Newartfest 2019 by Irina Artamonova

Newartfest 2019 (October 2-6)

It is always exciting to see the medium of Pastel celebrated and especially if it is happening in such a cool setting as Newartfest 2019. Our member Irina Artamonova was representing pastel art and conducted a workshop. She is gladly sharing her experience and talking about Newartfest with fellow Red Rock Members.

Newartfest is an annual art festival that takes place in the mountains of Sochi (Russia) where the winter Olympic Games 2014 were held.

This year it hosted about 1500 professional & aspiring artists from all over Russia and some invited foreign speakers.

During the intense 5 days there were lots of demos, lectures and workshops both pleinair and in-studio, where participants could learn from contemporary artists and art historians, as well as practice various themes, techniques, and art materials.

In addition to that we had an art exhibition, art supplies market, cool contests & parties! All this filled our days with creativity, fun, useful knowledge and making new friends 😊

As for soft pastel, there were three speakers at the fest: Olga Abramova (president of National Pastel Society of Russia), Julia Dubinina and myself (Irina Artamonova).

I conducted a demo in painting a portrait with PanPastel and “Ethnic pastel portrait” workshop. It was challenging but very exciting 😉

There’s no doubt everybody enjoyed the fest and the beauty of the mountains around! We came back home packed with lots of memories, unforgettable experience, new artworks and art supplies:)