ADVENTURES IN PASTEL
Welcome to our Adventure Series!
This online group activity offers our members a series of pastel painting challenges each year.
On the 3rd Wednesday of a designated month you receive a new Adventure, via Email, that challenges you to use your pastels in a unique and creative way.
You have a week to submit your Adventure painting, via Email, and then we put together an online gallery of the Adventure paintings.
Comments on how you experienced the Adventure, or insights you gain, are welcomed and included as captions in the gallery.
Adventures provide a unique chance to see how fellow APS members explore visual ideas, experiment with new techniques, and relish the joys of pastel painting.
This program is a perennial favorite of our members!
Our Newest Adventure: I-1 ~ LET’S GET CLOSE-UP
Close ups! Time to pull in our attention by filling the frame with something that moves you - part of a flower, a face or other element.
ALEC HALL ~ Heart on His Chest, 4 x 3, UArt 600, Rembrandt pastels and Carb-Othello pencils - "This male Rose-breasted grosbeak is a frequent visitor to our feeders during the spring migration every year. The vivid contrast between black, red, and white makes for a striking flash of color as he flies among the tree branches. Hopefully we will see him again soon. I hope everyone made it through the storm safely."
MERYL MEYER ~ Okra Blossom, 9 x 10, Black 400 UArt, pastel pencils, hard pastels, soft pastels - "A while back we planted okra in our garden bed. We were amazed at the beautful blossoms. I vowed I would one day paint it. It was intimidating due to the transparent petals. I finally got the courage to paint it. I painted a dry underpainting then layered with yellow and pink, and blue-green whites. Used soft pastel for the center, some dew drops and the background. This was very therapeutic for me. With all the chaos going on I got myself centered and relaxed with something beautiful. Thank you for this challenge."
DIANE DE GRASSE ~ Dragonfly Close-Up - "So many choices for 'Close-up'. I spotted this little guy on the internet, and since I’ve raised butterflies and love nature, this would be his chance. I alcohol-washed a black background on eggplant Colorfix paper then finished with various hard & soft pastels and pastel pencils. I also dragged a small fork across the eyes to suggest their compound nature. That lead to a little extra ornamentation. This was fun, and I may hang it up to surprise visitors."
PAT QUIGLEY ~ Close Up of Clara, 9 x 9, Charcoal and soft pastel on Pastelmat - "Hi APS Adventures: I believe in copying the masters as a great learning experience. Having just come from the APS workshop with portraitist LL Winner, I was in the mood for 'faces'. So I went for doing a close up of a part of Rubens wonderful painting of Clara Serena. I had difficulty discerning his colors – only used a color printout; next time I’ll download a museum quality photo and use my iPad to better figure out colors. But it was a real challenge, saved my "Big Snow Day", and I learned so much by 'looking close'."
CHRIS CARROLL ~ "Really loved doing this one! Painting flowers is a big challenge for me and I really had fun using Multi-Media paper. I used mostly soft pastels."
TERRI LESLIE ~ Maggie's Eyes - A Study in Reflection, 8 x 12.5, soft pastel and pastel pencil - "Hi. This is my first time participating in an APS challenge even though I've been a member for several years. 2026 is going to be the year that I complete all of your challenges. That's my resolution. Better than a diet resolution."
DEBORAH CHASE ~ Pineapple, 8 x 8 - "Fun project while waiting out the weather."
MARGARET LYN-SOROKEN ~ 9 x 9 - "Bee hole inspired by O’Keefe flower paintings. First rough sketch not intended to be finished."
KATHY HUTCHINSON ~ Cup of Grace, 5 x 4, various pastels and pastel pencils - "Glad to have received the adventure early this time. Being in that zone of unpredictable snow but likely ice and therefore the possibility of no power or internet, I figured I would get this turned in early. It's a close up of a gift of a coffee mug which has become my favorite."
JANE BEST ~ Up Close, 8 x 7 - "I searched my photo file looking for something to paint and decided spring flowers would be a good subject for a cold winter day. I cropped and magnified a small section of photo of a flower arrangement. This was a most enjoyable adventure and I may try to paint this same subject again. Thank you!"
