It’s time for another round-up of my ten picks from pastels collected through April. A number of landscapes persisted through the selection process and remained in the top ten – I think they brilliantly show off the many possibilities in pastel! There are also two unusual still life paintings, one amazing portrait and one dynamite
Today, I’m thinking about the importance of play in art. I feel pulled in so many different ways on a daily basis. There’s so much to get done – finishing my new course, writing and organizing blog posts, updating my websites (hah!), nevermind painting. And oh yeah, what about fun time, downtime, a balanced life?!
Bold colour. Confident strokes. Clear value pattern. Strong design. These are all phrases I would use when describing work by Jen Evenhus. And they are all things I admire and strive for in my own work. So you can imagine how pleased I was when she agreed to share one of her ideas about painting
![Pastels on black aper: Gail Sibley, "Untitled [at this point], Mount Vision pastels on Sansfix pastel card, 5 1/2 x 7 3/4 in](https://www.howtopastel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_9649-2-300x209.jpeg)
Occasionally I get asked the question: Do you ever use soft pastels on black paper? And the answer is: Well no, I don’t. Mind you, when I first started in pastels over 20 years ago, I worked on a dark green mat board. So I have worked with pastels on dark paper, just not black
Spring has sprung and it’s certainly evident in my neck of the woods! It’s April which means it’s time to look at the pastel pleasures I’ve chosen for March. As always, a highly personal and subjective collection of 10 pastels selected from 79 gathered throughout the month. Let’s go!
30 paintings in 30 days – that’s quite the challenge. One artist who was successful in taking on the challenge recently is Takeyce Walter. I featured one of her lovely pieces in January’s monthly curation and it occurred to me that it would be fascinating to hear all about the process of creating 30 paintings in
Many subscribers have been asking me, “When are your next pastel workshops?!” So I’m pleased to tell you about a number of them that are coming up. First there’s the three I’ll be teaching at the Pastel Artists Canada Conference, then two pastel workshops on Salt Spring Island in August, and then there’s the potential one next
Wow, February is already a week over so here I am with my ten choices of fabulous pastels from that ones seen that month. As always, soooo many pastel paintings to choose from, sooooo difficult to make the final choices, soooo hope you enjoy them. Nothing changes 🙂 In any case, I hope you will be
I came across the painter, Thérèse Schwartze (1851-1918), a year or so ago. The piece I saw was a pastel of hers posted on Facebook. I was stunned and thought, Why have I never heard of this artist before? Have a look at the image I saw. Look at the bravura of stroke, the softness of
After my blog on plein air painting in Mexico, I had a few people ask for a list of exactly what I took with me. They wanted to know about how to travel light with pastels. That opened up the idea for this blog.
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