Art Class for Seniors

Husky Stadium

This year I started teaching art at a senior center in Tacoma. As a dry run for my pastel painting class, my daughter, my niece, and I created paintings from our favorite landscapes. Here is my daughter's beautiful tribute to UW Husky sports. She employed many of the techniques I wanted to impart. Note the different textures she was able to accomplish and how she has adeptly captured the reflections in the golden water. She also successfully overlaid the white watercraft!

Sunflowers

My niece made a superb rendition of a landscape of sunflowers. I like how she modified the sky color to think outside of the blue box. She used a variety of pastel strokes. Many famous artists often copied the works of other artists in order to expand their own style and pay homage to the masters. Of the 142 paintings, Vincent Van Gogh completed in the final year of his life, 21 were copies of Jean-Francois Millet's works. As in music, artists add their own interpretation, often improvising a composition for their own pleasure and unique performance.

My seniors learned the basic techniques of pastel painting at a senior center in Tacoma. We explored pastels, paper, and other supplies, as well as, a methodology for recreating a landscape from a favorite photograph. One of my seniors was inspired by my niece's creation and made her own rendition. 

My own example pays homage to Edgar Degas, the artist everyone immediately associates with pastels. Realize that this example was selected in order to show most of the pastel strokes. And yes it's not a landscape! But the one on the right is a wonderful example from my senior art class!

In a second session, we used a limited palette to produce an interior scene. Van Gogh's "The Prayer"  portrait was shown as an example.