Readying for a Pastel Demo Saturday

Three Pears and Dish WIP 11 x 14 (without stripes)

Three Pears and Dish WIP 11 x 14 (with stripes)

I was asked to do a demo from 11-1 at South Union Gallery tomorrow during the luncheon for the Annual Garden Tour. I don't have to do a presentation, just paint. So I spent today preparing a piece so that I can "just paint", and answer the occasional question.

I think I'll probably get lots of questions from those that know me as a colored pencil artist when I whip out the pastels.

This is from the photo I took below while posting about using my little black box as a photo shoot tool. I'm turning it into an 11 x 14 on Ampersand Pastelbord with soft pastels.

Here is the first layer of color, I have smooshed the background and the cloth on front. But I wanted to post the preliminary strokes on the pears so you could see my method of getting the pastel on the board just to get it covered. I will be smooshing the pears as the first part of the painting demo tomorrow.

I'm showing two versions here as I am considering the stripes becoming drapery in the background, I think the vertical lines help the composition. The "drapes" may end up being a different color....I just wanted to see if they helped or hindered. That's what I love about pastel, a flick of the hand, and "voila!"....your changes are in place or covered up.