Pastel Painting Studio: Focus on Still Life

1 Day Workshop with Mary Padgett

Saturday, November 8, 2025, 10am-5pm

Still life painting has been around a long time. Images of foods were painted on the walls of Egyptian tombs to give the dead something to eat in the afterlife. Later, in Christian Europe, still life painting sent a moral message to viewers with depictions of objects laden with meaning. Realist painters from the 16th thru 18th century used the genre to explore precise detail in foods, beverages, dead animals, and flowers. Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and Fauvists used still life subjects as an opportunity to play with paint-handling, color, and composition. We will do precisely that as we paint from colorful arrangements based on actual still lifes by 19th and 20th century masters. Pastel’s high pigment load and versatility make it the ideal medium to capture these still life arrangements. Pastel is intensely colorful and can be applied in a myriad of ways, from a fine line to a broad passage of color. This workshop is an opportunity for you to receive individualized instruction in the pastel medium. For individuals new to pastel, my goal is to educate you about the broad range of pastel products and techniques, to assist you in developing your personal style, and to encourage creative exploration. For experienced pastel painters my goal is to provide feedback in a supportive working environment.

This materials list is an overview of pastel products and is intended to be a resource to guide you should you want to purchase pastels and/or papers. For those of you new to pastel Mary will make available pastel sets and papers for you to use for this workshop. The fee will be $35 and you will need to notify Mary at the time of registration and no later than October 22. The pastel sets will be returned to Mary at the end of the workshop.

Non-Members $180 / Members $170

Mary Padgett’s paintings are distinctive for her use of color. She works in both oil and pastel, is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and has been featured in American Artist and Pastel Journal magazines. Her paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including Towers Perrin, Takasago International, and the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. She has participated in many regional and national exhibitions, with exhibition and competition awards from the Pastel Society of America, the Fenimore Art Museum, and the Finger Lakes Plein Air and Frank Bette Plein Air Painting Competitions. One of her paintings was recently in the prestigious International Association of Pastel Societies Open Division Online Exhibition, comprised of 134 works from across the globe. Mary was educated at Boston University and Syracuse University. She has taught painting and color courses for Syracuse University and Cazenovia College, and currently conducts workshop programs in the US and abroad. She maintains a studio in New Woodstock, New York.