Pastel Podcast Episode 7: Lorenzo Chavez
Lorenzo Chavez is a landscape painter whose work is rooted in the light, color, and atmosphere of the American Southwest. With a professional career spanning more than four decades, Lorenzo’s journey from pencil-and-paper sketching to gallery shows, plein air adventures, and teaching offers a clear roadmap for artists seeking to deepen their practice in pastel and oil.
From Early Sketches to a Life in Art
Lorenzo’s first public show happened in high school and set a course he never abandoned. He explains that drawing faces early on fueled his interest in observation and accuracy. A move to Denver to attend the Colorado Institute of Art led him into commercial art and graphic design, which he embraced as a practical path while still sketching and painting on the side.
Several chance meetings broadened his horizons. Working on illustrations for United Airlines introduced him to private collectors and established painters, and a one-man show hosted by Denver artist Paul Connelly led to gallery representation. That opening weekend coincided with his wedding — and with selling half the show — which launched his career as a fine artist.
Mediums, Mentors, and the Turn to Pastel
Lorenzo experimented with many media in school — pencil, watercolor, acrylic, oil, gouache, pen and ink, and pastel. He credits formative encounters with artists such as Mark Daly, Ramon Kelley, Desmond O’Hagen, Dan Young, and later friendships with makers like Terry Ledwig for moving him toward landscapes and pastels.
Two moments stand out as turning points toward pastel and plein air work:
- Reading Richard Schmid’s writing about landscape and the line that called pastel “one of the most difficult of mediums” — a challenge he embraced.
- Learning systems of color and value from peers, particularly the intensive color-chart exercises adapted from the American Academy method, which made pastel organization and color mixing outdoors feel achievable.
The Color-Chart Revelation and Terry Ludwig
Lorenzo describes a practical revelation: the oil-paint color charts he and friends made — mixing each tube color with white and then intermixing colors across a palette — became a recipe for building a portable pastel system. The Reubens palette he referenced included the following core pigments:
- Cadmium yellow
- Yellow ochre
- Cadmium red
- Terra rosa
- Alizarin crimson
- Burnt sienna
- Viridian
- Cobalt blue
- Ultramarine blue
- Ivory black
Working with Terry Ludwig — who began handcrafting pastels and experimenting with recipes and packaging — meant Lorenzo could rely on tailor-made pastel colors and innovative formats like soft square pastels, which solved practical plein air problems such as sticks rolling off easels. Early handmade boxes, even cigar-box sets and foam-core trays, became tools of invention in the field.
Tools and a Portable Plein Air System
Lorenzo emphasizes practicality for plein air pastel work. He traded heavy, full 300-color sets for a compact, organized box built by a friend. His system aligns pastels in a logical sequence of color families and value steps, reflecting the color-chart logic he learned from oil practice. Small, foldable wooden boxes that hold a curated selection of sticks let him work outdoors without excess weight or clutter.
Paper choice matters. Lorenzo’s long-time favorite is Canson Moonstone, smooth side, but he also experiments with UART paper when teaching or testing new surfaces. He teaches both pastel and oil workshops, and weather can influence medium: after moving to Eugene, Oregon, with frequent rain and mist, he returned to oils for many outdoor sessions.
Approaching Plein Air: Design, Simplification, and Value
Landscape painting outdoors presents two main challenges: narrowing the complexity of the scene and translating shifting light and color into a coherent picture. Lorenzo approaches plein air with a set of guiding principles that help him select and compose successful paintings:
- See less to see more. Start by simplifying the scene: block it into large shapes rather than details.
- Use notan. Reduce the subject to a light and dark design to find the major value relationships.
- Apply the four value planes. Simplify into sky, distant planes (mountains), upright planes (trees, structures), and ground plane. Treat each as a basic shape to control value and depth.
- Use compositional stems. Tools like Edgar Payne’s composition stems help rearrange and emphasize elements. Lorenzo notes that classic painters moved or altered elements to suit the composition: “You can move things.”
