Over the weekend as a part of the Second Saturday Gallery Walk at the Workhouse, I created a replica oil painting of a 5x7 that sold there last summer. Doing a demo can be a gab fest laced with education, but despite all the talking I almost finished the 9x12 version of that 5x7 image from a photo I took near Nokesville VA.
Regardless of working in oil, I got in a lot of education about pastels based on the attendee's interests in my hanging this month. Looking left to right at the pastels, below, my display had an acrylic underpainting with a prepared pumice surface on foam board, a watercolor underpainting on Uart, and (top) a pastel underpainting using the float method on Pastelbord. The variety of methods that pastels offer can be mind boggling and I was amazed at how interested adults and children alike were about techniques and materials.
Ever pragmatic and humorous, I found it wonderful painting in front of a wall of my work, which gave credibility to my skills as people witnessed my demo piece go through its ugly stage, as all paintings do. I should bring a similar display when I work plein air so that passing viewers know that paintings do come around.
Fellow Workhouse artist and metal fabricator, Mike Minnery, later brought his family by for a pastel lesson.
Many thanks to Workhouse artist, Jack Dyer, for the photos.
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