From 1991 through 1998  the Sun Valley Center of the Arts requested me to teach numerous classes in soft pastels, plus a plein-aire class, one on oil painting and a drawing class.

Ironically, I had been studying with master artists teaching for the same institution previously in the 1980’s, especially my mentor, sculptor and painter George Carlson, who at that time was specializing in his vividly colored pastels of Tarahumara Indians of Mexico. 

I developed a detailed set of class hand-outs on techniques in soft pastels, plus another on the ‘Laws of Color and Light’ and another on ‘Design by using Dark and Light Values’. These were largely based on what I had learned from George Carlson’s fantastic classes. I had studied with him more than 150 hours in Sun Valley as well as at the Scottsdale Artist’s School.

I gave my teaching materials to George to review after which he declared them to be complete enough to fill a semester class in college.

The photograph included here is one I took at the end of one of the soft pastel classes I taught which shows several of the student’s studies of the still-life that sits in the top center of the photo. It was a study in creating all those various textures with soft pastel sticks. I was so proud of these students who seemed to learn quite well, even though many were mere novices in art.

In addition to the many students over the years in classes, I have had the privilege of working privately with some fine talents who gone on to national recognition, such as Mary Roberson and Deborra Marshall Bohrer. See her website, www.deborra.com.

One student sent me an unsolicited thank you note (shown below) that I will cherish forever.

–G.P.L.