Psec demo 2016

Portrait of Mr. Jean Letarte

Festival de Peinture à Mascouche 2015

This year being one of the administrators I only showed several works at the festival de peinture a Mascouche. Lots of work running around making sure everything is going smooth. I was in charge of the life drawing session on Saturday afternoon.

wonderful weather we had on the long weekend. Lots of sunshine but a little bit of the hot side.

Life drawing session saturday afternoon.

full house, all chairs were taken!

winners and prizes for the kids category.

Alexandre, our pianist for the weekend. She is the son of our secretary, Martine.

Master class given by Alain Massicotte on Sunday.

Pastels portraits by Alain Massicotte

Claude de Lorimier giving a demo outside on plein air painting.

Richard Belanger, our invited artist giving a demo on watercolor.

one of the artists working on a piece for the silent auction.

works for the silent auction. All benefits goes towards the festival.

my contribution to the silent auction

Jacques Sevigny in full determination. photo taken by Jean-Philippe Leroux

George portrait reworked

I thought I did not really quite captured the likeness with George at the PSEC demo. So I asked George if I could reworked the portrait a bit more before giving it to him. So I think this is the final result...after and before reworking.

after reworking

before

PSEC portrait challenge 2013

I was invited again this year to participate in the PSEC portrait challenge. This is year has the same line up. Master pastelliste Denis Jacques, master pastelliste Juan Cristobal, last year's grand prize winner Ann Rochefort and me. I feel tiny among giants...hehe. Butterflies are coming back...Oh! its this Friday November 1st at Ogilvy's (5th floor) in Montreal. Pastels starts flyin' at 4pm and finishes at 6pm. Then its the PSEC exhibition opening or vernissage at 7pm. Oh I cannot wait! For details...pastelsec.com

I wonder who is our next victim?

Bois des Filion symposium + festival de peinture a Mascouche

The past weekend I participated at the 15th edition of Bois des Filion art symposium. Got beautiful weather but not much crowd though. :(  I had a bit of time to paint which was awesome! I did a couple of landscapes and a portrait inspired by Vermeer and the film a girl with a pearl earring starring Scarlett Johannson. Hopefully I can continue working on her at the Festival de peinture a Mascouche this coming long weekend Aug 30 - Sept 2. This year it will be celebrating the 25th year! Come visit and see great art and artists at work! Hope to see you there.

Ile de Bonaventure, Gaspesie, oil 9x12

Ogunquit shore, oil 9x12

Scarlett Johannson oil 14x18

Pastel demo PSEC 2012

This is a pastel demo done at Ogilvy's in Montreal. About over an hour of work. Model is PSEC president Reine Goodrow. Denis jacques, Ann Rochefort and Juan Cristobal also did a version.

portrait of Reine Goodrow

Juan Cristobal's work (left) and Ann Rochefort (right)

Denis Jacques (left) and myself (right)

Les Pastellistes 2012

I will be participating once again this year on the annual exhibit of the Pastel Society of Eastern Canada (PSEC). I will be doing a live demo together with master pastelliste Denis Jacques and Ann Rochefort just before the vernissage on Friday November 2, around 4 pm. And my portrait of Andrée was chosen for the poster this year! How cool is that!? Anyways, the exhibit is at Olgilvy's (top floor) from Nov 2nd to 18th. Hope to see you there!

FPM 2012 cont'd 2



with Lynda Schneider Granatstein, this year's honorary invited artist

Tex Lecor in person!

with  Tex Lecor and Martin Blanchet

with Martin Blanchet and Chantal Beauchamp

This is a portrait demo I gave this morning using a limited palette. (T. white, yellow ochre, alizarin, raw umber and burnt umber)

Les Pastellistes 2011

I will be a part of this year's annual exhibition of PSEC's Les Pastellistes. I have 2 artworks in the exhibition.
I will also be doing a portrait demo live with Denis Jacques and Ann Rochefort on the opening night at 4pm, Nov 4. There is also live demoes everyday during the exhibition. Details are below.. Hope to can make it.


When: Nov 4th to 13th, 2011
Where: OGILVY TUDOR Hall, 1307 West Ste. Catherine Street (5th floor), Montreal, Quebec (H3G 1P7)
Opening hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday, Friday - 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday - 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Official Opening reception: November 4th, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.


DEMONSTRATIONS' SCHEDULE


•Friday, November 4th, 4pm to 6pm. Portrait Challenge with Denis Jacques, Ann Rochefort and Josef Sy.
Three talented portrait artists step up to the challenge and paint the same model. Observe their varied techniques!

•Saturday November 5th, 10h30. Margaret Ferraro; Set up for Spontaneity in Pastel.
Margaret will use a process where colour becomes a key factor in learning how to play in the moment, in order to find your true voice as an original artist, using colour intuitively.

