Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cover images:
Top Jam Session
by Dorothea Schulz.
BottomPeep-Bo
by Julie Hodgson
Inside this
issue:
Editorial,
Creative Bubbles
S e p t e m b e r
2 0 1 4
P a s t e l
G u i l d
o f
E u r o p e
Editorial Scribble
There are a multitude of things to think
about when you paint in a representational style, arent there? Take edges for
example; there are many otherwise excellent paintings that get a hard and incohesive look, because all edges are too
hard and sharp.
Julie Hodgson writes about how she focused on making varied edges when
painting "The Young Farmer" and inspires us to greater edge awareness.
My approach to still
life painting
Dorothea Schultz
12
14
The theme for the Bubbles was Out of your comfort zone...
The winner is Lynn Howarth with her landscape, Crossroads
Workshop report
16
Members News
18
19
Charlotte Herczfeld
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
The Summer competition which ran over two months, attracted a lot of entries and provided
fierce competition for the top places, and an unenviable task for our judge. Have a look at all the
entries here http://www.pastelguild.org/index.php?
view=category&catid=154&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=15
We thank Jackie Simmonds, who, once again, very kindly agreed to act as judge. You can
read a little about Jackie and see some of her recent artwork here.
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
JACKIE SIMMONDS
Our guest judge for the summer Get Dusty
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
This second example is a portrayal of my grandson. Here I tried to soften and lose edges mainly
through my use of colour; ie green into blue and
blue into green. Letting colours overlap and blend
into each other seemed a great way to create the
lost and found effect I was looking for. I purposely let the outline of his face remain defined
because I wanted to determine his head as the
focal point to portray his happy character!
Peep Bo
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
Dorothea Schulz
My approach to still life painting
Setting up and painting a still-life is a great exercise in composition and design. The stilllife artist is master of his composition from start to finish. He alone decides how to
arrange the elements, what to include and what to leave out or from which direction the
light should fall. There are a few tools which make life easier for the still-life painter and a
few rules one should keep in mind.
1. Preparation
If you're lucky you'll find a well-lit spot near a window where you can set-up
your still-life in natural daylight. But the sun moves and with it the shadows,
clouds cover the sun and the shadows disappear. Another problem occurs
when there is more than one window in the room. With multiple light sources
and light coming from different directions things tend to get difficult.
For this reason many still-life painters use a shadow box. A simple version is
very easy to build. It not only gives you a 'frame' for your set-up but it allows
you to control the access of light. You need:
A big, sturdy cardboard box
A can of black acrylic, matte spraypaint
A cutter
Spray the inside of the box black; you will probably need at least two layers of
paint.
Cut two slits of about 15 cm length into
both upper back corners; you can use
them to fix a drapery behind your set-up.
Cut a window flap (appr. 20x30 cm) into
one side of the box. It enables you to light
your setup from the side.
Photo 1: Shadow Box
2. Lighting
For lighting I recommend a good daylight spot. I use the artist studio lamp and stand from
daylight TM (https://uk.daylightcompany.com/category/easel-studio-lamps/). I put mine
to one side and close to the shadow box. You have to try it out for yourself. Just look for
interesting shadows and highlights!
And now for the still-life itself; here are a few personal suggestions:
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
4. Keep it simple
When it comes to still-lifes, I prefer the
works of the 19th century impressionists.
Take Manet; his paintings show a few
humble, everyday objects in a simple setup:
On the other hand you have the opulent
17th century Dutch still-lifes which were
often commissioned by rich merchants. It
gave them the opportunity to show off their considerable
wealth a glorious display of conspicuous consumption! Take
this one by Willem Heda:
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 0
One of the shapes that works well with a still-life is the triangle. A few examples:
For 'Jam session' I used another structure, the circle, or, to be more precise, a
double circle.'
' The important point is to create a structure that will establish the placement of
the major masses of your composition and the eye's movement through them. You
want (..it..) to have a supporting role...like the wire structure hidden beneath a
sculptor's clay.' (Roberts, Composition, p. 19)
We thank the following for their kind permission to use their pictures.
Wikicommonsphotos 4,5. Leonie Duffphoto 6
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 1
FIG 1
FIG 1
FIG 2
FIG 3
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 2
FIG 5
7. I use red
and English
red for the
corner of the
eye and the
tear duct.
