April 2018 Rebecca de Mendonca working in pastels: Demo and workshop

Established pastels artist Rebecca De Mendonca returned to OVAS to provide another demonstration of pastels technique.  She told us about the type of pastels that she uses and the makes, the various supports, and the preparation involved before starting a picture. She then demonstrated one of her horse paintings ,using the different strokes and techniques such as blending and cross hatching , and the ways to hold the pastel to get various thickness or direction. We were then shown how she approaches a landscape painting , using a charcoal drawing as a start, before blocking in the colours.

On Saturday, a combination of OVAS members and Sidbury Art Group met at Sidbury Village Hall for a workshop day with Rebecca. We used photos or sketches as a reference for our work, and most of us produced pictures of animals or landscapes which we were mostly pleased with! It was an enjoyable weekend and we look forward to repeating the exercise again in the future.

Penny Lamb