Of Workshops And Such...

I attended a one-day soft-pastel painting workshop last Wednesday taught by Jennifer Hockey, an established artist and a fellow of the Royal Australian Society of Arts, a long standing member of the Adelaide Arts Society and joint founding member of  the Pastel Artists of South Australia (PASA).  Her  works displayed  in her studio are just wonderful pieces, done in her distinct painting style which look more like a harmonious marriage between realism and impressionism. I just love the way she captures light and shade in her works!

At first, we were asked to choose a subject from among several pictures depicting children or people in the beach having a leisurely time. We were then asked to do a composition using these pictures and I ended up with a penciled picture showing a father with his two small children enjoying a leisurely stroll in the sand. My attraction to this particular  subject is the challenge of being able to show their reflection in the wet sand.

It is enriching  to interact with another artist through  comments and feedbacks as I went on  to do my work (e.g. “Don’t use heavy strokes when applying the pastel”, “ Don’t rub yet”, “The man is tooooo fat” *ouch*,  etc). It is just so mind – stretching to work in a style that is different to mine and see the whole painting process from another perspective. It is through these observations that  one learns, and then the processing follows. How that gained knowledge integrates into one’s way of doing things, whether it is to absorb  or to depart partly or completely from it. One has to choose. At the end of the day, the quest is for the development of one’s own unique style.  Internalization of new knowledge eventually leads to artistic maturity.

I have not done much about the exercise since I took it home (see attached picture). It was not to be a homework but it took a long time to do the composition and we didn’t have enough time to finish applying the colours. One of these days, I will get to it and finish.