Pastel workshop overview :: Deb Quinn-Munson

Saturday, St Patrick's Day, Foxboro Art Association offered a pastel workshop with Deb Quinn-Munson. The focus was on underpainting and Deb demonstrated the technique of underpainting with oil for a pastel painting. Very interesting and vibrant!

Cindy Kerr listens to Deb's demo

Those in attendance were privy to a plethora of helpful information about painting, composition, underpainting options, etc. Deb even provided each participating artist with a sample piece of Ampersand PastelBord. How wonderful free gifts are! 

Deb mixes her underpainting colors in oil. 

Deb is an acclaimed artist and was well-known to many workshop participants. She's been the cover artist for the Artist's magazine and will be featured in an article in the same magazine this coming fall. 

The cover was beautiful and only the light on the water
and the boater is done in pastel - the rest is oil underpaiting! 

Deb is a consummate professional and came to the workshop thoroughly prepared with examples of her planned demonstration. Watching her develop her sheet of blank Wallis paper to nearly the level of completed pastel she brought to show us was a wonderful learning experience for everyone there.

Deb's pastel demo on easel and the completed piece near the window. 

Personally I was so busy working I didn't get to take photos of everyone working or their individual pieces except for this one of Kathy working on her successful venture and mine below. 

Kathy Hutchinson's successful workshop creation. 

Kim Weineck's workshop creation. What fun this was! 

Some pearls of wisdom from the workshop:

Put as little pastel on the piece as you can. 

Use a light touch at the beginning.

Flirt with applying the pastel at the onset. 

To remove a mistaken application of pastel, just brush it off. 

No color exists in a vacuum. 

Something is appealing about lighter colors on top of darker ones. 

Skies are good places to experiment with color. 

Always watch shapes and marks you create. 

Museum glass is wonderful but expensive. 

Think about the re-doing something as losing it and finding it again. 

Move around the painting so things develop at a consistent pace. 

Go for it and don't be afraid!

Blue tape can adversely affect your color decisions. 

Remove the wrappers to your pastels and break them up!

Color gets all the glory. Value does all the work. 

Start with the focal point. Don't paint yourself into a corner. 

Thank you, Nancy Bacevich, for organizing this fantastic day!