Sunday, April 19, 2009

Following a great three day workshop, I'm gearing up for the remainder of my marathon for April that resumes tomorrow. I was lucky to have some very able students this weekend, making my job easier than it should be allowed to be. We had a great time in Stillwater with the pastels. Being inside for this one turned out to be the right move as it rained all day today. Pastels and rain just don't mix... they do but it isn't pretty!

I took the first day and a half of the three days to lecture and demo this pastel, a 16x20 pastel on UArt paper, from an 8"x10" oil field study that I painted with my youngest son Erik in mid March. Doubling the size means a lot more space opens up that has to be considered. I didn't take or use any photo reference at all, just the study. That draws on all of your knowledge of past experience with the subject in order to create the 'life' that the scene would have within it. I'm always amazed at how this works. Amazed that our minds are able to retain the kind of visual information that would allow us to reconstruct a slice of nature so well that it's biologically accurate. Pretty cool.

So tomorrow the schedule resumes... and... I have to do my make up work, meaning twelve extra paintings to cover the three days of this workshop. Did I agree to this???

See you tomorrow! - Marc



'Island Light' pastel demo, 16x20 © Marc R. Hanson 2009

Below is the 8x10 study that this larger pastel was painted from for the class.

'Island Light' oil, 8x10 © Marc R. Hanson 2009