Opening the Door

I am very comfortable working in watercolor and ink. They have been my medium for many years. We are old friends. As the year turned and I wiped my canvas clean, I decided it was time to stretch my artistic experimentation.

I signed up for a series of classes using soft pastel. I had played with pastel before, but I had never taken the time to truly learn the material or understand its language. This felt like the perfect opportunity to see what I was made of. I ordered the basic supplies, packed my bag, and headed to class imagining it would feel familiar, like using crayons or pencils.

I was wrong. What I found was a new world, a new approach, and a strong desire to go deeper.

Pastels do not behave the way I expected. They do not move the way I want them to. They do not mix the way paint does. In fact, they do not really mix at all. This was both frustrating and exhilarating. By the sixth class, I was hooked and increasingly comfortable with the idea that this was a delightful challenge.

I discovered that jumping into something completely new was exactly where I needed to be this year. I feel a sense of freedom to make mistakes, to experiment without expectation, and to recreate myself as an artist. After twelve sessions, I am fully in love with the color saturation, the tactile quality, and the way pastels force me to plan and think differently.

I am now working on a new series inspired by the beloved marshes that surround me in Ipswich. The marsh and beaches are my daily sanctuary, a place where I notice the smallest, most subtle changes in the natural world.

I highly recommend taking a class and experimenting with something new. You may discover a door you didn't know you were ready to open.