•Saturday November 5th, 2 pm. BILL HOSNER; Painting a Portrait ($10 Entry Fee)
Take this unique opportunity to come and see Mr. Bill Hosner, Master Pastellist with the Pastel Society of America, as he paints a portrait from a live model.

•Sunday November 6th, Noon to 5 pm, Café des artistes
Visitors will be free to tour the exhibition and watch the artists at work, while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee, with a lovely musical backdrop.

•Sunday November 6th, 1:30 pm, Véronica Takacs Fragman, Guided Tour;
Véronica will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Monday, November 7th, 1:30pm. Ann Rochefort; Still Life
Ann will show us her still life painting techniques.

•Tuesday, November 8th, 1pm. Juan Cristobal; Painting a Rainy City Scene
Juan, a PSEC master pastellist, will paint an atmospheric rain-soaked city scene and tackle the challenges of rendering cool and warm lights.

•Tuesday November 8th, 3pm. Juan Cristobal, Guided Tour
Juan will finish off his demonstration with a guided tour, commenting on strategic and fully developed compositions.

•Wednesday, November 9th, 1:30pm. Véronica Takacs Fragman; Guided Tour
Véronica will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Wednesday, November 9th, 2:30pm. Susanne Strater; Ways of Working
Susanne will show us how she layers her pastel strokes to achieve a rich texture and a semi abstraction of the subject matter.

•Thursday, November 10th, 1:30PM. Michel Raymond; Night-time City Scene.
Michel will paint a night-time city scene and explain his choices of colours and tonal variations to achieve the required mood.

•Thursday, November 10th, 5:30pm. Suzanne Godbout and Viviane Roman; Pastels and the Proper Tools.
A yearly feature, Suzanne and Viviane will introduce all the different materials available on the market, and discuss their inherent qualities.

•Friday, November 11th, 1:30pm. Magda Bascaron; Composition from a model.
Magda will show us how to establish, from a model, the elements of the composition, including lines, shadows and lights.

•Saturday, November 12th, 11am. Suzanne Godbout; Guided Tour.
Suzanne will give a guided tour and reveal why some works are so successful.

•Saturday, November 12th, 1:30. Suzanne Godbout; View of the Saint-Lawrence River
The artist will establish a tonal structure with an under-painting adding depth to colours.

•Sunday, November 13th, 1:30pm. Caroline Guernon; The artist's portfolio
What comprises a professional looking portfolio, from the cover page to the resume.

Geest comparison - original vs copy

This is a side by side comparison and you can see that there is things quite off. DOH! Ok, not to be discouraged. The purpose of copying is to learn and in learning mistakes are made. The reference I have was a printed copy of the painting and here are some of things to fix. 

• overall color of the skin is much too yellow.
• lips are too red and saturated. (the hard copy ref was that color I swear! lol)
• Some shadow areas need to be punched up.
• frills or ruffles value need to be toned down and detail added.
• Hignlight on the nose needs to be toned down.
• transition tone between the left eyebrow and forehead.
• Hair details needs some tweaks.
• cast shadow under the nose.
• ears needs more modeling.

Some demo drawings and a painting sketch

Here are some demo drawings from my drawing class on Tuesdays. Usually I dont finish them as you can see. ;) I have several request for a portrait painting class so maybe in the new year I will start one with the Festival or on the side. (depending on my schedule too)

Drawing from a skull cast.

This exercise was using subtraction. You start off with a mid tone using vine charcoal and then you erase or subtract the areas where it is lighter in value. It is a great exercise to let you see in 2 or 3 values.

 One of the Bargue exercises.

 I recently met and visited Tex Lecor at his Studio. He is one of the great artists from Quebec. Not only he paints, he is a famous folk singer in the 70's and had some TV shows too. A real renaissance gentleman.

 Another subtraction exercise demo.



Les Pastellistes - Vernissage

I did a live portrait demo with 3 other artists (Denis Jacques, Margaret Small and Ann Rochefort) at the vernissage of the 15th Les Pastellistes Exhibition. I was very nervous but I think it went ok. The model's name is Isabelle.

 Left: Denis Jacques' work.  right: Ann Rochefort's work

 left: Margaret Small's work . Right: my work

 After about 1 hour of work.

 Picture with the model.

 Left large painting is Danielle Richards'. One of my pastels is to the right of the lights.

Les Pastellistes - 15th annual exhibition

This year I am participating in the annual pastel exhibition by Pastel Society of Eastern Canada. I have a couple of pieces in the show. I am very excited because I will doing a live portrait demo with 2 other artists before the vernissage on Nov. 5th at 4pm. See the complete list of demonstrations on PSEC website http://pastelsec.com/PDFs/Demos-Ogilvy2010.pdf
I hope to see you there...