Morro Bay Art Association presents award-winning pastel portrait artist 

“Spring.”

Portraits in Pastel: A 3-Day Workshop Featuring Cuong Nguyen

–Morro Bay Art Association will present award-winning artist, Cuong Nguyen for a three-day workshop, “Portraits in Pastel,” August 2, 3, and 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A professional artist of international acclaim, Cuong Nguyen works in both oil and pastel, though casual viewers may have difficulty distinguishing the two media in his hands. He almost never blends strokes, yet achieves a level of detail and smoothness of gradation that is unusual in pastel paintings.

Nguyen studied at the Academy of Art in Saigon, Vietnam. He earned a degree in Illustration & Graphic Design from San Jose State University and established a successful career as an icon designer with a prominent Silicon Valley company before becoming a professional artist. Ultimately, Cuong’s passion for art resurfaced. He began to create sidewalk chalk drawings. These ephemeral artworks were as large as 16′ x 24′. Cuong soon established a reputation for painting amazingly lifelike portraits on asphalt. He began to exhibit in international art fairs and returned to his studio, where he spent endless hours refining techniques with more traditional media.

Nguyen is a member of Oil Painters of America, International Guild of Realism, a Distinguished Pastelist with Pastel Society of America and Pastel Society of the West Coast, Master Pastelist with Pastel of America and Master IAPS Circle with International Association of Pastel Societies. His work has been exhibited at national and international exhibits; the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, California and the Haggin Museum in Stockton.

Nguyen is currently represented by John Pence gallery in San Francisco, California.

Learn about drawing, values, edges and composition, in a workshop designed to create in a relaxed, informative yet focused environment, for all skill levels. Students will concentrate on drawing the human head and creating life-like skin tone colors using the green foundation technique, while developing new skills in soft pastel and pastel pencil. This workshop will feature live models.

The cost of the workshop is $375 for association members, $400 for non-members. Preregister at: https://artcentermorrobay.org/index.php/shop/

About the author: News Staff

News staff of the A-Town Daily News wrote and edited this article from local contributors and press releases. Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Connect with him on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog. He can be reached at scott@accesspublishing.com.