Quick Weekend Pastel Workshop in Ohio

First a Thank You Note to, friend and fellow artist, Kristen Dukat: for giving me and Trish(another art friend from Kentucky) another reason to travel to the state of Ohio yet again this year!  Also for such a calm, zen, uneventful weekend of art and friends, lol. Your the best! Also thank you Jarad, for giving us your apartment for the weekend!!

Thank You, Mary Jane Erard  for the quick fun filled workshop last weekend in Toledo Ohio at the lovely Botanical Gardens. We shared some laughs with our classmates and Mary Jane's trusty sidekick Sandra!  Mary Jane is going to start the workshop as a regular monthly class.  It was fun working in pastel again and Mary Jane had us start on a black ground, which made for richer deeper paintings.

Here is Mary Jane Erard info:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/mary-jane-erard.html

The Toledo Artists' Club sponsored the workshop and is part of the Toledo Botanical Gardens, which has some beautiful scenery and a great place for a workshop.

http://www.toledoartistclub.com/page3/

I'm Starting to Settle into the Class

Our model, young Alyana was a great for this day's pose and she was checking on us to make sure we were on track ( her father was an artist in class).  During class I had made the lines of her face too hard, so I went back in and soften them.  I still can't seem to finish a pose durning the three hours of class. I do take a pic but I don't want to over work these, so I try not to look at the pic.

Just Paint!

This was the day in class when I thought. I'm starting to get it. Three hours is not very long do I did go back into this and worked her skin and decided to add a little more red to her hair. I was finally happy that I was making some progress. I was starting to just paint!! Some times we forget to just paint when we are in a new or different situation!

After Block-in of Figure

Yes I'm Sitting Here
18 x 24 Oil on Canvas

This is where it went after the block in. I like the figure but have made a few changes to the background and it showing busier than it looks. This was after two class sessions, thankfully we had six hours and we needed every minute!

Started the block in today. I will work on this during the week and hope to finish next week during second sitting in class.
The model was funny and even she made our class brownies with hazelnuts. She promised to make yet a different treat next week for the second sitting!