Wednesday Night Pastel Class....Underpainting

Wednesday night pastel classes are so much fun! In this class we talked about manipulating wet underpaintings and we used bird nests as our subject matter. I had photos and several real nests to paint from. Everyone did a unique and beautiful nest painting and those wet underpainting helped everyone stay painterly! Join us this Fall for class on Wednesdays either 10-12 or 7-9 pm.

Monotypes with Pastel Mini Workshops in February 2011

Are you looking to energize your art? Would you like to experiment with new ways to use pastel? Try Monotypes...the liberating medium that combines painting with printmaking. In this four hour workshop I will introduce you to a variety of techniques for creating monotypes. We will learn how to combine our prints with pastels as Degas did for many of his works. No experience needed... just bring your sense of adventure for a fun afternoon of creating. You should bring your pastels but all printmaking supplies will be provided.
When: Saturday February 26 1:00-5:00 OR
Sunday, February 27 1:00-5:00
Where: My home studio in Marietta, Georgia
Cost: $45 plus $10 materials fee
Please email me at kemstudios@yahoo.com for more information or to register for the workshop

Pastel Back to Basics Class Session I Review

The focus for the last four classes was 'The Planning of a Painting'. We spent two classes just planning the painting and the third week we actually painted but the catch was we had to paint larger than 16x20. This is my finished demo painting 18x24. The first photo shows what we did during the first week. We planned the composition and did value studies for the painting. I have developed a planning worksheet to make this process easier.

Monochromatic Value Study

After we did our value studies in a thumb nail version we painted a small monochromatic study. The idea was to concentrate only on the values and not to worry about color at this point. That would be the next class!

Color Studies for Larger Painting

The second week of class we focused on color. We did small color studies each one using a different color scheme. It was fun to explore the way color changed the mood and feeling of the painting.

Week Four .... Painting from our Imagination

After spending three weeks with our image, we were ready to be finished with it. I emphasized that the planning of a painting doesn't usually take 3 weeks! I usually spend anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour on a painting plan....but by breaking down the steps we now could see just how easy it can be. For the last class of the session, we were now ready to have some fun. So I asked everyone to put their reference photo away and paint our scene from our imaginations. I did this as the demo but I ended up making some changes after class. I decided to turn the yellow flowers into daisies! I really enjoyed this session and look forward to the next 4 weeks when we will explore Underpaintings!

Photos from the Wildflower Workshop

Thank you to all of my fantastic students for a fun weekend of learning and painting. I enjoyed meeting new students and seeing my regulars! Everyone did some great work and I hope learned more about painting meadows and wildflowers with pastels. I am currently working on the class and workshop schedule for Fall. Please let me know if you wish to be notified of the new schedule. kemstudios@yahoo.com