Pastel Demonstration: Should You Paint the Background First?

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*Never AI, always human. Any errors are my own.*

Here's my latest demo for paid subscribers of my Substack column. If you're not a subscriber, it's only the cost of one cup of coffee a month! Cheap! Every Sunday! https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/should-you-paint-the-background-first

Spruce Woods: A Pastel Demonstration

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*Never AI, always human. Any errors are my own.*

Here's a pastel demonstration! https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/p/spruce-woods-a-pastel-demonstration

Plein Air Painting Essentials: A Painting Knife for Pastel

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**Authentically Human! Not Written by AI**

Yes, you CAN use a painting knife with pastel!  Find out more here. 

Report: North Carolina Pastel Workshop

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When we set up to paint early in the day, we didn't realize
that this was the "kiddie pool" end of the creek!  Some of the
kids and most of the parents came over to admire our work.

As part of my cross-country trip from New Mexico to Campobello Island, I stopped in North Carolina to teach a plein air workshop in pastel. Run in conjunction with the annual statewide pastel exhibition, which I judged, the workshop was held in the beautiful mountains around Asheville and Black Mountain. Under the sponsorship of the Appalachian Pastel Society, several of us ventured out in the perfect weather to paint streams, trees and mountain views.  I say “perfect weather,” meaning that it didn't rain, but even the locals in the group declared it a tad warm.  Fortunately, the workshop coordinator brought bottles of water for us—much needed, even though we always managed to find shade.  Thank you to everyone who organized the event, and to the students who never scattered too far from the teacher!

Now I'm comfortably settled at my studio on Campobello Island.  Two summers have passed since I was last here—I'm having a ball going through the studio, remembering paintings, gear and materials that I'd forgotten about.  I'll have some new paintings to post soon.  But in the meantime, some photos and demos from the workshop!

Shadowy rocks in the creek demo 9x12 pastel

Early morning sunlight on the lake demo 9x12 pastel

Shadowy path through the the trees
demo 12x9 pastel

How to paint a tree demo 12x9 pastel

A challenging subject: the arched bridge
over the stream, mostly in shadow with
a lot of stuff going on thereabouts demo
12x9 pastel

Encounter: Interview with Kim Lordier

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Watch the interview here

As part of my ongoing series of interviews with artists who participated in my new book,  I recently interviewed California artist and pastel painter Kim Lordier.  Kim holds top designations in several organizations, including Signature Memberships in the California Art Club, the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association and the Pastel Society of America, as well as Distinguished Pastelist in the Pastel Society of the West Coast.  Her award-winning paintings have been shown  in many major exhibitions such as the Coors Western Art Show, and they have been published in magazines and books.  Kim also teaches workshops across the US.  (Visit www.KimFancherLordier.com for more.)

I first met Kim years ago at my first IAPS (International Association of Pastel Societies) convention in Santa Fe.  I hope to see her again in person this May, again in Santa Fe, at the Plein Air Convention and Expo.  We are both on the faculty. I'm very pleased that Kim agreed to be in my book and to sitting for the interview.  Thank you, Kim!

You can watch all the interviews on this playlist. 

In case you haven't heard about my book, it features 15 master artists who share their tips and techniques for plein air painting.  This 160-page book is packed with demonstrations, illustrations and, of course, beautiful paintings.  The book, which will come out March 2022, is available for pre-order from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  You can get details at the following links:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1684620457

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beautiful-landscape-painting-outdoors-michael-chesley-johnson/1140004875?ean=9781684620456 

Winter's End: Pastel Demonstration Video

Pastel Demonstration for Pastel Society of New Mexico
"Winter's End" 12x16 Pastel on Art Spectrum Paper
See the Video Here

Earlier this month, the Pastel Society of New Mexico invited me to give a demonstration at its monthly meeting.  I've done this for the group before, but in person, on stage.  This time, I had to do it via Zoom from my studio because the Albuquerque Museum, where the meetings have been held in the past, still isn't permitting group meetings.  As always, I eagerly accepted and immediately went about figuring out how I was going to set up a broadcast studio in my painting studio.

