Art Trails Tasmania
Sandra Ormes Painting Skies in Pastel is a beautifully crafted guide that celebrates the mesmerising drama and subtlety of the sky, offering pastel artists beginners and seasoned painters alike a chance to master this challenging yet rewarding subject.
The book is thoughtfully structured, starting with an introduction to essential materials and techniques, including blending, layering, and mark-making unique to pastel work.
Ormes clear explanations and expert tips give confidence to readers looking to explore the medium more deeply.
Her emphasis on sky painting is a refreshing niche focus, perfect for landscape and seascape artists who often find the sky the most daunting part of a composition.
One of the great strengths of this book is its progression through various sky moods from luminous sunrise and glowing sunset to brooding storm clouds and delicate dusk light.
Each project is broken down into manageable, well-photographed steps, allowing readers to build skills and techniques methodically.
Ormes own pastel paintings, which feature throughout, are inspiring and convey her passion for capturing natures atmosphere.
The book doesnt just teach technique; it encourages creativity and personal interpretation. This makes it as valuable for practising artists as for hobbyists and painters who enjoy experimenting with new methods.
And it is simply a joy to even just look through, lingering on the light and colours captured in Sandra Ormes works.
In summary, Painting Skies in Pastel is an inviting, beautifully presented guide that belongs on the bookshelf of every pastel enthusiast and creative soul who appreciates the beauty and drama of the ever-changing sky.
Leisure Painter, November 2023
Aimed at beginners and those with some experience, Sandra Orme's Painting Skies in Pastel is a practical and inspiring book that serves a complete course in working with pastels. Each of the stage-by-stage projects focuses upon a particular sky effect, with clear images describing every step of the journey.
There's plenty of general practical advice on using pastels from an artist renowned for her dramatic skyscapes from how to hold the pastel itself to make the marks you want, to which surface to use and how to blend and layer colours. Sandra's paintings throughout are sure to inspire you.
The Artist, Issue 139
It's always good when specific compositional elements and what we might call the minor media come together. It betokens a maturity of art instruction as well as a willingness of publishers to take a risk. And this was one risk certainly worth taking. Rather than being a short chapter, here skies get a whole book to themselves with everything from placid to dramatic fully covered.
After the usual introduction to materials, Sandra gets to the meat of the subject with six detailed demonstrations, starting with a blue sky fronted by fluffy white clouds which have real substance due to careful use of shading. From here, we move on to the more dramatic, with a cloudburst darkening the sky and obscuring part of the foreground. Further chapters cover wind, sunset and a sunrise. This is an impressively thought-thorough work that covers a good variety of situations and builds your skills progressively.
