Pastel Painting: Creating luminous landscapes from clouds to countryside

Designed for beginners and intermediates, this no fear and totally fun pastel making your mark class that will introduce you to explore, and further your skills with soft pastels. Dive into expressing landscapes; the beauty of nature, while learning the skill of painting using the crystalline luminosity of Pastel media.

Topics include showing and using the deep variety of materials to paint on and with, from pastel papers to boards. How to choose and use the different pastel sticks from hard to very soft, tips on pastel brand qualities from machine to hand–made pastels. Details for handling your paintings with advice on matting, fixative, storage, and framing also shared.

Instructor demos take you step by step as you create and explore easy painting studies during the class. Demos show you how to pick source and create strong compositions. Using value and hue, showing clean, soft, and crisp edge “mark making” are covered. We will use the color wheel, learn underpainting, layering, glazing, painting from dark to light, establishing light source, and find the Golden Mean of your composition. Group and one on one guidance given per level of your experience.

Painting in studio, we will use provided, and your own landscape source photos. Each week builds your pastel know–how confidence, by creating pastel masterpieces from your photo choices reflecting nature’s cloud filled skies, landscapes with pathways to forests, trees, open fields, hills, marshes, wildlife, waterfalls, farms and homes, to the color and texture of leaves, stones, and flowers.

You are invited to have fun, ignite your artistic passion using the crystalline beauty of soft pastels.