Pastel Workshop

Pastel artist Mark Ivan Cole came to Resipole Studios on 25th September to run a three day workshop and I was so glad to be invited to take part. I use pastels all the time in my sketchbook but I've never created a finished painting solely in pastels so I was really looking forward to this course. Mark demonstrated his process which was fascinating and also shared information about different surfaces and materials and how best to use them. I am really keen to scale up my small pastel sketches into larger works and I feel confident that I can give that a go now. The biggest challenge for me over the three days was using a photograph as inspiration for the work as that's something I never do in my own practice...eventually I gave up trying to copy the photographs and interpreted the scene in my own way! I spent a wonderfully focused weekend with a lovely group of artists.

Thank you to Resipole Studios for organising the workshop and to Mark Ivan Cole for sharing his expertise:)