This full day workshop is for artists interested in trying their hand at the colorful medium of soft pastels. Whether it’s your first time or just need to refresh and revisit creating with pastels, this workshop is for you. Part 1 is for beginners who have never used pastels before, Part 2 is for students who have taken part 1 with Wendi or beginners and Part 3 is for students who have taken parts 1 & 2.

Morning Session:  We will explore working with hard and soft pastels on a few different surfaces.  This will be a hands-on experience of exercises of learning different ways to make strokes and mark making. Layering colors and pressure exercises.  We will discuss dry underpainting and alcohol wash underpainting.  

12:45 Lunch break: 20-30 min.

Afternoon Session:   Demo- Paint along of a coastal scene.  Everyone will go home with a pastel painting. 

Class Supplies List:  Artists who have their own pastels and surfaces are encouraged to bring them to class to use.  However, Wendi will provide use of her own pastels for those who do not have any.   We will be using hard and soft pastels, NO OIL PASTELS. BLICK ART MATERIALS

Please bring: An apron, dish towels (for cleaning and setting down working pastels) and color wheel if you have one. 

*Wendi will have pastel surfaces for class for an additional fee of $10

Intro to Pastel 2 will include a quick review of what we learned in my previous workshop. I will provide paper work from my first workshop for those who were unable to attend to help them catch up.  This workshop is for beginners or artists who work in other mediums who might just want to try their hand at pastels.  During the morning we will work on several small studies concentrating on composition, value and color choices and layering.  In the afternoon I will give a quick demo and provide then have students work on their own pastel paintings.  I will provide several images however would welcome you to bring several of your own reference images.  Preferably landscapes but it's your choice. 

Bio: Wendi C. Smith grew up in the 1950’s in a suburb south of Boston. In her early years she enjoyed many mediums of art including pen and ink, etching, drawing, watercolor, acrylic and pottery. Although mostly self-taught she attended the Art Institute of Boston and Riverside Center for the Arts in NYC.  Wendi was  an award-winning floral designer in Boston for 8 years. She was a guest floral designer for garden clubs, decorator show houses, MFA’s Art In Bloom and Boston’s channel 7 television show “Look Magazine”. 

In 1981 she founded and operated Harvest of Barnstable in Yarmouthport, a wholesale/retail floral and shell gift manufacturing company. Her gift products were sold to catalog companies and retail stores throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. After a successful 31year run, she sold her business and rekindled her love for painting.

Her mediums of choice are oils and soft pastels. She prefers painting en Plein Air or from life in her studio. Wendi’s inspiration comes from her love of mother nature and the beauty of Cape Cod and the coast of southwest Florida. Her subjects are still lifes, flowers, landscapes and seascapes. She has taken workshops from Rosalie Nadeau, Lance Walker, Maryalice Eisenberg, Barbara Archer-Baldwin, and Jacob Aguiar.

Wendi’s paintings are in private collections throughout the country. She has received recognition and awards for her work from the Cape Cod Art Center, Barnstable, Creative Art Center, Chatham, Cultural Art Center, Yarmouth, Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, Great Lakes Pastel Society, Northport Art Center, Northport, FL, Visual Arts Center, Punta Gorda, FL and American Impressionist Society.

Wendi is a certified Mneme Therapist and a member of the Art Without Boundaries Association. She uses her talent to paint with Alzheimer’s patients and brain impaired individuals. 

She hopes to continue to grow as an artist as well as bring pleasure to those who view her art. www.wendicsmithart.com  wendicsmith@comcast.net