March of the Mentors
Following our general meeting, we will offer our annual March of the Mentors event where members can sign up for a three-hour session with an artist of their choosing from the list below. Each artist’s group will be limited to five participants. Participants should bring several paintings or images of their own work to be reviewed in the session, along with pastels, paper and basic supplies. This is a very popular and fun event!
Cost: $40
NOTE: In order to register, you need to have established a membership account. If you need to establish a membership account, go to the MEMBERS ONLY page under MEMBERSHIP.
Registration will open at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 18th.
Robin Angelides
This beginner-friendly session will cover the basics of pastels, different types of paper, and application techniques. We will also create small pastel works together. You’re welcome to bring in your own artwork for discussion and feedback. I’ll be encouraging you to enter the upcoming PSSC Members’ Show, Novice category.
Known for her diverse, award-winning works, spanning landscapes, florals, animals, and background animations, Robin has been featured in exhibitions both locally and internationally.
Dori Dewberry
Bring a few pieces of your artwork for discussion and receive valuable feedback on your artistic direction. Our focus will be on adding simplified figures to your work. We will experiment with placing individual strokes or massing to suggest people in our compositions. Learning about scale and placement, as well as light and shadow, will help create convincing images. We will explore how these elements interact with perspective to enhance the depth and storytelling in the work being created.
A dedicated mentor with 25 years of experience in pastels. Dori teaches beginners to advanced students emphasizing the creative process, and inspiring them to find their unique artistic voice. Dori will share her insight and award winning expertise. Dori loves working with pastels because of its wonderful mark making ability and its direct application from fingertips to surface. The building of a variety of strokes is what gives her work an impressionistic style.
Mike Ishikawa
Mike will demo his unique painting techniques. He will critique your art pieces and give you feed back.
A retired architect who uses bold strokes of bright colors and texture to create emotional realistic paintings with interest. Mike has won awards at several national competitions and exhibits locally.
Chris Stillians
I will demo the following: an easy way to cut glassine for covering a painting, how to cut and spray mount pastel paper to foam core board, how to hinge mount a pastel painting on paper for framing, how to frame a pastel painting both using spacers and float mounting, how to do a line drawing in photoshop for transfer to pastel paper, how to transfer using Duraline, and I will show my pencil sharpening techniques.
Chris is the President of the Pastel Society of Southern California. He has been awarded the title of Master of Photography, and Photographic Craftsman by the Professional Photographers of America. After a 50 year career as a carriage trade portrait photographer, Chris turned his artistic talents to the pastel arts. He has won many awards during his life-long career.
Otto Sturcke
I will focus on the five major essentials of a strong painting: Composition, Value Structure, Color Relationships, Edge Contrasts, and Details. Students are encouraged to bring their materials to paint along during my step by step demo and one piece they wish to be critiqued towards the end of our session.
Master Pastelist, International award-winning and published artist. Influenced by the Dutch Masters, Otto seeks to find common ground between the contemporary and the classical by depicting personal, emotional, and quiet elegance through light, shadow, and texture.
Kathleen Weil
Clouds are a fascinating phenomena in the sky. They may appear simple at first glance, but they can be surprisingly complex. In this session, we will focus specifically on clouds and their intricate formations. Participants will engage in small studies that will allow them to explore the use of both warm and cool colors. Additionally, we will experiment with subtle shifts in value to effectively create the impression of airy vapor, useful for enhancing the overall composition of one’s artwork.
Winner of multiple international, national, and local awards. Kathleen’s work ranges from landscapes and figures to the abstract.