Register for both of Barbara’s workshops, 3 days of oil and 2 days pastel you will receive a 15% discount!

Please see the registration page that offers both workshops, this one is for the PASTEL WORKSHOP only.

A note to our students: To ensure that the workshop will not be canceled, we kindly request that you sign up as early as possible. Please note that if the minimum number of students required is not met three (3) weeks before the first day of class, the workshop will be canceled. However, we offer a full refund in the event of a canceled workshop, so there is no monetary risk for you. Please take some time to review our cancellation policy.

About the Workshop

Skill level: Open to all levels, although artists with at least some basic landscape painting experience will benefit most.

Materials used: Pastel

Spend two days in an intensive study on how to train your eyes to discern light in the landscape. Although this is a studio workshop, Barbara will discuss what to observe when painting outdoors from life (or simply when gathering reference photos), and how to bring that knowledge into the studio. She’ll focus on how to “read” a reference photo and capture the genuine effects of various lighting situations in your studio landscape paintings, rather than duplicate a compromised photographic image. The workshop will cover various types of landscapes, with one day focused on snow. Each day will begin with a demonstration, followed by student painting time in the afternoon during which students will receive plenty of individual guidance at their easel. This workshop is open to all levels, but those with at least some initial experience with pastels will benefit most.

Each day of the workshop will begin with a demonstration followed by students working on a specific painting exercise for the remainder of the day. Students will receive plenty of individual help from the instructor at the easel during their painting time.

With a desire from an early age to pursue a career of some sort in the art world, Barbara earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986 from The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College), majoring in Art with an emphasis in Advertising Design, while also studying painting outside of her college studies.

Her early careers were spent in advertising as an art director, then later in marketing communications. In 2002, she was able to turn her focus to a career in fine art. Grateful for her earlier background in the advertising and marketing fields, Barbara has been able to leverage skills from those careers to build another in the fine art world.

As she embarked on her journey as a fine art painter in pastel and oil, she sought instruction from classes and workshops and continually delved into art magazines, books, and online resources, but she credits the majority of her success to plenty of intense, dedicated mileage at the easel. Although Barbara’s finished work is created in the studio, a regular practice of Plein air painting in all seasons has greatly enhanced her ability to capture the genuine effects of the landscape in her paintings.

Barbara teaches workshops throughout the US, and also offers instructional videos and online resources.

What’s Included

Bluebird Studios offers an array of complimentary food and beverages during our workshops. Attendees can enjoy an ice breaker the evening before the first day, complimentary continental breakfast served every morning, complimentary unlimited beverages, and afternoon treats each day. We also offer catered lunches brought to the studio or the plein air site (optional for $20), and lastly, our complimentary signature lunch of Frito Chili Pie on the final day. We will spoil you!

Supply List for Pastels

Feel free to use your favorite soft pastels if you already have a good range of values, plus some hard pastels mentioned below. I highly recommend organizing your pastels by value. If you plan to stock up a bit before the workshop, here are some of my favorite soft pastels that I’ll use in my demonstrations:

• Terry Ludwig

• Schmincke

• Sennelier

• Jack Richeson-Barbara Jaenicke Winter Landscape 80-piece Set – This is a pastel set that I personally handpicked for snow scenes. It can be purchased at www.judsonsart.com or www.dakotapastels.com. At least one lighting scenario we’ll cover will be sunlit snow. You’re certainly not required to purchase this set for the workshop, but it will have particular colors that students are often missing for snow scenes/winter landscapes. 

  Richeson ER19, EO2, B19, B20, and B1 (all included in my Richeson set) will be very helpful to have for this workshop.

Hard Pastels

Listed below are the colors I use for my pastel underpaintings, indicated for NuPastel and equivalent colors for Cretacolor. NuPastels are my favorite, but no longer available to order individually. 

NuPastels

244 Blue Violet, 212 Deep Orange, 306 Orchid Pink, 254 Violet Hyacinthe, and 353 Cordovan

Cretacolor

239 Paynes Grey, 111 Orange, 133 Rose Madder, 139 Bluish Purple, and 219 Sepia Dark Surface

Surface

Mounted UArt – Either mounted UArt from www.proartpanels.com (preferred) or UArt Premium Mounted Boards. My favorite grit is 320 or 400, but anything close to that will be fine for this workshop. 

You can also mount regular UArt paper yourself to foamboard with a spray adhesive. (Spray back of UArt paper and foamboard surface, and press down edges and corners firmly, ideally with a brayer). If mounting yourself, please have all paper mounted prior to workshop.

We’ll be using liquid underpaintings, so the mounted version of the UArt paper will be important.

Quantities/sizes:

11x14 (2) (If you tend to be a fast painter, bring a couple extra, or feel free to work slightly larger.)

Any size scraps of UArt paper (or similar pastel paper) will be helpful to have for testing colors

Other supplies:

• Small sketch book

• Artists tape 

• A couple of sharp pencils (any type) for thumbnails, and sharpener

• Pastel pencil to draw in initial shapes for painting (I use Cretacolor 239 Paynes Gray)

• Rubbing alcohol for underpainting

• Small jar for alcohol

• Brush for underpainting –any FLAT stiff bristle brush (not synthetic), size #6 or #8 

• Cotton rag (optional, for catching drips in the underpainting; paper towels work fine, too)

• Backing board (such as foamboard), a couple of inches larger on each side than your UArt board

• Hand wipes

• Paper towels

• Latex gloves or other hand protection if desired

• Portable easel (if venue doesn’t provide)