"Rural to Urban" Pastel Workshop with Andrew McDermott, SFCA

Date: August 15th - 16th, 2026 

Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM (PDT) 

Location: Federation Academy on Granville Island, 1310 Johnston St, Vancouver, BC V6H 3S1 

Medium: Pastel

Open to All Levels!

Workshop Overview:

This hands-on workshop will equip you with the technical and creative skills needed to produce colourful, dynamic landscape and urban pastel paintings. You will learn how to approach both rural and city environments with confidence—developing strong compositions, editing visual information, and building compelling narrative interest.

In working from natural landscape to urban street scenes you will complete two pastel paintings across the weekend. Andrew will guide you through his impressionistic process, demonstrating how he creates visually lush surfaces, expressive mark-making, and richly layered colour. You’ll also explore practical tips and techniques for textures, colour layering, and working on mid-tone or dark papers. Reference photos will be provided by the instructor.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Develop painterly, impressionistic pastel techniques suitable for both rural landscapes and urban scenes.
   
• Edit and simplify visual information to create strong, compelling compositions.
   
• Build unique and harmonious colour palettes, layering hues to achieve luminosity and depth.
   
• Use warm–cool contrasts, abstract shapes, edges, and texture to create form and visual interest.
   
• Apply practical tips and tricks to enhance surface texture, mark-making, and overall creative development.

About the Instructor -  Andrew McDermott, SFCA 

Andrew is the past President and a Senior member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Andrew was born in Bolton, England and moved to Canada at a young age. Upon College graduation in Graphic Design and Illustration, he studied and further refined his own unique style, winning top awards in both Canada and the US. Andrew is a popular workshop Instructor and gives demos and lessons at many educational facilities, he is a life/figure drawing Instructor for the Illustration department at Capilano University, Langara College, and for the 3D Animation department at the Vancouver Film school.