The 5th Annual Pastel Live has wrapped up after several days of camaraderie, painting workshops and roundtables, paint-along sessions, and learning from the masters. Here’s a recap of the amazing demos from Friday in case you missed it!
“It’s been amazing! I’m so glad I have more time to go back and rewatch and paint more of these lessons,” said attendee Kathy B.
Highlights from Day 3 of Pastel Live
Using a limited palette with PanPastels and a variety of tools, Laurie Basham gave a floral painting demo. She said to start with a simple set of PanPastels, then, “Once you fall in love with them like me, you’ll have a couple hundred of them, just like pastels.” 🙂
Gail Sibley shared her process for painting one of her favorite subjects: the figure in a context, such as a person with their animal companion, friends in a cafe, or chefs at work. “Us humans are such interesting creatures,” she said. She showed us how to simplify a photo reference, explaining how and why she changed things, how she built layers with a limited palette, and more.
Albert Handell has authored five books, filmed numerous instruction videos with Streamline Publishing, and continues to inspire artists worldwide, including through this insightful session at Pastel Live. He splits his time between smaller outdoor studies and larger oil paintings in his Santa Fe studio.
Full disclosure: Lon Brauer is an oil painter through and through. He picked up pastels, however, a year ago. “I love it,” he said. “It’s fresh. It’s immediate. It’s relatively easy. Other than the dust it’s not really messy, and there are just some fun things you can do with it.”
For our final artist of the day, we had Bill Schneider, a master in portraiture, figurative work, and still life. His work is marked by sensitivity to light, mood, and the human condition. Bill has a background in fine arts but also draws on his experience as a professional musician to create artwork that evokes emotion and tells a story.
The next Pastel Live takes place September 15-17, 2027 (Plus essential techniques day September 14th). Register now at PastelLive.com to save your seat!
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