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!
ADVENTURE I-3 ~ CHICKEN OR THE EGG
This new adventure is ‘eggsactly’ what you need this month. It's all about eggs! Put an egg - in any of its many forms - into a painting and get cracking!!
WILL EVANS ~ Eenie-Meenie-Miney-Omelette, 7 x 5 - "Greetings. My piece on dark green Pastelboard, mostly Terry Ludwig’s, with touches of Nupastel. Another fun challenge. Thank you."
ANDREA STUTESMAN ~ Robin's Nest, 12 x 16 - "I painted this robin’s nest 2 years ago and worked on it in my studio, but it then disappeared from the studio. I kept thinking I would paint it again and now was the time. Perfect adventure challenge for me this month. It still needs tweaking."
MERYL MEYER ~ Eaglely, Waiting For My Sibling to Arrive, 8 x 11, Soft Pastel on Canson Mi-teintes Black Paper - "One of my favorite pastimes is observing Eagles and their nests on live video cams. I am a big fan of Friends of Big Bear Valley and have watched Jackie and Shadow mate, build nests, protect and care for their baby eaglets. It has been quite an educational adventure. I even won a contest naming one of their eagles, "Sunny" last year. So this was the perfect subject for me. I painted from one of their screen shots so they get all the credit for the reference. I used Black Canson Paper and the texture was great for the soft baby feathers. Painting the nest was more difficult as it was quite detailed. Jackie and Shadow are presently waiting for their 2 new eggs to hatch this year. I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure."
KATHY HUTCHINSON ~ It Is Spring After All, 5 x 6, various pastels on reclaimed Artspectrum soft umber sanded paper - "I'm enjoying this beautiful Spring weather even with the wild fluctuations in temperatures. What better way to honor the rebirth that Spring brings than a nest of bright blue eggs. I must admit to a painting I saw online as inspiration - well that and the delightful song birds in my gardens."
MACIEJ BOBOWICZ ~ Memory Egg - "You got me by surprise this time with no egg or chicken close by 🫣 My painting of this white egg was painted completely from memory trying to follow all the rules of lighting and shadows with limited number of pastels (six in total). Looking forward to see other works, Best regards!"
TERRILYN DUBREUIL ~ Just 3 Eggs In A Bowl, 8 x 10, mostly Pan Pastel on silicone carbide 1000 grit paper - "I often welcome these challenges because I invariably get so busy with teaching and such that I need a chance to just paint for fun. This gets me going! Thanks for the challenge."
PAT QUIGLEY ~ Eggs Not In A Basket, Roughly 12 x 12, soft pastel over wet pastel underpainting (just water) on Canson velvet surface - "I had doubts about setting up a still life in my kitchen with our overhead too-bright lights. But the unexpected rings of shadows from the mixing bowl got my interest. This needs more work on the edges of the eggs, but I got to the 'beware of ruining the whole thing' stage and stopped. I’ll be braver next time! Love these challenges!"
CLAIRE BENTON ~ Tumbling, 5.5 x 5.5, Pan and pastel pencils, Soho Urban Artist sketch book - "A very quick sketch because I got the challenge late."
MARY ANN GRIB ~ Getting The Eggs Ready, 6 x 8, multi media paper primed with colorfix ground - "So yes, I missed the original email on the challenge so I had less than the desirable time to complete it... like an hour. I wish I had more time to present a better painting."
SUSAN PORGES ~ Eggsistential Crisis, 10 x 12, Uart 400 - "It was fun playing with the light and shadows and creating the inner glow of the shells. My goal was to keep my marks fresh and somewhat 'raw', while maintaining a variety of textures between the shells, egg and bowl."
MARGARET LYN-SOROKEN ~ Brown Eggs, 5 x 8, charcoal pencil with few colors, sketch on note book - "I’m out of the country, found mail today, attempted to do egg drawing on the run… thanks."
DEBORAH CHASE ~ Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be, 9 x 9 - "I received the Adventure email info late so to speed up the process I used tan Mi-Teintes paper very close to the shade of the eggs. The composition could use some work but it covers the subject matter."
KAREN KNAUB ~ Sunny Side Up, 9 x 11 - "I enjoyed this challenge more then I thought I would. I used black Canson paper which is always a challenge to me. Used my fingers a lot to smooth out the pastels. I chose sunny side up eggs because I wanted to work on creating the bubbling egg whites. Thank you for another fun adventure."
DIANE DE GRASSE ~ My Fried Egg, 6 x 8 - "My favorite, a fried egg, though in Spring my thoughts go back to the polliwogs I found as a kid. This is a study from an internet image. I alcohol-washed a black background on green Pastelmat, established the form in hard pastels then finished using a mix of soft pastels. I used my traveling set of pastels, needing to update soft whites and oranges!"
PAT FENDA ~ Egg In Your Eye, 10 x 8 - "I am a big fan of breakfast! This was really fun to create on Uart 400 with soft pastels. Thanks again for these great challenges."
CATHARIN MCCARTHY BANTA ~ Eggs In A Basket, 12 x 9, Uart, Terry Ludwig pastels - "Had so much fun experimenting with the colors. Bright and Happy. Hopefully a sign of things to come… Thank you!"
LINDA MEDDERS ~ Bunny Forgot a Couple Eggs, pastel pencils and pastels on Canson smooth - "This is a 30 minute rush as I was one of the ones that accidently got the info yesterday and I was tied up with my husband being in the hospital. HAPPY EASTER!!!"
JAN COBB ~ Sunday Morning, 12.5 x 9.5
To become an APS Member and participate in our Adventure Challenges CLICK HERE.
To access our archives and see past Adventure Challenges CLICK HERE.
