June 22, 2014

Margaret Evans, the delightful and talented Scottish artist, was here once again teaching a 5-day workshop for pastelists. The focus of the class was to “unleash your pastels” and discover their versatility when used on their own or with other media.

Here are Margaret’s pastels unleashed!

. . . and here is her demo started on the first day.

She finished the painting with more detail later on in the week and we’ll post a picture as soon as we get it framed!

Margaret loves to paint outside and that was the plan for this workshop, but after the first day, I think the weather tried too hard to make Margaret feel at home with damp, rainy weather! The valiant group did make an attempt to paint out by the Hudson River, hoping that the clouds would clear, as they had on the first day but after spending the morning in the large covered bandstand in the Athens riverside park, the group returned to the studio.

Margaret kept everyone busy working from photo reference or florals (our peonies always seem to bloom in profusion and then are followed by torrents of rain that flatten them to the ground, so we had dozens of vases filled). During breaks in the rain, some students immediately found inspiration around the inn for a bit of plein air painting.

It was a great week. “Exceeded all expectations” was a comment by one student that was echoed by all.

Margaret will return again in August of 2016! Don’t miss it.