Pastel Landscapes

This week we decided to do a pastel landscape.  Using my old, old art book Painting the Four Seasons by Carl Stricker that I bought at a 2nd bookshop years ago, we selected 2 landscapes.

Miss. T18 and I did this lovely rural farm scene:

And Miss.K14 chose the stormy, rainy landscape.

We all loved using our chalk pastels.  Despite “loosing” colour or details now and then as we worked, and having to layer the colours back over again, we all thoroughly enjoyed our art lesson …

All except Miss.L11 who wanted to paint her landscape and couldn’t mix the ‘right’ colours and disliked her painting … leaving the room upset when she was finished.  I love her painting!

I realized that 2 factors are contributing to her unhappiness:

• She’s finding the reality and accuracy she wants to create versus her artistic ability frustrating which is quite common in children between 9 and 11 years old …
• I am too involved with everyone else and my own work to help her before her frustration kicks in.
• Note to self: Select an “easier” topic and a manageable medium and focus on helping and being available to her.

Simple tutorials are so easy to follow.  If you find some on the internet I suggest that you print out nice clear prints and hang them up or prop the images up on an easel nearby to copy.  The final picture is very important, so make a larger colour copy.  Also, most paint tutorials can easily be done with chalk pastels, so select one with broad features rather than a picture with intricate details.

Go ahead and try a pastel landscape!

Blessings,

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