Part of what the convention is about is seeing old friends, meeting people I've "met" only through e-mail, and making entirely new friends. Old friends include Bob Rohm, Doug Dawson, Albert Handell, Anita Louise West, Maggie Price and members of the pastel societies I belong to. People I've only "met" through e-mail include my Pastel Journal editors, Anne Hevener and Sarah Strickley; Jamie Markle, editor for North Light Books; John Heilman of Heilman Designs; Kitty Wallis; Margaret Evans; and a whole bunch of people from WetCanvas, the on-line artists' forum. Finally, I count among my new friends Duane Wakeham, with whom I took a full-day masters' workshop, and Terry Ludwig, who gave me the following gift. It's a New Mexico chile, made out of purple pastel.
With a whole day left, I'm sure I'll see even more old friends, meet even more e-mail buddies, and make even more new friends. Tonight's the banquet, and I'll be seated with Jack Richeson of Richeson Art and my fellow Pastel Artists Canada members.
How've I spent the last few days? I've been in Duane's workshop, as noted above; I've watched demonstrations by Kim Lordier and Lorenzo Chavez; and I enjoyed The Pastel Journal's Tenth Anniversary party. Also, as I mentioned, I did two demonstrations. Both were on "Painting the Canadian Maritimes." I think people enjoyed my video and PowerPoint presentations, which took only 10 minutes out of my 2 hours. I think they also enjoyed the actual demonstration. In my first session, I had 51 attendees, and in my second, 47. That's nearly 100 people!
Here is the demonstration from the second session. It is 12x18 on Wallis paper (white). I used a greyscale underpainting, which I made with Gallery semi-hard grey pastels and alcohol.
Now, it's time to dresss for the banquet!