Fortunately, I had the gear I needed—a tripod plus a phone-holding gizmo and a couple of good LED lamps.  I also was able to arrange my easel so I wouldn't knock over my phone every time I took a step.  (I tend to bump into things when I get excited about laying down a particularly virtuosic pastel stroke.)  The only limitation I feared was my Internet connection, which one might imagine as a trickle coming out of a somewhat clogged bit of plumbing.   But as luck would have it, the trickle never stopped, and I was able to share my entire process.

The Pastel Society is gracious enough to let the public see the finished, recorded videos from its meetings.  I'd like to share mine with you.  It's only a little over an hour, and I hope you find it enjoyable and informative.  Click here to see the video. (In the video, the blues are a bit over-saturated, no doubt from my smartphone's processing.)

How I Carry a Small Pastel En Plein Air

9x12 PanelPak with the 8x8 Multimedia Artboard
pastel panel taped to the inside; Blue Earth Pastels'
Nomad pastel set

The artist's tape is looped behind the panel

Oil painters have all sorts of ways to carry wet paintings from the field back to the studio.  Pastel painters, not so many.  My usual method is to make a “sandwich” of two sheets of foam board.  Each sheet has a piece of pastel paper taped to it followed by a sheet of glassine.  These two boards then get sandwiched face-to-face and clipped together.  It's a neat solution, but I get a little tired of wrestling the glassine, especially if there's any wind.

So here's another solution.  I'm fond of PanelPaks for bringing my wet oil paintings back from the field.  But I can use them for pastel, too.  For one recent outing, I wanted to create an 8x8 pastel painting on one of Multimedia Artboard's pastel boards with Blue Earth Pastel's “Nomad” plein air set.  

But rather than my usual foam board-and-glassine method, I simply put two unused oil painting panels in the PanelPak and then taped the 8x8 pastel board on the inside of one with artist's tape.  This secured the pastel board to the inside of the closed-up PanelPak, making for a handy package to stuff in my backpack.

Here are the relevant web sites:

www.panelpak.com
www.multimediaartboard.com
www.blueearthpastels.com

Here's the finished sketch:

Cliff Study, 8x8, pastel

En Plein Air Pro: Pastel Plein Air System

The En Plein Air Pro Pastel Easel System

It's been a few years since I reviewed En Plein Air Pro's oil and acrylic system.  Now I have a new setup to tell you about:  the En Plein Air Pro pastel system.  If you're a pastel artist who likes to paint on-location, this well-designed package offers everything you need for a successful outing.  Unlike some systems that make you undertake a series of yoga poses when putting everything together, this one sets up easily and quickly.  On my test runs with it, I had everything ready to go in about five minutes.  Here are a few things I'd like to highlight.

First, the pastel palette.  The durable plastic box, divided into six sections, is lined with foam pads to protect up to 108 of your precious pastel sticks.  (Or many more, if you're like me and hang on to those little, well-loved nubs.) What I like best about the box, though, are the two extendable wings, one on each end.  I'm always searching for a place to lay the sticks that I have selected, and the wings solve that problem.  What's more, they have a series of grooves to hold the sticks so they don't roll off into the grass.   By the way, the lid of the box can function as a sunshade.  With the included bungee cord, it attaches to the tripod to keep sun off your pastels, making it easier to judge color value.  The box “hangs” on the tripod legs for comfortable access.

Next, the aluminum panel holder.  The holder attaches to the head of the tripod with a quick release plate, giving great flexibility in your working angle.  Two ABS brackets hold your backboard securely but swing out of the way for compact storage.  The brackets can hold boards anywhere from 6”x8” to  22” tall.  One of my favorite features is the dust ledge.  This metal piece piece screws quickly to the panel holder just below the bottom bracket, and it's wide enough to catch most of the dust that falls.

