TUCSON PASTEL SOCIETY
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Purchased Classes Cancellation Policy:   Cancellations must be in writing in a letter or email to the class contact or sent to the [email protected] email address. A full refund will be given if cancellation is received 14 days prior to the start date of the class. Refunds after 14 days prior to the class will only occur if the Tucson Pastel Society cancels the class due to low participation.  Payments made through PayPal will be refunded prior to the 14 day deadline minus the PayPal fee.

New classes will be posted here!!!
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Previous Classes
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How to Be a More Painterly Painter
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October 12, 2024
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Barbara started class with the description of “Painterly”.  “Painterly” refers to the application of pigment in a loose or less controlled manner, resulting in the appearance of visible marks, or brushstrokes, within the finished painting.

The painterly method seeks to move beyond rendering to interpret and express.

Through this method, the artist strives to say more with less, suggesting essential forms instead of detailed portrayals, and is ever watchful of overworking.  Painterly techniques favor loos edges over stiff lines with bold marks cohabiting alongside subtle passages in the work.

To be painterly is to be skillfully mess and always searching for the poetic interpretation of your subject.

Barbara introduced a sandpaper that makes a great paper for practicing pastel marks. LotFancy 400 Grit Sandpaper, 9 x 11 30PCS Dry Wet Sand Paper, Silicon Carbide Sanding is the header on Amazon.  The cost is about $17 for 30 sheets.  She passed out sheets for the members.  This is solvent tolerant and can be washed clean.

The morning was filled with great exercises with marking making.   The first was three styles created with three pears.  The first being marks made with the side of the pastel.  The 2nd style was crosshatching marks.  The third was square marks. 

The next exercise was painting applies with limited strokes of 15 and 5 by using a combination of strokes from the first exercise.
  
The third exercise was creating either an apple or pear within a time limit.  The first limit was 10 minutes, the second was 3 minutes.

The last exercise of making marks with a light and dark pastel demonstrated the different types of edges of hard, soft, lost, and broken.
Paintings were then created using all of the techniques learned from the mark making exercises. 
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This was a great educational experience with a great instructor.  Thanks, Barbara and John, for sharing your knowledge and experience and creating a great class for the members.

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Full Value head/Portrait Drawing

Saturday, March 4, 2023
A special Thank you to Abby Freeman for being a wonderful model!


He instructed us about facial proportions, planes, values, and other art principles.  The workshop was intense and rewarding.    His ability as a teacher shined, and we all learned from this experience.  Mano Sotelo is a member the Visual Arts Faculty at Pima Community College
www.sotelostudio.com

Intro to Head / Portrait Drawing with Mano Sotelo

Saturday, March 22, 2022
Mano Sotelo shared how to draw a head in a short time and pleasant manner.  He instructed us about facial proportions, planes, values, and other art principles.   While he demonstrated in the morning, he had us produce drawings at the same time using charcoal.  In the afternoon, we worked using a live model.   Thank goodness, he circulated to give us pointers for improvement.  The workshop was intense and rewarding.    His ability as a teacher shined, and we all learned from this experience.  Mano Sotelo is a member the Visual Arts Faculty at Pima Community College.    Ellen Cholski

Mixed Media Class with Pat Dolan

​On Saturday, February 29, 2020, Pat Dolan and some members had a delightful time painting with pastels combined with other media.  The day was filled with experimentation, music, adventure and play.  Also, Pat shared some of her wisdom and adages to help guide our work.  Here are some.
                                                                                     
  • Variety is the spice of life, and also variety is the spice of art.
  • If all else fails, try a bit of turquoise.
  • When painting a landscape, remember that nature is not tidy.
  • Accents are like pillows; three are good; twelve are too many.
  • A little bit of red goes a long ways.  Think cayenne pepper.
  • Step back and look.
  • Breathe.
 by Ellen Cholski
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Carrie Robles

Portraiture in Pastel
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Thanks to all the members show participated in the class!
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This was a fun class. In the morning Carrie shared methods and tips about what to look for in photo references and how to overcome the limitations that a photo reference presents. Among other things she explained several standard color and value patterns that are common in portraiture and how to use them to make the portrait clearly real and 3-dimensional. Everyone who attended drew 2 portraits in the morning using reference photos that Carrie brought. This gave everyone some experience at creating various skin tones using layering and blending and trying to add the subtleties that Carrie explained would bring a portrait to life. 
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The afternoon was spent painting from a live model trying to apply the tips that we learned in the morning, sharing and getting even more tips and pointers from Carrie.  The class was a great success and everyone there seems to have a good time.  Many thanks to Carrie for an informative and fun day.

