When You Just Have to Paint

'Friends'              8x10         pastel         ©Karen Margulis

It was a weekend filled with inspiration and fun. On the roller coaster of the life of an artist this weekend was definitely on the 'up'.  Richard McKinley was in town to judge the show for the Southeastern Pastel Society.  I was honored to take home an Exceptional Merit award for my painting and it kept getting better!  I volunteered to help Nancy Nowak on the workshop committee so I got to help at the workshop. Of course my ears and eyes were wide open gathering the many pearls that Richard shared over the two days I was a helper.  As usual Richard was amazing (and entertaining ;) 

The only challenging part of being a volunteer and not a student is that Nancy and I didn't get to paint. It was hard to hold back! I was itching to try some of the things the group was doing and of course Richard's fantastic demo was so inspiring. I had to wait until I got home this evening and then I threw my bags on the bed and went right down to the studio to paint. I feel better now!

Block in on matt board with gesso/pumice surface

One of the projects the group worked on was creating texture in an underpainting using acrylic ground or clear gesso. This is a technique I have done before and I happened to have a prepared board ready to paint. I decided to visit a favorite subject of mine.... the Lowcountry marsh.
I love how the texture allows me to suggest grasses. I will be doing more with this technique and will share details!

Rubbed in the first layer

starting the layers

my reference photo