DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store: The Store For Artists

This weekends FREE “How To” Art demos at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store we have a wide selection Art demos to choose from:  Pastel Portraits with Don Lee and Gold Leaf Gilding (Metal Leafing) with Charles Douglas.  Sunday we have Landscape painting in Plein Air and the Studio with Gage Instructor and Author Mitchell Albala who will be signing his new book, “Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice“ after the demo.

Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store

This Saturday for one of our FREE “How To” Art demos at our Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store we have Gail Baker demonstrating “Special Effects in Acrylic Painting – Improvisation and Experimentation“  Gail will be sharing her ideas for using Improvisation and Experimentation to drive the Creative Process for Acrylic Painting.  

Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store

This weekend at our DANIEL SMITH Bellevue Store we have FREE Art Demos for you! 

Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store

This weekend for our FREE “How to” Art demo at the DANIEL SMITH Bellevue Store we will have tips on working with Pastels.

Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store

This upcoming weekends’ FREE Art Demos at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store:

Sennelier Pastels on display at the DANIEL SMITH Stores

This weekend is our Annual Spring Pastel Event at both the Seattle and Bellevue DANIEL SMITH stores!  So You are invited to come by our stores for FREE demos by Artists’ showing you how they create their Art in Pastels, and you can give pastels a try at the special tables step up in the stores too.

First, Jerry likes to pre-paint in watercolor on Wallis Sanded Paper , the basic shapes, and colors he sees in the landscape he will be doing in pastel. It has excellent “tooth” for the pastel and heavy enough not to buckle when the watercolor paint is applied. The colors are not necessarily the colors that will be used for the shapes in pastel, for instance the color of the sky in watercolor for the demo was yellow.

Working from a photo, Jerry applied his pastels, working over the sanded surface from his trays of pastels. The trays are actually black Styrofoam trays that Jerry got from his butcher. They work especially well because they are light weight, soft surfaced (don’t chip at the pastels) and since these are black rather than the usual white, really “pop” the colors and don’t look dingy like the white trays do. A tip while working, have an empty tray to keep the pastels that are being used for the current work, so that it’s easy to find that color again when you want it.

Another “tip for you” from Jerry for cleaning your pastels; place them in a container of cornmeal and gently shake the container. This will “sand” the outer surface of the pastels removing the “gunk”. Then sieve them out with your fingers.

When Jerry was working over his board and ran into an area that was challenging him, he told the audience: “If you make a mistake you learn something, if you don’t make a mistake you learn something else, so either way you learn something!” The audience appreciated that comment since everyone can relate to making mistakes while making art! It’s especially comforting to know that it happens to professionals too.

It was interesting to see the landscape appearing under Jerry’s pastel work, and to see it finished by the end of the demo. Thank you Jerry! 

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Originally published July 7, 2008

http://danielsmithart.blogspot.com/2008/07/seattle-daniel-smith-stores-free.html