Behind the Scenes of a Pastel Workshop

'Quiet Cove'               18x24                  pastel                 ©Karen Margulis
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I had an awesome weekend in Charlotte North Carolina. My demo and workshop for the Piedmont Pastel Society had been on the calendar for a year so I was excited to finally have the chance to share with them.  The topic we chose was color....Cooking with Color....Moving Beyond Local Color. My goal was to share ways that  I use to help my color choices be more interesting yet still harmonious.

I was hosted by the program chair, Deb Rasberry, a very talented artist and wonderful host. (thank you Deb!) The day of the workshop was beautiful. Its a good thing because we were locked out of the venue and almost had to set up outside!  But the door was opened just in time and the program began as scheduled.

I did three demos for the group. Each one illustrated a different aspect of how I work with color. I'd like to share each of the demos with you this week. I'll start with my last painting!

The demo painting after 15 minutes  18x24    Uart 500

 Since we were Cooking with Color....it was a given that we would use color schemes or 'recipes' for a painting. I issued a challenge exercise. The artists were given one of the tried and true color schemes and they had to choose a limited palette based on the scheme for their painting.  We had the typical schemes such as analogous, complementary and triadic. But also threw in a few unusual schemes such as split complimentary and secondary triad.

My demo was based on a Tertiary Triad of red-orange, yellow-green and blue-violet.

The planning board

 Part of the challenge was to make a plan for the painting. In my demo I shared my planning tools. I began with a black and white thumbnail and a color study.  To select my colors I developed a color recipe worksheet. This allowed me to keep my palette limited and with the range of the color scheme.  The artists were given a color recipe worksheet to help them work out their palettes.

The demo palette

The workshop was so much fun but not long enough! I only had four hours and I had so much to share. I decided to make this last demo a quick one so I allowed only 15 minutes to paint. It was enough to get my point across. (see photo above)

finished in the studio

When I returned home I set up my demo paintings and put in some finishing touches. I spent another 30 minutes on this painting. I worked on the trees and sand and refined the sky and reflections. I kept true to the tertiary triad color scheme.

close up detail

Al of the artists had an hour to do their color scheme exercise. Everyone did a fantastic job. I was happy to challenge this talented group of artists! It was truly a wonderful day!

More behind the scenes reports this week!