Although I was suffering from an inner ear condition (labyrinthitis) that caused dizziness and fatigue, I was determined not to miss the chance to see Kay Hurley in action. Happily, the workshop was held in a private home where I was also staying, so I could slip off to my room for a rest as [...]
My first experience of being part of the Lake Scugog Spring Studio Tour was very positive. I enjoyed painting throughout the tour, and had fun chatting to pastel enthusiasts old and new. I am very thankful to my friends and collectors who came out to see me at Bonnie Thomson’s glass studio. I was quite [...]
April 17, 2011 – 10:30 am
Like the variable spring weather we’ve been having, and the line from the Sting song, my students and I painted “all four seasons in one day” yesterday. The lesson, designed to help us break free of over-reliance on photographs, required that we first do a value study from a photograph or a painting we’d already [...]
In a recent conversation with my pastel students, I learned that one of them particularly loved a painting of mine that is in my own collection. Many artists keep a personal collection of works. For me, these are the ones that fall into one or more of the following categories: 1) I painted it under [...]
I’ve just tried out a new pastel painting surface–well, it’s been around for awhile but I haven’t tried it before. It’s called PastelBord and it’s by Ampersand. Each board is a rigid composition-board support coated with some kind of a clay mixture. It doesn’t feel as if it has a lot of tooth–it’s sort of [...]
When my friend and colleague asked me to paint a pastel portrait of her three-year-old son, I was both delighted and a bit nervous. Painting a portrait of someone specific is a lot different from painting “a person.” I feel confident that I can do a credible job of rendering the human face and body, [...]
March 20, 2011 – 11:32 am
On the news front… 1) On Saturday March 5th, I gave a 75 minute slide lecture on “The Potential of Pastel” at the Art for All Canada conference in Toronto, Ontario. The slides can be viewed as a pdf by following the link on the Pastel Artists Canada website (www.pastelartists.ca) under the “News” tab. In [...]
March 20, 2011 – 11:01 am
It’s an unbreakable rule in art circles that you work only from your own reference photos, and for work that will be shown in competition or sold, I adhere strictly to that rule. However, when I saw the photograph that prompted this painting, in an old magazine ad for the ballet in New Zealand, I [...]
March 20, 2011 – 10:42 am
During my time in New Zealand in January and February of this year (2011) I was able to complete a good number of pastel paintings. Those who are familiar with my work may note some new directions in these works. First, I’ve been experimenting with more vivid colours and more abstracted compositions, in contrast to [...]
I’ve just spent two months in New Zealand, painting up a storm–watch for a new gallery on the website soon! In the meantime, however, I wanted to do a post about an experiment I tried while away. Near Lake Taupo on the North Island, I took a photo of a lovely scene of a marsh, [...]