I was very honored to be on the faculty of Pastel LIVE this past week.

It was 4 full days of pastel, pastel, pastel….so you know I was happy and in good company with artists from all over the world.  It was amazing to watch all the demos and see the many different ways that artists can use this medium. Seriously, I learned a lot.

I think my portrait demo came across well and many reached out through chats and emails saying that my use of pastel and especially the “yellow stage” is a game changer for them. 

Yup! I know! Once I realized (over 25 years ago) that light controls everything, painting became so much easier. And for me,  yellow is the key….

Here is the finished demo – done in one hour.

Here is another little piece that sold through the online auction.  I will be shipping that out today to a new collector.  Yay!

Light is always what drives me to paint something….

Light. I started writing about it a few weeks ago.  How light travels at the “angle of incidence.” How that affects everything we see. Think about it- without light we could not see anything.  And we would not understand objects in space. Light tells us all about depth. About the planes of the face.

Plus its pretty darn beautiful.

In the demo I did for Pastel LIVE I went though the 5 stages that all my painting go through and the yellow stage is just one of them. But trust me, there is so much more to know than painting the face yellow. And I can teach you why. My next online workshop is September 23 and 24th and it will go over the 5 stages and everything I know about light.  And then there is the POWER of pastel….no more “soft” or “hard…” Do you know which brands are “gliders?” Which are “blenders?” Trust me,  it will help with getting control over those pesky sticks! 

I hope you can join me.

The POWER of Pastel Workshop – online

September 23 and 24th

9-3pm

$295

Register with me at christine@swannportraits.com

More lessons on light next week…..