I recently attended a three day Greg
Barnes pastel workshop which was held at the Island Art Gallery on Pawleys
Island. The workshop opened as usual with introductions and a verbal review of
the equipment that would be used. After which Greg gave us brief demonstration
of his pastel painting technique.
The Demonstration on the
first day was of painting from a reference photo. Greg chose a traditional
marsh scene from the photos he had brought with him, and proceeded to sketch the
scene on his pastel paper with vine charcoal
Then he blocked in the dark tones often smudging the
areas to blur and blend the tones.
Next he
put in the mid tones followed by the lighter shades leaving these more
distinct, especially near the focal point.
Below
you can compare the painting with the reference photo. Obviously Greg is not
into slavishly copying the original photo.
Greg
then added in the highlights , intense tones , and details to finish the piece
in less than two hours..
Day two was a lesson in plein air painting. Actually
all three days should have included some plein air work, but the weather didn't
cooperate. The morning of the second day was the only time it didn't pour.
The
subject of the painting was the Island Deli across the parking lot from the
Gallery. The bright red roof was eye catching in the morning sun against the
stately old oak tree.
Greg
set up his easel in the parking lot outside the gallery and proceeded to sketch
the scene in vine charcoal.
Then Greg blocked in his colors. Again
he started with the dark tones of the oak, but quickly threw in some of the mid
value red so as to have something to judge the other mid tones
against.
This is a photo of the painting when Greg ended the
demonstration an hour and a half later.
On day three, it poured, so we were again stuck
inside. Greg decided to show us how to paint with a limited number of
colors
using a
background toned with watercolor .
As
promised, Greg pulled it off beautifully. The trick, it seems, is in knowing
your values well enough to pick the right set of limited colors.
Each
afternoon the class worked on their own paintings, while Greg coached
us.
Every
one's style was different. From the semi abstract and dreamy painting
above,
to the dark and moody
one above.
There were some highly realistic renditions,
and even an attempt to
paint the same scene as Greg's original demo.(Below)
Clearly personal style
matters. Both paintings were beautifully rendered, but each was
unique.
