My Surprise Gift to Explore the Realm of Pastel Paintings

I know that as we get older, there are less needs and wants. It becomes a challenge to buy gifts for someone who seems to have everything one could want. One of the greatest gifts I have ever received, besides the gift of salvation and the love of my wife and my two great grown children, was a birthday gift I received from my wife last year. It was a gift that took thought, one that clearly came from the heart and one that showed the depth of love from my wife of thirty years. The gift was a total surprise, and one I was delighted to receive. A gift of pastel painting lessons with award winning pastel artist Reif Erickson of Auburn. We always delight in gifts, but this one was very special because it gave me the opportunity to get back into art. This wasn’t a gift I had to unwrap, this was a gift that was to unwrap the talent I had let languish for so long.


Through the years I have done pencil sketching, dabbled in water color painting, oil painting and charcoal sketches, but in all my years of dabbling in art, I had never been introduced to the medium of pastels. Well, let me rephrase that, I have seen pastels done by other artists and admired them, but have never tried my hand at it.

Although my birthday was in June, I was not able to call Reif about lessons until a consulting project I had contracted for was completed in October. When I called Reif, he told me that he would provide everything I needed on the first day, and if I decided to continue, he would give me a list of what I would need. He gave me directions to his home, and said that the class would start at nine and end around eleven.

On that first day when I went to Reif’s home, I was anticipating the opportunity to learn all about pastel painting, but I was also nervous because I had no idea if I would take to the medium and have the skill to produce something even resembling art. I had taken my sketch board with me so that I would have something to work on. I had done a Mapquest search on the house, so I had no problem locating it. It was a California ranch style home with the garage pushed out front. Reif had said to come through the side gate, that classes were in the garage, that he had converted to a studio.

When I opened the door to the garage, I saw Reif standing by an easel, and he said, ah, you must be Paul, come in, we will get started in a few minutes. There were two other ladies in the studio when I arrived, and they were warm and friendly in their greetings. Reif told me to take the empty chair at the end of a work table. I noticed one of the ladies at the other table had a portable tabletop easel set up, and a drawer load of pastels. She had obviously been taking classes for awhile. My table partner was an 82 year old lady named Butterfly, and she had a butterfly hair pin atop her grey hair. Butterfly was a character, dressed in bright colors, and chatty. She had a box of pastels laid out before her and an empty 9 X 13 pastel board.

Reif gave me a piece of pastel paper and a small box of short pieces of pastels. He then went to the easel, where he had a blank piece of pastel paper, with a photograph of a river flowing through rocks and over a falls. I guessed this was going to be the challenge for us today. Reif said well let’s get started and I noticed the other two ladies got up and moved closer so they could observe him work. He began to draw a sketch of the photo using a small piece of pastel. I could see that he had an excellent eye and he quickly outlined the major features and rivers course. Reif doesn’t talk a lot, he works quietly and explains what he is doing and how you put the darker colors down first and overlay them with lighter colors as your painting progresses. It was fascinating to see how quickly he transformed that blank sheet of paper into a completed painting. I watched and made a mental note of colors he was using first, I noticed the two ladies were taking notes, but I had brought nothing to write on. To my surprise Reif finished the painting, in less than a half hour. When he was satisfied, he put down his pastels picked up some photographs and said, “Well that will do,” and handed each of us a copy of the same photograph he had painted. Now it is your turn he said.

I began sketching out the features of the photo, the river and rocks as I had seen Reif do. It was not easy using a small piece of pastel to do this, but I did my best. Then I began to add the colors as I remembered Reif had done and my own painting began to take shape. Reif hovered around me for awhile and watched what I was doing, and then walked around the tables checking on my classmates progress. I was finding it easier than I had anticipated, but was having trouble with getting the shading on the water the way I wanted it. I asked Reif what color I should use, and he showed took a purple color and showed me how to overlay the shade and get the contrast I wanted.

The class went by quickly and before I knew it, it was eleven o’clock and my painting was done. Reif said, are you sure you have never done pastels before? I said no, I never have done pastels before. I have done a lot of pencil sketching, water color and oils, but not pastel. He said, ah okay, it’s the pencil sketching that gave you the ability to do that so easily. I didn’t know that was what it was, I just know that I was pleased with my first attempt and already hooked on the medium. Reif gave me a sheet of materials I would need fto bring to class the following week. There was no doubt in my mind I would be back!

When I got home with my first painting, I was like a kid wanting to show his parents what he had done at school today. When I showed Cindy what I had painted in the first pastel class she was surprised. She said, you did that in an hour? I said yes, I am amazed at how quickly everything comes together in this medium. She was very encouraging and happy for me. I thanked her again for the opportunity to get back into art, and learn a new medium.  My first pastel accompanies this blog. While I won’t bore you with every painting I have done, I will show you some of my work as I explore the medium and challenge myself further.