Desmond O'Hagan Workshop

This weekend I've been taking a pastel workshop by Desmond O'Hagan, with several other members of the Austin Pastel Society, at the Windburg Art Center in Georgetown, TX.
It's been quite challenging, but I've learned a lot. Mr. O'Hagan has a loose, painterly style, but a style that I've never seen "in action" before. He uses short, varied strokes with the side of the pastel. When seen applied, they all look quite geometric, squares and little rectangles mostly. But as he layers up the values and colors -- voila! -- light and atmoshphere magically appear!
I said to him today, "I don't know HOW you do it! I've seen you work twice and I still don't know how you do it!"

Here's a short progression of his demo from today:














The finished scene! Wow!


Ok, since this IS my blog, I'll post my accomplishments from the past two days:

Here's my first painting on friday almost finished.

Here's today's painting about 3/4 of the way through. I'll post finished photos tomorrow!

Thanks for watching!

Rita