​By Cindy Hierl

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Dave Burns

Linear Perspective
Linear Perspective can be defined as "a system of representing a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional surface, based on the observation that as parallel lines recede they appear to converge at a point in the distance".

​The class focused on one, two and three point perspective in relation to buildings or objects in drafting and in a painting. 



Jet Shepard

Composition
Have you ever finished a painting, and as you looked at it you could tell there was something that just wasn’t quite right about it?  Yeah, me too.  Most of the time, it’s the composition that is off in some way.
H m-m-m wouldn’t it be nice to be able to discuss composition in a casual group format?  To be able to bring questions to the group that can be answered, not only by the facilitator, but perhaps by another attendee whom may have already explored and made the journey that could answer your questions?
Well, that is what I’m planning for Saturday, November 5th (Yikes! Is it November already?!).  It’s my composition workshop, and we are scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m., and we will continue until 12:00 noon.  I encourage those who plan to attend (Remember, it’s free!) to jot down any questions you may have between now and then.  Also, feel free to bring your paintings-either finished or in progress, whether you love them or not.  This will not necessarily be a critique, unless you request it to be.  I would simply like us all to check out the different types of composition in as many paintings as possible.  It never hurts to have them in mind as we progress through our thumbnails and our notans.
I will have handouts which will include extra blank sheets of paper for note taking, if needed…so don’t worry about that.
Let’s see…well, that’s all I can think of for now – oh – except I will bring goodies – my favorites are donuts from Albertsons (I’m not above good ol’ fashioned bribery).
That’s it – I think I’ve got everything in – except one last thing.  I’m Jet Shepard and I approve this blurb about my workshop. ; )
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Meredith Milstead

Color ​Temperature and Contrast:  How to achieve depth and mood through color with pastels.

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The workshop focused on color and it's effective use in landscape and still life pastel paintings.  Meredith demonstrated color temperature in atmospheric perspective (depth), type of colored light (illuminated, reflected and direct) and how to convey different mood through contract (high, mid, low) and temperature (warm/cool) in nature and still life.  An exercise (the star) showed a way to select values for your palette.

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Classes

framing_workshop_handout_2014.pdf
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File Type: pdf
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How to Make Your Paintings Pop! 

Members, come and enjoy an afternoon with Tucson Pastel Society member and art instructor, Meredith Milstead, as she takes us on an exploration of color harmonies to create visual excitement in our paintings. Meredith will give us an understanding of why and how to use the 12-hue color wheel. The techniques she teaches can be applied to portraits, still life and naturalistic paintings.  This workshop is for members only, and space is limited to 20 participants, so please contact Kitty (below) if you are going to take advantage of this free benefit provided for our members. 

MeredithMilstead.com
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  • News
    • Call to Artists
  • Millions For Tucson
  • Shows
    • Tucson Desert Art Museum Four Corners Gallery
    • International Online Show
    • Previous Exhibitions
  • Donations
  • Join/Renew
  • Activities
    • Contests!
    • Plein Air Events
    • Open Studio
    • Classes
    • Workshops >
      • Kim Lordier Workshop
      • Previous TPS Workshops
  • Members
    • Artist of the Month/Year
    • Teaching Artists
    • In Memory
  • Resources
    • Pastel >
      • Manufacturers
      • Techniques
    • Framing
    • Shipping
    • Professional
    • Vendors
  • Contact
  • Facility
    • Facility Event Page
  • About
    • Meetings
    • Executive Board >
      • Mail Chimp Signup
      • Tucson Pastel Society Board Meetings
    • Volunteers
    • Our Region