PSME offers educational workshops taught by nationally and internationally recognized pastel artists. These workshops provide artists with the opportunity to enhance their skill level in the medium of pastel. Students must register in advance.
For more information, see below or contact the PSME Workshop Coordinator through: CONTACT PSME
check below !!
Pastel Society of Maine Workshops - 2025
PSME’s yearly workshops are popular and a great way to make connections with artist friends and refresh or expand your pastel painting skills. Workshops are open to members and non-members, so please check back for a complete description of our 2025 workshop offerings.
ALINE ORDMAN WORKSHOP
April 23 - 25, 2025, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily
Location: Lamont Hall, 2 Pleasant St, Brunswick, ME
PSME members: $335; non-members: $375
Registration deadline: March 30, 2025
Workshop application available here.
CREATING DYNAMIC PASTELS
Painting is learning to see. Often, we paint what we think we see because we all have preconceived notions of what something looks like. However, to really paint what you see, you must break down everything you are looking at into just abstract shapes. Don’t see a “house”, see a series of interlocking shapes.
Working from their own photo references, students will transform these into pastel paintings using the principles of color, value and design. Along with a painting demonstration, Aline will talk about understanding color in terms of temperature, intensity and value while translating those ideas using pastel technique.
Demonstrations will be of landscapes, figures in an environment and portraits, but students are welcome to choose whatever they wish to paint.
Featured 2025 April Workshop - Aline Ordman, “Creating Dynamic Pastels”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Aline grew up outside New York and received her early education at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY graduating in 1975 with a BFA. She subsequently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and eventually attended The Academy of Art College (now University) in San Francisco receiving an additional BFA in illustration. Upon graduation she taught figure drawing there for about 8 years before moving to New England, specifically the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Aline is a Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America, an Eminent Pastelist with the International Association of Pastel societies, A Signature Member of The American Impressionist Society and a Signature Member of the Oil Painters of America. Her work has appeared in various publications, receiving Awards in the Pastel Journal’s including the Founders Award. In 2017 she received the Prix de Pastel in the International Association of Pastel Society’s National Juried Exhibition.
Aline currently lives in Vermont and teaches workshops throughout the country and Europe. Her studio is in Quechee, Vermont, and her work can be seen in The Blue Heron Gallery in Wellfleet, Massachussetts, The Little Gallery in Mackinac, MI and Winfield Gallery in Carmel by the Sea, CA
Her website is www.alineordman.com
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For a representative selection of past Pastel Society of Maine workshops, browse the list below and stay tuned for details regarding future workshops.
past workshopS:
2024: Polly Castor “Non-traditional Surfaces and Techniques in Pastel” at Ferry Beach Conference Center, Saco, ME
2023: Tara Will “Turning on the Light” at Ferry Beach Conference Center, Saco, ME
2023: Diana Rogers “Pastel Painting in the Gardens” at Maine Botanical Gardens
2023: Mary Beth Morrison “Kid’s Journal Notes to Painting in Pastel”
2023: Laurinda Phakos O’Connor “Deconstruct, Simplify, Interpret”
2022: Polly Castor “Adventures in Abstractions"
2022: Diana Rogers "Color Forward”
2022: Barbara Farchione Children's Workshop
2021: Laura Pollak “Abstracting the Landscape”
2021: Terrilynn Dubreuil “Hone the Hues"
2020: Lyn Asselta “Expressive Landscape” Live Workshop @Ferry Beach Park Association, Saco
2019: Jennifer Evenhus "The Beauty of Imperfection” Workshop
2018: Richard McKinley Workshops