Saturday 12th September 2026 0930 – 1530
Dovetail Centre Large Hall 

Brenda Molyneux- Introduction to Pastels Workshop

Brenda, membership secretary of CFAG, is a local self-taught artist from Hythe who has been painting for several decades and loves to share the joy of painting. She always aspired to be a teacher, favouring art, but life took her on a different path. She later gained her teaching experience working with the Adult Basic Learning programme and later running her own regular art workshops and introductions to a variety of mediums, applications and techniques.

Brenda has judged work and has demonstrated aspects of her own artwork to various local groups in Hampshire and Wiltshire. Her work was short-listed for the SAA Artist of the Year and she has received several awards at local art exhibitions. She works in many mediums but favours oil, acrylic and pastels.  

Brenda says that pastel is the most direct of all the media, being both a drawing and painting medium.  Marks can be crisp and vigorous, or soft and smudgy. Either way there is a directness and immediacy with the mark making. 

This workshop will be an introduction to the medium. The aim of the workshop is to explore the qualities of soft pastels and to experiment with different methods of application. We will start the morning by learning how to set up of your workstation, which equipment and paint surfaces to use, and try out several techniques of application with simple exercises. The goal is to create a final painting of your own choice using this versatile medium.