Painting Lessons from a Marsh

'Return to the Marsh'           8x10        pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $125

There is so much to learn from painting a marsh. I can't think of a better landscape to demonstrate for someone new to pastels. I had the privilege today to share the wonderful world of pastels with a wonderful artist new to the medium. I love to be a pastel ambassador! I began our session with the introduction of the tools of the trade....testing pastels and papers. Then I did a demonstration of my easy 6 steps to a pastel painting. I chose a marsh as my subject.

Marshes are one of my favorite things to paint but they also allow me to talk about so many painting tips and techniques. Here are just a few. I will expand on each of them in future posts.

• Simplification. Marshes can be a complicated tangle of grasses and water. Doing a thumbnail allows me to simplify the marsh into a few big shapes. Start the painting with big shapes and gradually build and add the details

• Atmospheric Perspective: Marshes are expansive. They are a perfect candidate to practice the principles of atmospheric or aerial perspective. Learning how to create the illusion of depth is one of the most important things a landscape painter can learn. Marshes give us the material to exaggerate these changes.

• Mark-Making: Marshes have so much interesting texture from the grasses and shrubs to the water. Practicing a variety of marks and learning how to manipulate the pastels to get the marks you want is important. A marsh allows for a lot of variety in mark making.

• Skies: The sky is one of the most important parts of a landscape. It sets the mood and tone of the painting. Marshes allow for an expansive sky. It is fun to play with skies over a marsh.

• Suggestion of detail: Learning how to suggest detail rather than painting every blade of grass is an important lesson. I have learned so much about painting grasses from a marsh. It is also fun to practice 'hinting' at buildings in the distance!