by Jill Stefani Wagner

  I’m not a real big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Making a blanket declaration that on January 1st I will immediately START or STOP doing something seems pretty arbitrary...and ripe for failure. But I do believe in having goals: something tangible that I can work toward.   When I owned my advertising agency, January was the time that I diligently made lists of tactics that would help us improve our current client relationships, increase the quality of our creative ideas and bring more interesting work in the door. There was no simple resolution to bring these goals to fruition, it was often a [...]

  Still a few spots open...Come paint with us! Nora and I are heading off to a two-week workshop in Spain, but you can still sign up to attend our Michigan plein air workshop when we return. Just text me at 734.604.2864. [...]

“Promenade” Pastel Cityscape Painting   9 inches x 112 inches     See Pricing When I do demonstration paintings at my workshops, I rarely finish them to the extent I would in the studio. I’m more interested in teaching my students a new concept or technique than I am in creating a perfect piece of art. And, I don’t want to take up all of their painting time finessing my work. But I do bring in my practice examples of the exact same painting to show them what a finished piece might look like.   The painting above was done with a value under painting [...]

  No words. Take a look at just some of the beautiful pastel paintings from our UArt workshop. I’m such a proud mama!               [...]

  Oh. My. Its been a crazy couple of months. We took a little sun break down south for a couple weeks, I lead a pastel workshop, I worked on new paintings for the upcoming gallery season and practiced for my Pastel Faculty gig at the Plein Air Convention in a week. And of course I’ve made a few visits to my precious newborn grand daughter. Time flies. And it seems with all that going on, I forgot that I have an artblog to write!   I’ll start with the workshop. What a GREAT group of artists I had! Many were repeat students and [...]

I’m so pleased to be invited Pastel Faculty at this year’s Plein Air Convention (PACE). I absolutely loved teaching at PACE 2016 and 2017. I had wanted to attend the convention for years, but something always got in the way. It wasn’t til they asked me to teach at PACE 2016 that I got a chance to experience it.   It was AMAZING. 900 students and 6o faculty learning to paint outdoors in a supportive, no-drama atmosphere.   Marketing Bootcamp with Eric Rhoads early every morning, then Home Room with tons of door prizes. Four days of  demos by my favorite artists in 3 or [...]

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Every January I make a list of a few goals for myself in the new year. I wouldn’t actually call them New Year’s Resolutions, maybe more like suggestions for the future.  “Improve my art skills” is always at the top of my list. There are many ways to approach that goal: Painting constantly, visiting museums to observe the masters, reading art books on other artists and art techniques, going to figure and portrait classes, watching art videos, etc. But one of the things that always sparks my work is a couple-day workshop with full immersion into another artist’s vision. I’d like [...]