A Gladiolus for Pastel Painting Class

Here's a reference photo of gladiolus blooms for my Painting Flowers with Pastels class at the Community College of Beaver County tonight.

And here's my demonstration piece from class:

Happy Creating!

Painting Flowers with Pastels Final Week

In the final week of my class Painting Flowers with Pastels, I picked zinnias, Queen Anne's lace, mint & clover from my own gardens and fields for my students to paint.  Here's my classroom demonstration sketch.

I used a combination of Rembrandt, Grumbacher, Schmincke and Sennelier soft pastels -- a collection of materials I have picked up secondhand at places like the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.

I have a habit of bringing in a variety of different brands of materials to my classes, and inviting my students to try them out.  I think it's valuable to "test-drive" high quality art supplies before investing in them.  

I must admit, the few Sennelier pastels in my collection are a dream to work with -- soft, with dense, rich colors.

I hope you'll join me for an art class.  The Community College of Beaver County schedule of fall classes is online and open for sign-ups.  You can find my art classes here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts

Painting Flowers with Pastels

I've been teaching a class in painting flowers with pastels at the Community College of Beaver County.  

Each week, I buy flowers for class, and bring in pastel paper to match.  We sketch and paint the flowers while listening to classical music. 

The first class we had gorgeous fuchsia & yellow lilies.  We practiced drawing them on brown craft paper, and then switched to Canson Mi Teintes pastel paper.

In each class, I demonstrate the process of beginning the drawing, then adding colors and finishing with details.

This week, we drew bright, summery sunflowers. The rich oranges and yellows felt inspiring and sunny.

If you'd like to take a class with me, check out my classes page here:

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/p/online-art-classes.html

More Pastel Paintings of Flowers

Another week in Painting Flowers with Pastels, another painting.  

The recent rains have created a bounty of blooms to clip and bring into class on Saturday mornings.  And, this week, I also brought in some potted Wave Petunia plants.

Focusing only on the bright fuchsia blossoms of the petunias became meditative & relaxing. A simple background of bold colors finished the study an made the flowers pop.

I hope your summer includes some time to meditate on beauty and paint to your heart's content!