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| Studio painting from a demo, 9x12 on panel |
Last Sunday I did a demo for the Syracuse Pastel Artists at Barry Park, Meadow Brook in Syracuse. I was asked to talk about my approach to painting en plein air, and to emphasize the point that one of the many reasons for painting outdoors is to challenge oneself with a new scene, I chose to paint a path instead of the pond which I have painted so many times.
The
pic below shows how far I got with it. I had prepared my own masonite
board but made the mistake of sanding the last layer of Colourfix primer
which resulted on a board that was so smooth that could not hold much
pastel. The result was a very loose painting but with enough information for me to try reproduce it back at home.
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| Pastel demo, en plein air. 9x12 panel |
Doing a demo while talking and explaining the process is very
different from just painting for oneself. For one thing, there is the
pressure to perform. I tried to vocalize what was going on in my brain as much as possible, with the advantage that when I asked myself a question my audience helped with an answer!
My thanks to those present at the demo and those of you reading this post!
5 comments:
A beautiful painting, Adriana! Love those purples...!!
The final painting is beautiful, with the lovely softness I see in all your works.
Do you find working on board better/same as working on sanded paper?
I haven't tried demonstrating - it must be difficult to draw and try and explain the process at the same time.
Thank you you Hilda!
I need to work a little bit more on the figure and the dog.
Elaine Thank you! I love working on boards simply because if something doesn't work I can easily wash them off, apply a new layer of Coulorfix primer (if necessary), and start again. With paper I cannot remove most of the pastel. I noticed that when I'm painting outdoors on my own I can come up with something decent in a short time, but when I'm doing a demo it's totally different. I question more often if the decisions I'm making are the correct ones, and in general the feeling of doubt shows in the painting. But one thing I mentioned to the audience is that I have the right to fail. The important thing is enjoying doing a demo. If you are interested, you can practice painting outdoors on your own and explain your process to an imaginary audience- your family might think you have gone nuts but as with every thing, the practice helps.
Nice paintings, Adriana! I'm sure you are wonderful at explaining your process and painting at the same time. I'd love to see you demo sometime.
Thank you Joann!
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