One of the problems I've run into with some systems is an inadequate tripod.  Pastel painters can put quite a bit of pressure on the work surface, and not all tripods, especially the ones with plastic heads, are up to it.  En Plein Air Pro comes with the Slik U8000 tripod, which is perfect for this setup.  Although it does have a plastic head, in my test sessions it held up under attack.  I was able to paint quickly and with abandon but without having to worry about the board twisting.

Finally, there's the heavy duty backpack.  When you open up the box, it looks like just a nicely-tailored black bag with a couple of carrying handles and lots of straps for securing extras to. (The tripod, by the way, fits neatly inside.)  But concealed inside a zippered pouch are two shoulder straps and a waist strap, should you decide to convert it into a backpack.  So, you can either hike with it on your back, or you can carry it by its handles.

I enjoyed working with this new system, and I recommend it for beginners because of its ease of set-up but also for experienced painters because of its handy features and stability.  The system is now available at www.enpleinairpro.com 

Pastel palette, showing grooved 
side trays and cover used as sunshade

Panel holder with my backboard in 
place; dust ledge beneath

The pastel palette closed and stored with bungie cord

The bag converts quickly
and easily into a backpack.

The bag

Pack with hidden backpack straps revealed

I've Looked At Clouds from Both Sides Now

"Build Up" 8x10 Oil - $200 unframed
Cloud as subject

Joni Mitchell was clearly speaking about one's life experience in her song, “Both Sides Now,” but every time I hear it, I think of painting.  (Did you know Mitchell is also a painter?)  I, too, have looked at clouds from both sides—and from every possible angle a painter can.

I often get the question:  How do you paint clouds?  Because there are so many different types of clouds, there are so many answers.  Meteorological classifications like stratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, etc., aside, it all really comes down to what one's goal is in painting clouds.  Are you painting clouds as the subject—or are you painting them as just another set of elements in the composition?

Painting them as a subject requires you to know and understand them.  How they build up, how they move, how they vanish.  Painting them as just another set of elements doesn't require such an intimate knowledge, but it helps.

I love to paint clouds and have a long relationship with them.  Lots of beginning painters, however, don't really look at clouds but often just put something white and puffy in the sky, hoping to fill up all that empty blue space.  Many times, they remind me of airborne sheep.

To paint clouds realistically, you really have to go out and, well, paint them.  Or sketch them.  Make them the subject of the painting.  I like to go out with a pencil and sketchbook to sketch the cloud shapes.  Here are some clouds I sketched with a 6B pencil from my back deck:

When you sketch or paint clouds, you have to remember that the sunlit portions of the clouds are brighter than anything in your scene.  And guess what?  So are the shadowed parts.  If you squint, the sunlit and shadowed areas merge and look like simple, big, bright blots against the sky.  If your goal is to make the clouds look menacing, you might push the shadowed areas darker, but I still would avoid going so dark that they move into the light/dark range you have established for the rest of the painting.  (I do this sometimes to push the effect.)

The more you sketch—and thus, observe and learn about—clouds, you'll start to see a rhythm or a dynamic quality to the patterning of groups of clouds.  Even ones that at first seem like they are randomly placed will have some movement to them.  It's the wind that pushes them, and pilots will tell you there is always a wind aloft.

If clouds aren't the subject of my painting but are there to serve as supporting characters, I feel free to redesign them so they make a pleasing composition.  I'll also feel free to change their direction of movement.  I often like to include opposing diagonals in my paintings; this makes for a painting with more energy.  Also, make sure the direction of movement of your clouds doesn't parallel some other major direction in your painting.  If the slope of a mountain goes down, I like my clouds to move on a diagonal going up.

And what about that blue, empty sky?  Should you invent a cloud to make it more interesting?  Well, why not?  You're the creator.  But remember, the cloud or clouds need to support your design in some way.  Also, watch the color temperature of your shadows in the land area when you begin to invent clouds.  Clouds will bounce light into the land-based shadows. The more clouds you have, the lighter your shadows will be—and also the warmer.  The clouds will block that cool, blue color of the sky light from spilling into the shadows, thus resulting in a warmer effect.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

With practice, you can get to know clouds pretty well!

