​Dawn Emerson is definitly energetic and enthused about art.  The minutes and hours of her workshop went by fast.  It was like flipping through the pages of a book.  We tried more than one artistic technique over the three days.  First, she quickly demonstrated, and then we learned by doing. There was little time to lollygag.  We learned about painting with pan pastels using a large wedge shaped sponge.  We made color wheels with pan pastels using just primary colors with black and white.  She taught us about transfer drawings, monotypes, and scratch drawings.  We used brayers, stencils, brushes, steel wool, pan pastels, stick pastels, and water mixable oil paints.  There were probably other things covered, which I cannot remember.  A fun time was had including a celebration Dawn Emerson’s birthday.  

On November 12,13, and 14, the Tucson Pastel Society hosted an amazing workshop by the Master Pastelist Kim Lordier (insert her letters here)
Kim’s stated goal was to be a conduit for each of us to learn to move ahead towards our own particular goals. Prior to the workshop she had asked each of us to answer a questionnaire and send her samples of our work to help her better understand where we were trying to go with our work. The workshop culminated with her having a private discussion with each of us, to review the questionnaire and help us identify our goals. This was such an impressive feature, unique in all the workshops I have taken!
Day One: Kim lectured and had a slide show, all about the basics of a good painting. She explained that, as every student in the class already was a good painter, she was going to review the basics with a goal of helping us improve our work, so that we would have an “edge” in future competitions, if desired. She talked about the use of photos; that they lie to us about values and edges and even colors of light, so we need to hone our skills of observation.
In the afternoon we practiced Notans. She emphasized that painting from life was of utmost importance to improve our powers of observation. Since this was an in-studio workshop, we used our own photos, finding various compositions in them, and then doing Notans using the Tombow value pens she had required us all to bring. She stressed the importance of having only one “star” in a painting, which can be emphasized with value design. We chose one Notan/and photo, after she reviewed our Notan work with us individually, then did a painting from that reference material. She spent a lot of time at each easel all afternoon, with wonderful advice as to how we could grow. That afternoon we also learned about High-key and Low-key colors, and did a painting of each, using the same photo for both. The day ended with a lengthy wonderful group critique of those works.
Day Two: We arrived at the studio to find a still life of a toilet paper roll on a plastic glass in a box, one set-up between each two artists. The boxes were lined with three colors of paper. They were lighted. We were to try to reproduce the exact colors and value shifts of the white paper and the box interior colors.  After a review/critique of this project, individually, and then a lunch break, we all chose a photo and did a Notan, then painting, using what we had learned so far. She spent half the afternoon circulating the room, doing individual evaluation. The day ended with her doing a full demo of a landscape, with an underpainting first, brushed in with Turpenoid.
Day Three: The class was to paint all day, trying to do three paintings, using our own photos, first doing Notans and anything else we had learned. During that time, Kim did individual private consultations, sharing with each of us her evaluation of the questionnaires and painting examples we had sent her. Everyone came away with goals for their future work practices, what could be done to help them reach their goals.
The sheer scope of the material covered would have been enough to make it a top notch workshop. That she added the individual personalized critique session for all 14 of us took it out of the orbit of the ordinary, into the stratosphere of one the BEST WORKSHOPS I have had the privilege of attending in my very long career!  - by Barbara Archer-Baldwin

​Thank you Kim!!!

Gaining Mastery in Pastel


​​Nancy began by emphasizing the importance of establishing a strong foundation from the outset and finding the story you want to convey to your audience. We used simple tools to crop reference photos and explore subjects from new perspectives. She stressed the value of value studies, as they force you to think critically about your artistic process. Nancy's underpainting techniques included using a combination of alcohol and watercolor, as well as watercolor alone.
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The entire three-day workshop was highly educational and enjoyable, thanks to Nancy Nowak's extraordinary knowledge, generosity, and skill as an instructor. Thank you, Nancy, for this wonderful learning experience.



​www.nancynowak.com

What a fantastic 3 days we had with Desmond!  Each day was filled with demos, time at our easels and talks about turning our art into a business and the tools for success.

