What a week it has been.

I spent three days with the Arkansas Pastel Society taking a workshop with Tom Christopher. I took his workshop last year and I’ve been applying his techniques for adding texture to my landscape paintings. I decided to take the workshop again as I wanted to focus on; 1) tactics for applying pastel to the texture, 2) what to do if the drips of paint are too heavy or land in the wrong place, and 3) the paper towel dabbing technique. Tom talked about the importance of strong value studies, so I worked on three of them, one I added color to. Something I learned from the first workshop, we are not there to create a finished painting, rather to look at each painting as an opportunity to learn and practice. However, sometimes we do walk away with paintings that we can finish in the studio. I’ll post again if I finish any of these four studies.

Friday evening was the APS National Show Opening Reception at Laman Library, North Little Rock, AR. I was honored to have my painting “Glisten” accepted into the juried show. The show judge was Tom Christopher.

The best moment was accepting the Arkansas Pastel Society Signature Membership. This status is earned by volunteering in the society, good standing membership, and the number of points earned by my paintings being accepted/awarded in juries shows. It is an honor and humbling to be a part of this group of talented and diverse artists.