Today we had the treat of a very organized Kimmer to lead us through pastels.

But before we get to that a bit of show and share:

Oliva brought a few of her pieces that will be in the Show this upcoming weekend. She travels by bus from Guaymas so she will store these in our storage room until then. Can’t wait to see more of her work and at the show!

This is the back of a small Advent Calendar with drawers that had tiny ornaments in them for a tiny tree…Doug simply could not leave the back blank, and we are very glad he didnt’! Awesome repurposing!

A watercolor by Lynn. She wanted some advice on the hummingbird on the right, as the belly kind of blended too much with the background. Of course the piece is amazing just the way it is, but we’ll look forward to seeing how she redefines it! Maybe at the Show this upcoming weekend!

Did I mention that we have a show this upcoming weekend?! Saturday, January 17th 9 to 3, and Sunday, January 18th 10 to 2, at the Tecalai Clubhouse. Come see and enjoy!

Mike is working on this watercolor and asked about how to get the whites back into the Pelican on the left. Suggestions included using acrylic paint, gouache or a white gel pen. Kimmer also suggested darkening the background around the area and it will make the whites that are still there pop and appear whiter. Looking forward to seeing how he tackles this! Maybe the Show, this upcoming weekend!…

Karen brought this in. Apparently there were horses on this canvas board in watercolor previously, which she washed off and painted over. She said that the board got a bit stained by the previous painting on there, but it helped to add to the aged look of this piece. Great work and maybe we’ll see it in the Show, this upcoming weekend!?

Finally, Kimmer got to work with the Pastels Workshop!

As mentioned she was very organized and we all got a 5×7 piece of sanded paper that she had painted with acrylic paint in a variety of colours, red, green, turquoise, with the intent to demonstrate how different background colours can add to your piece.

This is the sample that she provided for us to reference.

She also provided all of us with a small baggie with a piece of charcoal, three pieces of hard pastels, and a small square of that firm plastic foamy stuff that things are packaged in. There was a variety of colours, with each bag having a dark, medium and light tone. Some got purple, some got blue, some got green. Then we traded around afterwards!

Some of the basic principles are that: you work from dark to light; blend with a tool (the firm foamy stuff) and never a bare finger; do not blow off debris inside because the materials can be unhealthy to you or your neighbours…

Here are some progress shots, from starting at the top, to nearing completion at the bottom. It was fun to see how each different starting paper colour and group of three colours turned out!

The final steps were to add in the sun and other accents in with some soft pastels. Hard pastels work better for blocking in colour and the softs are better for final touches / accents as they are much more costly than the hard pastels.

Great workshop and our thanks to Kimmer for facilitating it and providing us with all the goodies to play!

Just a reminder to members that we will not have a meeting next Monday, January 19th, due to a request by the Tecalai Board to use the room that day. That’s okay, we’ll all be bushed from the busy weekend showing and hopefully selling some Art! Did I mention we have a show this weekend!?