April Meeting of the Des Plaines Art Guild and Park Ridge Art League

The next general meeting of members from two local art organizations, the Des Plaines Art Guild and Park Ridge Art League, will meet on Tuesday, April 11th at 7:00 pm at Prairie Lakes Community Center, 515 E. Thacker Street, in Des Plaines. The public is invited to attend and refreshments will be served.

The featured artist for the evening is Kathleen Newman, who will be doing a soft pastel demonstration for members and guests. She will discuss her materials and her approach to painting in pastel beginning with a black and white charcoal sketch, the toning of sanded paper and the subsequent layering technique she uses to create her colorful artwork. Kathleen's paintings are inspired by her love of the outdoors and the many moods of light and shadow across the landscape and over water in particular. Inspired by the turn of the century Impressionists and Tonalists, Kathleen paints in the plein air tradition, creating small studies on location and working up to larger paintings in her studio.

She has been awarded the International Association of Pastel Artists Master's Circle Gold Medal, Chicago Pastel Painters Master, and signature letters in the Pastel Society of America, the American Impressionists Society and the American Transparent Watercolor Society.

Anyone interested in joining the Des Plaines Art Guild, with a reciprocal membership in the Park Ridge Art League, can download a membership form at dpag.org.