Liz Haywood-Sullivan Demo

I was fortunate enough to go to a pastel demonstration by Liz Haywood-Sullivan last night.  This free event was sponsored by the Rochester Art Club and was a great opportunity to see how Liz creates her beautiful pastel paintings from start to finish.  She generously shared her painting technique with us, explaining every aspect the process as she went.  Despite stopping to explain what she was (Photo credit: Suzi Zefting Kuhn)                   doing and why, as                                                                                    she continued to paint, Liz was still able to finish her painting in just about 2 hours.  The finished product was stunning and it was very for exciting to see the image emerging as she completed each step.  It was a wonderful experience.

I want to thank Rochester Art Club for opening this to the public and to Suzi Zefting-Kuhn for posting the notice about it on Facebook which is where I read about it.  By the way, Liz has written a book about pastel painting which will published by NorthLight in the very near future.  Look for it!

What a Week!

This has been a great week for me. First of all, the weather was beautiful and I was able to paint two days in a row, and any day I can get out to paint is a really good day. Second, I was in two shows, which is great because I like to be busy and getting things ready for a show is a lot of work. Third, I won several awards in those shows.

In the Suburban Rochester Art Group's show at the Mall at Greece Ridge Center, I won Best of Show for "Spring Green" and First Place for pastels for "Tall and Proud", in addition to an honourable mention. I am very proud since this is the first time I have ever won Best of Show in any show. The competition in this group is especially tough because fellow plein air painter Chris O'Handley is in this organization and his work is beautiful.

In the Rochester Art Club's Fall show at Barnes and Noble in Pittsford Plaza, I won a Merit Award for "Waiting for Spring". Rochester Art Club is a very tough show. It's hard to even get into the club, let alone have work accepted into their show or to win any kind of award. Over 120 paintings were submitted to this show and only 14 received awards. I feel very honoured that all of the paintings I submitted got into the show and that I won an award to boot. This show will continue to be up until the end of November.

Overall this has been a wonderful week for me. I am very grateful.