 Have you ever tried intuitive painting and soft pastel? Well, sit back, relax, and enjoy the beauty of intuitive painting. When I paint this way, I like to give myself a limited time and also limited supplies. I feel this is a great way to achieve loose results. And another great benefit is it's relaxing and a lot of fun. For my supplies, I used two main sets of soft pastels and just a few from one other set. And my surface is one that I love called Pastel Matte. I really love this surface because it is water friendly and it takes so many layers of soft pastels. I typically buy mine in pads from Dick Blick and this particular pad comes in four colors. The color you'll see me using for this demonstration is light green. The first pastel sets you'll see me using are ones that I love you can get on Amazon. They're called Rembrandt Microsets. It's a fun and very affordable way to buy little sets of five in different color families. I actually have one of my very own product review videos on the Amazon site as one of the listed videos to give a demonstration about other ways you can use these fun little sets of Rembrandt Pastels. The second set of pastels you'll see me using is a favorite set of mine called Richardson Handrolled Pastels. And Richardson Pastels has multiple sets, many that I love. But I find this little landscape set is really another great set for beginners. It has multiple colors and values. They have a smaller set of 20, but I'll be using this 40 set. And again, this is a set that has really great colors for multiple painting types. Another great set for beginners. And there's only one other set that I just used a few colors from. It's a set of Sennelier Pastels. It's a French name and they're located in Paris, France. They also have some of these little micro sets available. A little more expensive than the Rembrandt's. But Sennelier Pastels are more soft and vibrant in color. So you may want to try some of those micro sets as well. The set that I used a few colors out of is the 40 half stick set of Sennelier's. If a company ever offers half sticks, I always recommend it. You literally get double the color for your money. So I used some of the golden colors out of this set. I will have all product links in the description of this video. I'll first start with a few of the Rembrandt Pastels, this pretty pink color. And I'm just using it on its side to scumble in some flower shapes. And I grabbed a beautiful orange color from one of the Rembrandt's sets. And notice how loose my marks are. I'm just trying to create kind of some interesting shapes to this composition. I got one of the turquoise or teal blues to give a little background coolness. And now I'm using some green. This green will serve as the foliage or the base for some of the leaf shapes that I will create. And this will be what is called an underpainting. And it's often a great way to start a painting to get kind of a roadmap and some of your colors in place. And remember how I mentioned that the pastel matte surface is water friendly? Well, I'm going to use that to my advantage. And I'm just going to get a spritzer bottle full of water only. And I like this bottle because it has a fine mist to it. And it's actually like a Victoria's Secret body spray bottle that I just repurposed. Now I have this kind of stiff bristle brush. And I'm using it to move some of the color around while it's still wet. And this creates a very impressionistic beginning with a nice romantic flair. And once this is dry, I can begin to add other layers of soft pastel. Now I'm beginning with the second set that I showed, the Richardson hand rolled set, their Landscape 40 set. And you can see here the beautiful color of some of these pinks. I also like that set because, again, it just has a lot of colors and values that you can use for multiple subject matter. You could landscapes, florals, beach scenes. I've used this little set for many different types of paintings. Now I'm going to use one of the beautiful, brilliant pinks from the Jack Richardson set, the Richardson hand rolls. And now I'm layering a more vibrant bright pink on top of the darker value pink I had used before. These are going to end up emulating roses. Now that little set I held up was the Sennelier 40 half stick set. And I just used this pretty orange, like I said, I think just a couple of warm tones out of that. So you're probably wondering, where is the reference image? Well, this is intuitive painting. And so I am painting from my soul, so to speak. And I recommend, however, if you're going to do this type of painting, get inspired first. Look if it's a floral image you're wanting to create. Look at some beautiful floral images. Get inspired by pulling up some paintings by Monet or even other artists that you love. Maybe print out some images of different flower varieties and have them near you while you paint. Something else I recommend is to set yourself a mood, set up to have a relaxing experience. Have all of your supplies available near you so that you don't have to break your stride when you're painting. Another great recommendation to do while you're painting is to play some music. I have many different favorite types of music. I particularly love cello music and one I love, an artist I love is Hauser, H-A-U-S-E-R. So whoever you like, whatever kind of music you like, give yourself that moment to find that peace through music and art. Before we continue, I'd like to take a quick little moment to ask you to like this video, comment, and please subscribe to this channel. And if you would like more content and all of my full lessons, consider becoming a patron of mine on my Patreon page. There you can access my full tutorials. One of my favorite things is to be able to see your work from my lessons. I'd love for you to become part of my Patreon family. It's only $5 a month. You can cancel it anytime. And it's a wonderful, artistic, happy place. The technique you'll see me doing here with this lighter, pretty light green Rembrandt pastel is called negative painting. I'm actually creating leaf shapes and organic shapes by painting in between some of the color I've already laid down. And it just creates a nice energetic style of mark making. You can see that here, how I've made the almost like a fern type of leaf shape. And of course we all want to create beautiful works of art. And I do think this style of painting will often create works that do feel more organic and flowing and energetic and gestural. However, keep in mind that one of the goals for intuitive painting is for the moment. I think of art as more than just a physical end product, but it is the process of creating. And so if you had a beautiful experience, I believe it will calm your soul and give you a sense of tranquility that is so missing in this hustle bustle world. So again, art is about creating and the act of creation. Now I'm going to play some music for the remainder of this for you to just watch these flowers come to life from my imagination. And I'll be back at the end to share more. As you can see, I've incorporated some organic shapes and mark making just to add different textural elements to this painting. Also, I've pulled some leaf shapes out from within the flowers to give more of a three dimensional effect. And I forgot to mention that I started this painting because, you know, I do so many tutorials and videos where I'm focusing on the lesson. I personally just needed a moment to escape through art and intuitive painting is just such a beautiful way to do that. When I was finished with this painting, I actually shared an image of it on some of my social media and art accounts. And I had one of my frequent buyers want to purchase it immediately for a friend. So I definitely think there is a market for these loose and I like to think of them as dreamy type of paintings. And I would like to continue to do more of these. I'd love to hear in the comments if this inspired you and if you're going to give this a try. And also to if you are new to my channel and you want to learn more about pastel painting by all means subscribe. Also, you can become a member in our Facebook group, Monet Cafe Art Group. You can share your own pastel creations with thousands of other artists who are like-minded and beautiful souls. In closing, I'd like to provide one other beautiful reason for creating art. I believe it pleases the Lord. One verse that speaks to the beauty of creation is found in the book of Psalms. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. While this verse is often a celebration of God's craftsmanship, I believe it reflects a broader appreciation for the beauty and wonder of all creation. It acknowledges the intricate and marvelous works of our creator, which can inspire us to appreciate and engage in our own acts of creation with a sense of reverence and awe. God bless friends and happy painting.