

Donna Yeager, "Self Portrait," Digital Image Collage - pastel painting done on Canson Mi-Tientes as bottom layer in photoshop, also includes drawings done with 6B pencil, scans of jewellery, dried flowers, ceramic statue, and single finger rosary all done in Photoshop

Donna Yeager – How Going Back To Art School Changed Everything

Monday, 20 July 2015 12 Comments

At the beginning of June while at the IAPS Convention, I met Donna Yeager. In conversation, she began to tell me about her experience of going back to art school and how it had affected her work. I asked her if she’d like to saw a few words about that experience on camera for my

And here's me at work on the first demo using Schminke pastels

Demos At IAPS In The Schmincke Pastels Booth

Sunday, 12 July 2015 6 Comments

At the beginning of June, as you know, I was at the wonderful bi-annual International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Convention. I was fortunate to be asked to demo twice using Schmincke pastels at their booth. What to paint? Well, if you know me, you know I prefer working from life, so the first demo

June’s Remarkable Pastels!

Sunday, 5 July 2015 12 Comments

Oh. My. Gosh. I can hardly believe we are already in July and it’s time for the roundup of the pastels I’ve enjoyed through the month of June. Once again, culling the 55 collected pastels down to 10 choices was incredibly difficult. It’s always when I get down to about 15 that I look and

IAPS – The Landscape Interviews

Monday, 29 June 2015 11 Comments

In my last post, I shared the first half of the interviews I made at the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) in early June. Here is the second set – the landscape interviews I call them since they’re all related to painting the landscape. Let’s go!

IAPS Interviews – Questions Answered!

Monday, 22 June 2015 20 Comments

I managed to persuade 10 artists at the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Convention to say a few words on video in answer to one question. This post will include half the IAPS interviews, the next, the rest. (One interview went way over the one-to-three minute mark and the story was so fascinating that I

IAPS - Working (and playing!) at the Trade Show

IAPS – A Whale Of A Time!

Sunday, 14 June 2015 12 Comments

Settling back into real life after a fabulous time at the 2015 International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. What to tell you about it?? Well, for the first time, I was totally on the Vendor side of the Convention – I didn’t register as a participant (for one, it sold