Pastel

Last week 4 girlfriends and I took a 3-day pastel workshop in Chestertown. I took this same workshop last year and enjoyed it so much I wanted a repeat. Penny hosted all of us at her beautiful river home. Our first morning there we awoke to a light dusting of snow. It seemed the perfect 'painting' of white over the landscape, making for a pastel of its own.


The river is frozen, with just a channel in the middle that is still free flowing. One morning we were lucky enough to see 4 foxes skittering along the ice, scaring geese.




When we arrived it was in the high twenties, but warmed up to a balmy 35 by the time we left.




Three days of picking up beautiful pastels and applying to colored paper. Fun!


Pat is an experienced pastel artist and all her paintings showed it. She has such a great style.


She painted a view from her new home.


...and I painted a scene from a photo I took last summer in Maine of Peter making hay with his work horses. I still need to do some definition on the horses. I wanted a loose, free style.


On the way back to Penny's one night, we had to take a detour to see this amazing sunset. We have inspiration for future paintings.




This was a great way to start the new year, creating, spending time with girlfriends, drinking wine and telling fun stories. We are all so lucky.