DANIEL SMITH: Art Supply Stores

This Sunday, October 11th, we have two Pastel FREE How To Art Demos and a FREE Encaustic Demonstration at our DANIEL SMITH Stores in Seattle and Bellevue. 

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.

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

Saturday, July 5th at 11 am & 1:45 pm

at the DANIEL SMITH Bellevue Store

Saturday, May 10th at 11 am & 1:45 pm

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

Saturday, April 26th from 9:00-4:00

SPRING PASTEL EVENT: