Planning my 2014 Pastel Classes

OK, so I have not posted a blog entry forever… I was busy making art, teaching pastel classes, and living life. I am now planning my next round of classes, so I have been thinking about what worked and what did not in my last classes. Below is my demo from the first day of class last session with 3 beginning students. None of the 3 students were very satisfied with their paintings.


In the past, I had students paint a single piece of fruit and they were dissatisfied at doing a simple, boring composition. I am not sure if simple of slightly more complex is more successful, but I think back to my first class and my composition was very similar to this one.


I was SOOO excited and proud of that thing, and it hangs today in our kitchen to remind me where I started. The date, October 7, 2002, reminds me of when I started. It is my hope that students new to pastel will make for themselves something that will be part of their personal art history, like my first painting is for me. Any thoughts on first pastel class compositions? what do others do for 6 or 8 week classes?