Here are more clouds.  First, cloud as subject:

Clouds I - 6x8 oil - $100 unframed

Clouds II - 6x8 - $100 unframed

Buildup - 6x9- $100 unframed

And now, clouds as supporting actors:

A Summer's Idyll - 9x12 Pastel - $300 unframed
A gentle "scrim" of clouds in the distance seem peaceful

Evening Cliffs - 12x16 Oil - $700 framed
The upward diagonal of the cloud opposes the downward one of the cliff

Lifting Fog at Dawn - 11x14 oil - $700 framed
The clouds almost become the subject...but not quite!

Morning in Mallaig - 14x18 Oil - $900 framed
Again, opposing diagonals

Paso Por Aqui - 9x12 - $400 framed
A pleasing patchwork of clouds

The Watchman - 9x12 oil - $400 framed
A single cloud to give distance behind the peak

**Prices good until 1 Sept 2020

Working with Pastel, Oil Paint and Cold Wax Medium—in One Painting!

Finished 12x14 pastel/oil/cold wax 

Back in the winter—back before the pandemic—our local art group embarked on a series of life drawing sessions. We managed to get just one under our belts before the world collapsed upon itself. Well, the other day, while looking over my sketches, I realized that a couple had potential. With the hot weather driving me into the studio in the afternoons, I decided to take one and make something of it.

I had in mind that I wanted to try an idea I've had about pastel. Pastel is what I call a “crossover” medium. You can draw with it, or you can paint with it. In drawing, one makes marks with the point or edge of the pastel stick; in painting, one makes marks with the broad side. I especially like the way a pastel painting can have all sorts of scratchy “drawn” marks beneath a more painterly application. The drawing remains, showing some of the artist's process. I wondered if I could find a way to retain the drawing aspect of pastel while combining it with oil paint and cold wax medium. I decided to give it a try.

First, I needed to transfer my sketch to a painting surface. Because I didn't want to damage the original sketch, which was done with soft vine charcoal on newsprint, I photographed it, converted it to grayscale, maximized the contrast, and then printed it out in a size appropriate for my 12x14 panel. (The panel, by the way, I had already prepared with one layer of acrylic gesso, one of Gamblin's PVA size, and then two of Art Spectrum Clear Pastel Primer.) I coated the back of this print with a thin layer of compressed charcoal, placed it “dirty side” down on my panel, and used a pencil to trace the major lines. This transferred a thin charcoal outline to my panel.

Here's the original vine charcoal sketch on newsprint:

Here's the high-contrast, grayscale version:

Next, using a dark pastel, I refined the drawing and darkened lines so I could see them better. After this, I blocked in my major color masses with Pan Pastels. And then the fun began. I needed to fix the pastel so it wouldn't be disturbed by the application of oil paint and cold wax. To do this, I:

1. Heavily sprayed the underpainting with matte fixative, but not so much as to liquefy the pastel and make it run; then
2. Brushed on a coat of Gamblin's Galkyd Lite.

Once the Galkyd Lite was dry, I found it had completely sealed the pastel. I was pleased to see that all my interesting little marks were still quite visible. Here's the painting in this state:

From here, I proceeded to paint on top of all this with Gamblin's cold wax medium and oil paint. Here's the finished painting:

And some detail:

I like the effect of the textured wax and touches of oil paint against the pastel underpainting, but I'm not sure I'll take the painting any further. One could, of course, but the risk is that the drawing will become more and more obscured with paint and wax. But the experiment worked, and I'm sure I'll try this again. Maybe you'll give it a try!

Painting New Mexico's High Desert

Find the Painter!
At La Ventana Natural Arch

Jack strapped on his backpack, eager to paint.  This 76-year-old rheumatologist, though he continues to practice medicine full-time, has a passion for painting, and he freed up a week to join me for last week's Private Painting Intensive.  On this day, under crystal blue skies, we made our way from the parking lot and down a single-track gravel road to a view of my favorite lake and its unique, candy-striped cliffs.  We stopped at the first scenic spot we came across and set down our packs.  Red willow and poplar edged the water, gently riffled by a breeze.  Coots croaked and squawked among the islands of pickerel weed.  A couple of mallards sounded the alarm, erupting into the air.  But otherwise, we were alone in that beautiful spot.

