Instructor: Judy West
Tuesdays 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
All Levels: Four-week course ($80)
Have you worked with pastels on sanded paper? If so, you know what
wonderful results you can achieve. If not, you are in for a treat. We
will be working with pastel pencils and sticks in rich, vibrant colors
which can be built up in layers on this paper. This means that you can
make the medium do virtually anything you want, and also that
corrections and changes of direction are easily manageable.
The class is designed for both beginning and advanced students in
portraiture, landscape, etc. with individual instruction and
demonstrations when appropriate. Expertise in drawing is not required
as the grid system will be taught.
Aspiring portrait students, it’s not as difficult as you may think. My
method of building up skin tones, demo
nstration of the eyes, mouth, etc. are all written down and I’ve heard
my students tell others that it really works!
Judy West, Pastel Artist
Judy studied for eight years under Ritchie Cooper, who was the first woman illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post, and gave her a wonderful grounding in craftsmanship and color. Judy’s specialties in painting are portraits, as well as Mexican and other ethnic market scenes. She has given seminars and demonstrations in both landscapes and portrait painting.
She works exclusively with pastels using both pencils and sticks, usually on sanded paper and applied with considerable strength. This results in rich, vibrant colors, whose faceted edges sparkle against one another. “I like my painting to have a loose, free appearance,” Judy says. “But to achieve this, it all has to be worked out carefully first.”
Judy’s portrait commissions include those of the seven Florida Power Corporation presidents. She has also demonstrated her techniques in many venues including on cable television. Upham Gallery described her in its literature as “an exceptionally strong and effective teacher for both beginners and advanced artists.”