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.
