Natalie Richards
Pastel Painting Diaries
A Three-Day Exploration in Color, Texture, and Creative Starts
Unleash the Creative Inner You!
Learn and play during this intense three-day workshop that will have you uncovering the unexplored fundamentals of pastel painting. Want to use colors more effectively? Would you like to explore the possibilities of texture in your painting? Are you always starting a painting in the same way because it is predictable or successful? Then this three-day workshop is for you! Unlike a traditional workshop format with a full demonstration in the morning, and only a few hours left to paint in the afternoon, we will begin our day painting small studies to explore new information and then paint larger in the afternoon, implementing our favorite idea from the morning. Basically, we will be creating all day for three days! My plan is for you to leave buzzing with creative energy, confidence, and the tools for understanding and exploring color, implementing texture into your painting, and new ideas for how to start a painting. Come prepared to play and have fun!
Day 1: Creative Starts Diaries
There are many ways to start a painting. We are going to see how many we can think of, then invent one of our own! Often, we rely on what has been successful for us and ignore what may be an even better way to start. In the morning, we will begin with small paintings then work toward a larger painting (or two) in the afternoon with a focus on implementing one of our favorite “starts.” We will explore a few ways to start with the following exercises:
Notan Start - Using a mid-value pastel we will begin our painting by creating a notan on our surface, then setting it with alcohol.
Random Ink Underpainting - Building off of our notan Start, we will use ink to create an underpainting.
Left-Hand (Right-Hand) Start - Using our non-dominant hand will be start our painting in any means we want.
Random Acrylic “Drop” Start - In the afternoon you can either continue with small Start studies, or you can select your favorite new start and create a larger painting.
Day 2: Color Diaries
We will begin the morning playing with color. Learn about color temperatures and the push and pull effects they have (i.e., warm colors come forward while cool colors recede back). Aside from the obvious, how do we determine what colors are cool and which ones are warm? Are all neutrals truly neutral? We will explore some color techniques with a few “color challenge” exercises in the form of timed studies including:
Paint a High Key study using warm and cool colors.
Paint a Low Key study using warm and cool colors (both of these studies will use the same reference photo).
Create a warm underpainting.
Create a cool underpainting (be sure to enter into your “diary” the colors you used, this can be on the side of the paper).
Painting over each underpainting using the same colors (palette) of your choice.
A surprise color challenge (wait and see)! In the afternoon you can continue playing with these color studies or take your favorite and explore it for a full painting. What will your journal entry be for today?
Day 3: Texture Diaries
We will explore surface texture by creating textured surfaces to paint on. We will make two surfaces using foamboard/gatorboard, and matboard (also known as mixed media art board, museum board, Dollar Store artboard). I will bring Canson’s Mixed Media Art Board and foamboard for the small studies. I will also bring watercolor ground and clear gesso for everyone to use and share. We will explore texture and the effects it can have in a few exercises including:
Paint on the handmade foamboard surface.
Paint on the handmade artboard surface.
Paint on the “surprise” surface in your goodie bag!
Paint the texture reference image in your goodie bag.
In the afternoon you can either continue with small texture studies, or you can select your favorite textured background and create a larger painting or two (9x12, 11x14, for example).
Skill Level: This workshop is open to all levels, but those with at least some basic experience with pastels will benefit most.
Price: $325
Registration Instructions
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If the workshop fills and you would like to be placed on a waitlist, contact Sandra Heffernan
Check out Natalie’s work at:
About Natalie…
Richards has been drawing and painting since she was a child, encouraged in her creative endeavors by her father who painted, and her mother who taught her how to draw. She discovered pastels in high school and fell in love with the beautiful colors and softness of the sticks.
Richard went on to study art in college and earned her AA in Fine Art from San Bernardino Community College. During her transfer to a four-year university, a college counselor noted her aptitude in science and encouraged Richards to get a degree in the science field where she could be independent and marketable. She was told that she would “always have her art.” She changed her major to Environmental Science and received her BS from the University of California, Riverside. Since 1996 she has worked as an Environmental Analyst/Project Manager which has given her writing and presentation skills that carry over into her success as a pastel artist and instructor today. Richards continued to work in pastels and has studied with many pastel artists including Albert Handell, Richard McKinley, Aline Ordman, and Jacob Aguiar, to whom she owes so much.
Richards teaches classes at the Redlands Art Association Gallery in Redlands, CA and at the Desert Art Center in Palm Springs, CA, and holds an annual workshop at the National Arts & Crafts Conference in Asheville, NC. Teaching art is engaging and allows her to share her knowledge of painting while continuing to learn herself.
Richards has been a juried exhibitor at several prominent exhibitions for 15 years. In June 2022, she took Second Place in the Pastel Society of Southern California’s 4th Annual Make Your Mark Virtual Exhibition. In October 2022, one of Richards paintings was included in the International Association of Pastel Societies (“IAPS”) 41st Open Division. Recently, in Spring 2025 she took Fourth Place with “Tahquitz Canyon” in Pastel Journal’s Pastel 100 International Competition, and in March 2025 she received Artist Choice Award for Best Body of Work at the 19th Annual Borrego Springs Plein Air Invitational.
Richards’ work has been published in Pastel Journal, PSSW Magazine, Arts & Crafts Home, and local newspapers.