ANDREA STUTESMAN ~ "I am going ahead and sending my artwork as I anticipate losing power and I have limited time to work on it. It has a ways to go to be finished. If I can do more, I will resend."
LINDA MEDDERS JACKSON ~ mixed pastel on UART - "Practicing an eye - foal as a model."
RUTH CROWE ~ Pounding Water, 10 x 8 , assorted soft pastels - "I did this on a textured paper. It almost feels like rice paper. I enjoyed doing this closeup of a waterfall over a very old rock wall with greenery draping down. I can almost feel the pounding of the water as it cascades over the ledge."
WILL EVANS ~ 10 x 8 - "Greetings, my submittal, the iconic right hand of Michangelo’s David, as he prepares for the battle with Goliath, coupled, ready to strike the fatal blow. Breathtaking! This is on Lux using Nupastels almost exclusively, with a soft white Sennelier to capture the highlights of the lighting."
KAREN KANAUB ~ 11 x 9 - "I did my cats eye on terracotta sanded paper. I wasn’t happy with it and I brushed as much of the pastels off that I could and then alcohol washed the paper."
PAT FENDA ~ Lovely Lily, 7 x 5, UArt 400 - "This was a great way to kick off 2026. I met this Lily while joining the Plein Aire painters in Asheville this past June at a Day Lily farm. Heaven on earth! It was fun to spotlight their beauty."
CAROL ROLLICK ~ 11 x 8.5, white Pastelmat, Nu-Pastels and Pan Pastels - "Thanks for the extra days! This is my cat Maximillian the Magnificent. He is my boss, my constant companion. Thank you for keeping my mind on the joy of painting!"
PAMELA CLIFFORD ~ "I focused on a small part of one of my favorite paintings in the Asheville Museum of Art: Poppies by James Henry Daugherty. I used mostly soft pastels with pastel pencils for fine lines on 8 x 6” Uart sanded paper. In the original, you can see some of the canvas showing through so I tried for that effect as well."
TERRI ROSENBLUM ~ Orange Pop, 8.5 x 8.5 - "I’ve been working on a series of Tootsie Pop paintings; I now have about 10. Since many of the Tootsie paintings are 24x18" it was very interesting to work on a miniature tootsie painting!"
FRANKIE MILHORN ~ Autumn Musings, 10 x 8 - "As I was walking, and looking, and SEEING, I very much enjoyed all of the beautiful shapes and colors of the changing leaves all around me, and the depth of the area. This wasn't painted plein air because I was walking my dog, but I did capture the moment with my camera and enjoyed painting from those photos, so I very much remember the feelings I had, and the sensory experience of it all. THE best part of the experience was the closeness of the beautiful, changing leaves of Autumn."
NANCY CLAUSEN ~ 10 x 8 - "The original graphite version of this was done about 5 years ago while taking a drawing class at AB Tech. I thought it might be interesting to do it again using color. Last time I used Strathmore gray. This time I tried a sample I had of Hahnemuhle paper. I liked the paper, and wondered how soft pastel would work. I used pastel pencils for the drawing. They were a combination of Faber Castell and Carb Othello. The paper took them very well. I then used Faber Castell hard pastel for the background."
TERRILYNN DUBREUIL ~ Birch Bark, 2 x 1.5 - "When I started considering a close-up of something, I got looking for a piece of paper to use and came across a Dakota sample piece of ColorFix. Tiny about 1.5 x2". Perfect for a close up. So I took a photo, cropped it, enlarged and cropped and tilted again, then painted from there. FUN! I also made a little video. https://youtu.be/pOZUu0C5a2I Adventure is out there!"
CATHARIN MCCARTHY BANTA ~ African Flower, 9 x 6, Uart - "I’m not sure why I thought more detail should equal smaller. This little piece is 6 x 9 and honestly, I found it to be a challenge. The greens were difficult for me to work with but I like the colors in the Protea . I spent some time in South Africa this past summer and these flowers were everywhere. This challenge did make me pay closer to attention to detail. Thank you!"
To become an APS Member and participate in our Adventure Challenges CLICK HERE.
To access our archives and see past Adventure Challenges CLICK HERE.