Then I add
FIG 6
light grey for
the shadows in the upper
part of the eye under the lashes and
in the corners. This
creates the illusion that the painted
eye is a sphere. (FIG 6)
8.Dont paint the white of the eye too
light! A touch of grey
and blue brings it closer to the real
color. I add white spots
beside the iris so you can see the liq-
FIG 7
FI
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 3
John Wood
I live in Essex with my partner and our two cats. We have five children
and 10 young grandchildren so spend a lot of time on family commitments. Painting is my escape! I am a retired business analyst which involved a lot of creativity. I started painting a couple of
years ago to continue to exercise some creativity in my life. I started
with watercolour and then ventured into other mediums. Pastel is my
latest discovery and I must confess I am hooked. I paint mostly landscapes but I admire portrait paintings which I currently feel are beyond
my scope, but feel that I must soon bite the bullet in that respect. I
am not quite a beginner but I have a long way to go and a lot to learn. I
am hoping that PGE will help me on my journey."
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 4
John Rowland
"I am an enthusiastic amateur who has been painting largely for pleasure for just over
ten years. Art and painting have provided me with an outlet for creative expression and
means of encapsulating an enduring reflection of the world through which I have had the
fortune to pass, be that in Scotland where I now live or other countries through which
I've travelled and occasionally worked. In contrast, my current day job in the IT industry
affords little in the way of permanence, although it abounds with new and interesting
ideas, it is ultimately a profession that is transient in nature.
My passion for pastel is in part purely for practical reasons in so much that there are no
palettes that will dry during periods of absence from my easel! It is also however down
to my love of the media's immediacy as well as the never failing encouragement of my
tutor, pastellist Margaret Evans.
Whenever I can I like to bring plein air drawings back to the studio, sometimes as an
initial outline of the final work, inevitably time constraints demand a reliance upon photography in which case I will normally build up my composition from a series of photographic references.
I work with a wide variety of different types of pastel both hard and soft, tending to use
the rich pigment of the latter to embolden highlights and draw attention to subjects and
topics within the painting. My style and approach vary according to desired outcome,
sometimes using smooth water colour paper coated in a pumice mix, sometimes an
acrylic underpainting and other times ready prepared grit paper as well as traditional
Canson. I look forward to devoting more time to painting and becoming more adventurous as retirement from the paid work force beckons."
Barbara Svetlik
Currently I live in Carmel, California. I was born and lived in Wisconsin
for many years. Ive been painting for the past 20 years, working primarily in oils. Recently, several friends invited me to paint with them
weekly in pastels, which Im enjoying, although my skills are quite rusty.
My current subjects are small still lifes. Im looking forward to being a
member of the Pastel Guild and learning from other pastel artists.
A warm welcome to our new members! We hope that you will feel right at home among this dedicated
group of pastel artists. We invite you to participate in our forum discussions and in our monthly
competition, the 'Get Dusty'. Please take some time to read the rules before you upload a painting into a
competition (see Main Menu/Member competitions/Get Dusty rules). Entries which don't comply with the
rules will be deleted after the dead-line. We hope you'll understand that we can't write to every member
individually when we discover that his entry doesn't meet the requirements.
A short reminder of the main rules:
1. You must state the actual size of your painting.
2. You must state the source of your reference (own setup or photo). If you use another person's photo you
must have the permission to use it.
3. Your photo should be 800 pixels on the long side; entries which are significantly smaller will be
disqualified.
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 5
Workshop Report
By
Ruth Mann and Charlotte Herczfeld
For one extended weekend in the middle of August this year you could find three members of the
Pastel Guild of Europe in the same
location up by the 63rd latitude,
near the Finnish city of Vaasa.
Annika stman and her art group
had invited Charlotte Herczfeld to
hold a workshop, with Ruth Mann
giving a demo.
Cobalt blue water and traditional red boathouses makes the little fishing village into a very
colourful scene. (CH)
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
ing colour. But when it comes to artistic expression, the crucial factor is to know enough about
composition and design to be able to put down
P a g e
1 6
CH: Indeed! I think that what fascinated the participants most were two things: 1) how the rather
wild colours of the first layer looked so good, and
2) how the second layer unified the initial colours
and started to look like a glowing complexion.
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 7
Members news
Workshop wih Marie-France Oosterhof
Would you like to take a workshop with Marie-France! There is only one
place left on her workshop in Burgundy, France from the 6th to 10th October 2014. For all the information you need click the link! WORKSHOP
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 8
Ruth Mann achieved the award Highly commended best amateur in the portrait category in the Society for All Artists (SAA) Artist of the Year competition 2014.
Her painting Treasure Hunt was on display at the SAA's All about Art event in Islington, London in July.
Get Dusty theme for October- Category, Animals.. ThemeA dog or dogs figure, full body. Deadline 25th
October.
Comment - Full body dog or dogs running, walking, standing, sitting etc. No Portraits.
Get Dusty theme for November- Category, Landscape.. ThemeNocturne Deadline 25th November
Comment - Any type of landscape, cityscape, seascape etc, but must be at night.
T h e
P a s t e l
S c r i b b l e r
P a g e
1 9