Hosted a great workshop on Saturday 12th April with the Mid Valley Art League in Temple City. The theme was "Using Photography to Make Better Paintings."

I discussed some of the technical aspects of lenses and distortion, working without flash, ISO, shutter speeds and printing out b+w plus color prints to start the painting. Do a freehand thumbnail to get the hang of the image to edit and make your own.

Try drawing on the final paper or canvas with a paintbrush, and not a pencil!

Interpreting the shadows used to make the photo is especially important as the print is made with 3 color inks and black.

I am doing a demonstration in pastel tonight for the Corona Art Association. Again the subject will be the interpretation of color from a photo.

Lifeguard Tower, Redondo Beach

Here is a recent pastel painting, part of a series on Redondo Beach, which is in the inaugural exhibition of the Pastel Society of Southern California. A dozen of us formed the group last August and now we have many members. Our exhibition is at the Creative Arts center in Manhattan beach until 16th April 2010.

MVAL Pastel Painting Demonstration

Saralyn Lowenstein invited me to give a pastel painting demo to the Mid-Valley Art League in Arcadia, (in the Los Angeles area.) It was a simple Christmas theme still life. I started out will a basic charcoal drawing and gradually added in colour, emphasizing tonal value, relative warm and cool colours, then stressed highlights. It was a wickedly wet evening and I appreciated the very warm reception from the members. Mark Wood took the photographs and we raffled off the painting at the end of the demo.