- Value before color. He advises students to paint a value study first and then introduce color, because color can distract from the clear value structure that makes a painting hold together.
“Follow values and color as accurately as possible but change shapes and change the design,” Lorenzo explains. If a focal point does not naturally exist, shift or emphasise elements so the viewer’s eye has a clear place to rest.
Visual Language and the Artist’s Mindset
One of Lorenzo’s pedagogical themes is teaching artists to think in the visual language of painting — shape, line, value, edge, texture, and color. He asks students to stop naming objects (“house,” “tree”) and instead analyze the visual components that make up those objects: “What is its edge? Is it hard or soft?”
This shift from object-based thinking to element-based thinking is similar to how musicians describe rhythm or how writers learn structure. Lorenzo points to exercises that can flip perception into this more pictorial mode — squinting to simplify values, turning images upside down for drawing exercises, and training the eye to compare values against a standard.
Practical Comparisons for Value Training
Two simple plein air tools he recommends:
- A small square of black felt and a white linen square set on the easel. Use these to compare values in the landscape and spot subtle color shifts in seemingly neutral areas.
- Squinting and photography as aids for seeing major shapes and value planes before adding detail.
Teaching, Workshops, and the Importance of Drawing
Lorenzo teaches workshops across the country in both pastel and oil. He stresses foundational practice: sketch daily and keep a sketchbook. He recounts advice from a mentor who would ask, “Are you drawing enough?” for any problem the artist faced. The answer is always to draw more. That habit forms the foundation of accurate observation and confidence in the studio and outdoors.
He also recommends filling the well of inspiration. When the studio practice becomes stale, step outside, visit galleries, read art books, or go on a short painting trip to refresh the visual and emotional reservoir artists draw from.
Studio Rituals and Getting Started
To overcome inertia in the studio, Lorenzo uses simple rituals:
- Create a curated deck of reference cards. Shuffle and commit to painting the first image you reveal.
- Maintain subject-specific notebooks or “morgues” with references by region or theme — desert, winter, seascapes — to make starting a manageable decision.
- Work in short focused sessions and treat some studio time like plein air: accept constraints and respond quickly.
Recommended Books and Influences
Lorenzo names several books and artists that shaped his thinking:
- Richard Schmid — for his writing on plein air painting and the notion of pastel as a noble challenge.
- Edgar Payne — especially for composition and moving elements to serve pictorial design.
- John F. Carlson — for the four value-plane approach.
- Leonard Richmond — Essentials of Landscape Composition, for simplified shape studies.
- Works by Ramon Kelley, Quang Ho, Mark Daly, and other Denver-area painters who influenced his training and approach.
Practical Tips and Exercises
- Start every outdoor session by simplifying the scene into notan or four planes.
- Carry a compact, organized pastel kit that reflects color families and value shifts rather than a huge, heavy set.
- Practice color charts: mix core colors with white and intermix them to understand hue and value relationships.
- Train the eye by comparing values to a black square and a white square placed on the easel.
- Keep drawing. Lorenzo’s mentors insisted that consistent drawing practice is the most reliable way to improve.
Final Thoughts: Zest, Gusto, and the Joy of Painting
Lorenzo closes with a reminder that technique is vital but so is attitude. He cites a line he learned from writers that he adapted for painters: roughly half of an artist’s success is “zest” or passion for the work. He encourages artists to paint with emotion — whether joy, anger, or wonder — and to remember the pleasure of spending time with color and light.
“Fifty percent of an artist’s success is their zest or gusto for what they are doing.” — Lorenzo Chavez
For landscape painters and pastel artists, Lorenzo’s path offers a mixture of disciplined practice, thoughtful composition, and an adventurous, playful approach to materials. From carefully organized pastel kits to compositional stems, from value training to the daily habit of drawing, his methods give practical steps that can transform how artists see and paint the world outdoors.
