April 2012 Highlight - Pastel Society of New Mexico

March Program Review
by Judy Felsen; photos by Janice St. Marie
Just in time for Spring! Painting
Gardens with Kathleen Smith
Kathleen Smith, a pastel artist from Taos, demonstrated
her very colorful style of painting New Mexico garden
scenes at our March meeting. In addition to painting
gardens and landscapes, especially en plein air, she also
loves gardening. She frequently paints in the gardens on
the grounds of fellow Taos artist Walt Gonske’s home.
Walt maintains his garden in order to encourage other
artists to visit and paint.
OUTDOOR PAINTING - Kathleen’s setup includes
a Stanrite student easel and some tables to hold her
boxes of pastels. It is very lightweight setup. She works
very large when outdoors, especially when it’s not too
windy, though she also loves to work small outdoors.
Three hours outdoors is the most time she spends and
then she will tweak the painting indoors, being careful
not over do it because she doesn’t want to lose qualities
from painting outdoors. Concerning how she deals with
changing outdoor light, she advises the painter still has
to have a vision of the first light and put in the lights
and darks first. “Don’t keep following the light”. Make
accommodations — painting outdoors requires making
quick decisions.
MATERIALS – PAPER AND PASTELS – Kathleen
uses Wallis paper (18 x 24) taped to a foam core board
and toned with pastel and water before starting to paint.
She recommends very
sturdy paper when using
water for an underpainting.
She likes many different
brands of pastels, especially
the harder ones so she
doesn’t fill up the tooth
of the paper too soon. She
also mentioned that Terry
Ludwig has a new set with
wonderful colors.
BRUSHES - She uses a very dry brush with a light
hand. They are cheap, sturdy, stiff, watercolor brushes.
Nylon are OK also. It’s not about fine brush strokes,
but about large masses of color embedded in the
background.
COMPOSITION – Dark areas are applied first for an
anchor. She feels it creates a nice aura. She also likes to use
warmer colors first. “A nice little breath under the green”.
Her approach is painterly, with
many layers. She prefers massing
in the bigger areas first, but will
spend more leisure time to express
the dimensions. She does not use
this approach for portraiture.
TODAY’S PAINTING -
Kathleen used a warm color
for toning the paper and then
used pastel and water for an
underpainting. Sometimes she will apply pastel in the
wet underpainting even though it dries dull. She likes
the effect, but she doesn’t do it that often and advises “be
careful” with it. It could get too muddy. She uses water
only in the beginning, keeping a paper towel handy to
clean and dry out the brush. Expressive colors are what
she likes the best. She used a photo reference of one of
her favorite garden views. Kathleen is a very energetic
and playful presenter with humorous asides. As she
continued to lay in some
areas with day lilies, she said
she is interested in gesture
“hovering around the feeling
of the places”. She tends
to “pound” the pastel into
the paper. She commented
that the many greens in the
garden provide support, but
the flowers are the star. It is easier to mute the greens
later. Concerning greens, she mentions that blue greens
are dangerous and she thinks about the different greens
to use. She works very freely and continues to add colors.
If a section needs to be changed, or removed, she uses a
dry brush. This particular part of the garden interests her
because of the beautiful, curved and graceful wall. The
day lilies are attractive to her because their foliage is very
gestural. Kathleen loves the energy of multiple strokes
and she moves colors around to unify the composition.
The warm underpainting is dissipating, but still gives a
sense of the warmth of a summer day.
FLOWERS - She
spoke about the many
different flowers that
she enjoys painting,
describing peonies
as “headlights” in
a garden. She likes
dahlias, poppies, day
lilies and iris when they
are blooming in Taos.
continued on pg. 4
Pastel Society of New Mexico HIGHlight: April 2012 • page 3