The Ponca City Art Center is holding a special pastel workshop in early April. Titled TREES, FLORALS, AND LIGHT, this intensive and fun three day workshop is taught by the amazing, award winning artist Jude Tolar, a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America. To find out more about Jude, please visit her website: https://judetolar.com/. Focusing on landscapes, floral, and how to get the best outcome from your work, each day will have demonstration time and one on one guidance.
The dates for the workshop are April 5th, 6th, and 7th with each session going from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Student space for TREES, FLORALS, AND LIGHT is limited to 12 people so it is advised that you reserve your spot today by going to the PCAC website at www.poncacityartcenter.org and clicking ONLINE CLASS SIGNUP or by calling 580-765-9746. On the website you can also see a needed Supply List and a recommended Source List for pastel supplies.
“This workshop is great for the intermediate to advanced pastel artist, it’s not really meant for the beginner,” says Ponca City Art Center Executive Director Lance Garrett. He also added that all students must be over 18 years of age.
Cost for TREES, FLORAL, AND LIGHT, which is over 20 hours of instruction, are $150 for Art Center Members and $195 for non-members.
Additional Information:
Jude Tolar Biography
Jude Tolar set aside mermaid drawings and college doodling for a psychology degree from Oklahoma State University. Art followed her, though, and led her to a long career in graphic design and illustration. She also wrote and illustrated children’s books. Along the way she studied fine art and illustration post-baccalaureate at the University of Oklahoma.
Upon retirement, Jude focused on fine art. She picked up soft pastels as a way to study color and work easily en plein air, and immediately loved the results. She began studying with a number of well-known pastel artists, most extensively with Clive Tyler.
Her soft pastel paintings are lyrical views of the beauty and joy she sees in the world. Light is the first thing she’s drawn to, followed by color and line. She prefers to work from life, mainly en plein air. She’s best known for trees and floral portraits outdoors and glass still lifes indoors.
From the outset Jude’s pastel work has garnered success. She won an Equal Merit award in the very first juried show she entered, The Art Groups Show (Oklahoma City, June 2007). Since then her paintings have won many more awards, including five Best of Shows.
She’s won national awards, including PleinAir Magazine’s PleinAir Salon and the Pastel Journal magazine’s Pastel 100. Her work has juried into many national and international shows for Pastel Society of America, International Association of Pastel Societies, and others.
Jude has written for Pastel Journal, and her work is in Pastel Journal’s current issue (April 2017) as part of the Pastel 100, the top 100 pastel paintings of the year. Her work has also been featured in four editions of PleinAir Today, the e-newsletter of PleinAir Magazine.
She is a Signature Member of Pastel Society of America and a Signature Member of Oklahoma Art Guild. She also belongs to American Impressionist Society, Oklahoma Pastel Society, Pastel Society of New Mexico and Stillwater (OK) Art Guild.
Jude’s pastel paintings hang in galleries, guild shows and juried shows. Her work is in many private collections across the US. She also gives demonstrations and teaches pastel workshops.
When not painting, Jude can be found gardening, reading, hiking or mowing. She lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with her husband and a studio full of soft pastels. They have a son and daughter-in-law and two grand-dogs.
