Express Your Creativity in Pastels
Instructor: VINCENT MANCUSO
Tuesdays 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
All Levels: Four-week course ($80)
Course Description
Whether you are a novice or seasoned artist, you will strengthen your artistic skills in pastels and perfect your abilities with this medium during this four-week class. The class is about learning to use the medium of pastels in your own artistic style. Learn about different methods of application, techniques, values, vivid colors, and an array of materials and painting surfaces for pastels. Experience the steps of working from a charcoal drawing to a finished pastel painting. Paint a variety of subjects, including still life, landscape, and portraiture. (Some drawing and/or painting experience is recommended.)
About Vincent Mancuso 
My artwork is rendered in a Classical Realist style, illustrating the natural beauty of the subject. Beginning in 2002, I taught The Art of Pastels class at the Morean Arts Center) in St. Petersburg. I am influenced by the pastel masters Degas, Renoir, Manet, Marie Cassatt, modern day master, Daniel Greene, and other portrait artists such as Rembrandt, Adolphe-William Bouguereau and John Singer Sargent. My artistic background includes fine art and portraiture, work in design drafting, illustration, interior design, and greeting card design. I studied portraiture for a decade with the internationally-renowned artist, Fran Lew. My original artwork and reproductions are in private and corporate collections. I am a member of the Portrait Society of America and the Pastel Society of America, and listed in Who’s Who in American Art. To learn more, visitwww.vincentmancuso.com
A Word About Pastels
It seems ironic some people think pastels are comparable to simple chalk, which is limestone and color additive. Pastel is not child’s play. Two circa 1880 Edgar Degas pastels sold for $3,000,000 each in the 1980s. Delacroix, Millet, Manet, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec were among the most famous artists to share Degas’ affection for the medium. Mary Cassatt introduced pastels in her Impressionist masterpieces to art lovers in America. Pastels could possibly be the most unique of all mediums. Patrons of even the first pastels created in the 16th Century left works that remain as vibrant as the day they were unveiled.