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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!
