Last weekend was the Spring Pastel Event at the DANIEL SMITH Stores in both Seattle and Bellevue. Out of the several Events and FREE demos scheduled, I was able to attend the FREE Pastel demo on Saturday, with Mary Shea, at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store.

Mary Shea works primarily in pastel and some printmaking (monotypes) and for the pastel demo, Mary shared with us some of her techniques and her enthusiasm for making and experimenting with different art processes. Playfulness is an important part of Mary’s art, and it shows in her enthusiasm for her art materials and willingness to experiment….”it’s always worth it to try!”

For the demonstration, Mary used Sennelier Pastels and we each got some free Sennelier Pastel samples!

Because “I get a little frustrated sometimes on white paper”, Mary told us that she likes to work on Cason Mi-Tientes pastel paper [ "working on a black background really makes the colors sing" ] and do watercolor blocking on paper and monotypes, then drawing on top with pastel. Other papers that Mary likes to work with in pastel are printmaking paper (ones that have good “tooth” for the pastel to grab on to) and heavy handmade papers .

It was a fun hour to hear Mary Shea share her passion and enthusiasm for drawing and painting with pastels, thank you Mary! 

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Originally published April 29, 2008

http://danielsmithart.blogspot.com/2008/04/mary-shea-and-daniel-smith-spring.html