I was looking forward to this as it was the first time I’d seen a demonstration in pastels. I was not disappointed it was absolutely fascinating to see how they can be used. Jan demonstrated and explained how they can be put on top of one another in a firm stroke without the underlying colour coming through and by using varying shades of one colour they will almost blend themselves. Jan explained how she personally develops her work picking subjects that will fit together to form a balanced still life and had begun with a white pastel pencil drawing that she’d prepared earlier.

As you will notice from the photograph you can’t see the pastel in Jan’s hand because the ones that she uses are only 2-3 cms long and it’s the flat side is used not the ends.

Jan has a vast collection of colours and shades and keeps the ones that she has decided to use for her current work separated in different boxes by colour ready for use to avoid inadvertent colour mixing.

You will see from the above photograph that Jan has kept part of the paper for testing her colours to be sure that they fit into the picture.

The thing that most surprised me was the immediacy of the pastel and how quickly the painting developed and before we knew it the painting was almost finished

It just remained to add the last few touches.

Perhaps like me you’ve been given or bought pastels for enhancing other paintings, but, after this demonstration I feel the need to dust off the boxes and put them to better use.

If you’ve ben inspired and would like to see more of Jan’s work then do visit her website at janmunro.com