Debora Stewart – The Foundation of Expression: Underpainting and Expressive Mark Making (Online)

Discover how expressive underpainting and mark making form the foundation of my creative process across pastel, acrylic, and oil!

Friday, October 23 – 11:30 am PT / 2:30 pm ET / 7:30 pm UK Time

Zoom Meeting ID: 845 2561 8057
Passcode: wac

If you enjoy this presentation or make work inspired by it, please leave a comment below.

This page contains protected content. You must be logged in and registered to view Zoom links, recordings or information for enrolled students only.

Class Description

Discover how expressive underpainting and mark making form the foundation of my creative process across pastel, acrylic, and oil. In this demonstration, I’ll show how energetic washes, contour drawing, and intuitive marks establish movement, structure, and visual interest before a painting begins to take shape. You’ll see how these same principles can inspire expressive florals, abstract gardens, figures, and abstract paintings, regardless of the medium.

If you enjoy this presentation or make work inspired by it, please leave a comment below.

Debora Stewart is a Signature Member and a Master Pastellist of the Pastel Society of America and a member of the Master’s Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies. She is also the author of a Northlight book titled Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media and a series of videos on abstract painting from Northlight TV. She teaches workshops for artists in abstraction throughout the U.S. Her pastels and paintings are available through galleries in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.

One Response

Candace K. says:

October 23, 2026 at 12:46 pm

That was an amazing presentation with demonstration by Debora Stewart. She articulates what she is doing, how she approaches her work, her thought processes. Her love of drawing as instrumental to her abstracts, her loose underpaintings under those drawings, everything she said basically has answered so many questions I have had. Very inspirational!

Log in to Reply

Winslow Art Center will close briefly for updates between 2am-3am Pacific Time (UTC -7), 5-6am Eastern, 10-11am UK/BST. Class recordings can be watched while the site is closed, please email katod@winslowartcenter.com to request a recording if you are unable to access it directly.