Later in the week, we visited other special places.  We painted the white cliffs of Inscription Rock; the butterscotch-colored outcrops near La Ventana Natural Arch; and on a private ranch nestled against the foot of the Zuni Mountains with a broad view of grassland and ponderosa-studded mesas.  Painting doesn't get any better.

Each week of the Private Painting Intensive has a different focus, depending on the student.  After a consultation, I create a plan tailored to the student's needs.  ("Needs" combines what the student thinks he needs with what I think he needs. These "needs" may be different or overlap.)  My job this week was to help Jack, who has a terrific color sense, get a better handle on values and to show him how to gather good field references so he could continue work later in his studio.  One day, we started off with a quick, grey-scale sketch (using Gamblin's Portland Greys) to help us understand what was happening with values, followed by a full-color sketch.  Another day, we did what I call "center of interest" painting, where we avoid the common practice of working the canvas all over but focus instead on the subject, placing color note against color note, striving to get the relationships correct right from the start.  In this post, I've shared some photos as well as images of my paintings from the week.

If you're an experienced painter and would like help in reaching the next level, I still have weeks available next spring.  In this customized program, you'll be working side-by-side with me and getting lots of attention.  I'll also be sharing my world, which sits among the piñons and ponderosa pines of New Mexico's high desert.  The program takes two forms—a tuition-only version ($700) and a version in which you lodge and eat with us ($1400.)  If you'd like more information, please visit http://paintthesouthwest.com/sched_int.html

And please don't forget my April 7-10, 2020, plein air painting workshop in Sedona, Arizona.  This is for any painter who has some experience in the studio but who is a beginner at painting outdoors, and also for experienced outdoor painters who'd like to fine-tune their skills.  Details are at http://paintthesouthwest.com/sched_reg.html

The grey study (top) and color study (bottom)
12x9 Oil

Charlie's Ranch - 6x12 Oil - Available

Near Los Gigantes - 9x12 Oil - Available

Raven Cliffs - 12x9 Oil - Available

Southern Cliffs - 9x12 Oil - Available

The Technical and the Painter

Einstein might have enjoyed the technical side of painting.
But he was busy doing other things.

In my plein air painting workshops, I often have students who are not professional painters.  Painting is, for them, a pleasant pastime yet something they do want to get better at.  Some are thinking of retiring and looking for an endeavor they might pursue in what one might call the “next life”; others have retired and already are deep into that pursuit.  I always enjoy asking them what they do (or did) for a living.

Interestingly, many of them enjoyed technical careers.  It's not unusual for me to have at least one doctor or nurse in my workshops.  (I especially am glad to have on board someone in a medical profession—hiking around outdoors to paint can be a risky business, and you never know when you might need someone like that.)  Over the years, I've had not only doctors and nurses but also architects, engineers, computer programmers, field biologists and even a couple of pilots who helicoptered into Eastport, Maine, for my workshop.

The technical types often ask technical questions.  Sometimes we get into the fat-over-lean rule of oil painting and why it's not applicable to alla prima painting.  Or we discuss what pigments are used in pastel and what PR83 stands for.  Or we talk about how north light temperature averages at 7000°K and why (or why not) that's important.  I do try to limit these discussions so that the non-technical types don't glaze over with boredom.

But I like to tell my students that painting can be as technical as they wish.  If the technical side interests them, they can spend a lifetime learning about it.  And if it doesn't, they can spend a lifetime just enjoying the activity of painting.  Either can provide a very rich experience for many years.  At the very most, all you need to do is learn a few simple concepts.  You don't need to read the technical guide.

Some days, I like to research the technical.  Other days, I just like to pick up a brush and go.