Desmond started each day with a talk and or slide show to emphasize the importance of value, temperature shifts and intensity of color.  We then had time at our easels to practice with his expert help.  He offered individual critiques that were invaluable. Desmond also gave us insight on how to be our own best critic….one method was to simply turn the painting and reference image upside down to check our work!

On our second day, we had a wonderful field trip to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and took the opportunity to paint outdoors!  What an incredible venue!

As we sat in awe to watch him paint, he spoke about his method and reiterated the importance of seeing shapes and quality of line and color.

He willingly shared his knowledge on the current business climate for artists and how to best sell, frame and photograph our art work.

From the beginner to the experienced artist, he offered a thorough presentation for everyone!
By Donna Lynch

November 2 - 4, 2022
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Nancie King Mertz, a master pastelist, conducted our workshop from Nov. 2-4.  Twelve participants were mostly from the Tucson area, but a few came from New Mexico and Delaware.  Nancie has awards, honors, and recognition all over the United States as well as Europe, and we were honored to have her share some of her expertise with us.  Each day she completed a demonstration painting in under three hours that was radiantly gorgeous. 
 
Urban settings are her specialty, and she shared tips on how to paint city scenes, buildings, and steps.  She talked about sight line and how that makes a scene readable using vanishing points.  She used Richeson pastels and mounted UArt paper.   Her underpainting consisted of dark values, and she set those values with denatured alcohol and a fan brush using vertical strokes.  Next, she painted lights over darks and did not fuss over any details.  Also, she used the side of her pastel stick like a brush.  When she neared the completion of a painting, then the details were made with hard pastels.
 
A big thank you goes to Donna Lynch for bringing us this fascinating and gifted artist from Chicago.  Many beautiful paintings were produced by all.

                                                                                    by Ellen Cholski 

Mar 1-3, 2022

Thank you Phil for a wonderful, fun, and informative workshop.  We have a much better understanding of composition and how to build a painting with thumbnails and color sketches based on values.  We also explored using temperature to achieve the light and shadows.  And so much more..... 

March 14-16, 2019
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Hola Aline, 

What a great workshop!!!  I learned so much….have a hero; work top to bottom; hold the pastel with three fingers; simplify…simplify; use charcoal for first stage, block in colors, then refine; suggest forms; eliminate clutter….and much more.  You are such an accomplished artist and excellent teacher.  Thank you for coming all the way out to Tucson…perhaps San Miguel next??? 
​
Lorie Topinka (Attendee and member from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico)

Mar 8-10, 2018
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Mountains and Skies was a fabulous three-day workshop with an outstanding instructor.  The first day, we used photographic images of skies to create a pastel/alcohol underpainting by ‘seeing’ what the photograph hides. On day two, we ventured to Rio Vista Park on Tucson Ave. for a plein air event where Liz taught us to use a viewfinder to choose a scene to paint.  We created a thumbnail sketch of the scene and then did a value drawing of the scene on our paper using charcoal.  In the afternoon, we added pastel to our charcoal image and the results were amazing.  Since the values were already determined it was great fun to just add color.  On the third day, we worked with photographic images of mountains and skies, using all of the techniques we learned in the first two days.  With endless energy and enthusiasm, Liz shared her process for creating art.  She is truly a remarkable instructor and a wonderful person.  Thank you so much, Liz!

Jan 8 - 12, 2018

Pastel Innovations:  was an intense, fast paced and fun workshop that will changed the way we think about layering imagery, creating backgrounds, drawing, and incorporation non-traditional tools and techniques into our pastel painting.  Dawn had many guided exercises and mini demos will provided us with maximum time to work, share information, and inspire each other.  Dawns new book, "Pastel Innovations, " was  the text book for the class.  Great inspiration!

The first day was spent at beautiful Tohono Chul Park learning how to simplify the landscape by focusing on the light and shadow patterns and gathering reference material.  Then we spent the next two days painting in our building from field sketches and photos.  We discussed how to edit and modify reference material.  We worked on identifying the color and quality of light and may other aspects of working from field studies.

​Thank you so much, Christine, for a wonderful workshop.