About Me
Learn, Grow, be Inspired.
My joy is to share my experience with art especially in the medium of pastels. Colour and composition are my focus as they are so universal to art. Theses courses are designed to be at your own pace. Watch anytime, any day. Replay them as often as you like or pause them as it suits you. It is my belief that being a true artist is to tell your story from the heart but sometimes we need to get some skills to help tell those stories.
I hope this website encourages you to grow your knowledge and skills in pastels so you can paint your heart out!
My Story
I can remember being very little and drawing. But art was not considered a job in my world. Being good at math made becoming an artist in the 80’s impossible for me. Somehow, I was able to fill in my own subject choices in high school and slipped art in instead of physics. Still don’t know how I got away with that. Although I went on to study science and accounting art was always there. I always had a painting going on somewhere. And realism was my thing. The more detail I could fit in the better.
Working with coloured pencil and acrylics on canvas, the threads on the canvas would drive me nuts as my single hair paint brush tried to add more detail. I found pastels in the mid 1990’s. With Maxine Thompson as my tutor, one painting and I was hooked. No longer could I use detail with this big blunt stick of pastel. But my first result of Max the dog was (I thought at the time) amazing. Pastels were now “it”. No brushes to clean. No pallet to wash. I put myself in the playpen and let me children rule the house. I had found my medium.
It took many years of playing on my own before I attended my first winter school in 2005. My first tutor was Lyn Diefenbach. It is at that workshop that the penny dropped on tone for me. The next winter school 2 years later was with Louise Corke. It is there that the lightbulb turned on of colour temperature. Louise, the ever encourager took me aside and said “I had something”. The president of the PSA was also at the workshop and encouraged me to come to their meetings in Brisbane. To understand my commitment, I worked full time and after work would drive 1.5 hours to the 60 minute meeting and then 1.5 hours home. Often getting home near midnight. But the amazing passionate pastel painters I met there were truly inspiring. Always encouraging, mentoring, sharing. There is something about pastel artists that I have not seen in any other art groups. I had found my tribe.
I had a dream and set a goal to become a Master Pastellist with the PSA. It took four more years of extreme dedication making pastel the only medium I used and going to every workshop I could find. Mastering one medium rather than jack of all trades was my aim. And I realised that goal in 2011. I started teaching my first class in 2008. For the first few years I think I learned more than the students. And by 2010 had made the leap to make art my full-time job. It was a scary moment to let go of your regular income, but once I leapt there was no turning back. Running 3 classes a week and holding demonstrations and workshops for the PSA my life was now all about pastel. I had found my career.
Tutors in my life over that time, Leonie Duff taught me intensity of colour. Regina Hona taught me you did not have to lose accuracy to be “loose”. Dawn Emerson taught me to let go and find my soul. Judith Carducci taught me that I didn’t need more tutors, I needed to paint. The medium of pastel has changed a lot in the 25 years I have played with it. The variety of papers and pastel brands at our reach now are amazing. And painting anything from life is my favourite genre. My style loves to play with the deep toothed papers like Uart, and Kitty Wallis. I love exploring the pastel boundaries and use underpaintings, and mixed media to see where I can go. My style has become more and more impressionistic as I learn to let go of accuracy and make it about the story I want to tell. Colour and its relationship to composition is my latest joy to explore. How to bring harmony and balance to your story. (The power of simultaneous relativity is mind blowing magic when you get into it.) I also make sure I start a new medium every year. Oils, watercolour, pen and wash, and charcoal are now on my list of mediums I use. Pottery still needs some work. You are always growing as an artist.
It is hard to describe the whirlwind that was wrapped up in the last 10 years. Winning awards, exhibiting in the USA. Teaching in New Zealand, Fiji, and every capital city and territory of Australia. But with all of those things you can put on a resumé, it is really about growing as a storyteller in my art. There is a point to it now, a goal of not accuracy but of a message.
There is something quite spiritual about putting your heart on the canvas. It is daunting, fear of failure often consumes, but I find the why of your art the key. I have a spirit within me that calls me to paint. It is my why. It calls me to tell the story of creation through the beauty of a sunrise or the powerful meeting of earth sea and sky. The light that falls on the face of a child or the velvet touch on a petal. It all hits my heart and connection with the Creator. I have cried while painting some of my work as I am overwhelmed by the moment. I have also been blessed to see a tear roll down someone’s eye as they looked at my work. Art has a power to tell a story beyond words. Then to have the privilege of teaching and sharing my knowledge to students is another joy. To watch it when they get a lightbulb moment is very special. And to see them grow and start to win awards of their own is a proud moment. I have found my calling.
I encourage you to keep finding joy in your journey. Keep sharing your failures and your lightbulb moments. And most of all encourage each other. It is on the encouragement of my mentors that I am where I am.
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Explore, play, risk failure, find joy in accomplishments but most of all, find your story.
My CV
Tricia Taylor is a Master Pastellist from Queensland, Australia with over 29 years of experience working with pastels. Having an impressionistic style of realism Tricia’s work has life and movement focusing on the beauty of light. She has awards in landscape, seascape, still life, florals and portraits along with being awarded Pastellist of the Year 2010.
Tricia’s work has been published in a variety of national and international art magazines including Australian Artist, Art Edit and Paint and Draw Magazine UK. Teaching from beginners to advanced students for over 13 years Tricia her workshops are in demand across Australia and internationally.
Being one of the leading project managers of the Australian Pastel Expo has been one of the highlights of Tricia’s pastel journey. Organizing over 160 artists and 20 tutors from across Australia and overseas is a major undertaking and the team together made it an amazing success in 2018 and 2022.
As a Unison Pastels Accredited Artist for over 10 years, Unison have endorsed Tricia’s artwork by creating the Tricia Taylor pastel sets. Seascape, Rock and Earth, Understanding Colour, Sunsets and Sand colour selections are available on her website. Tricia is also a tutor on their online Pastel Academy.
Tricia’s work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally being accepted into the IAPS International Pastel Awards in the USA in 2017.
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My recent awards include:
Finalist Basil Sellers Art Prize 2024.
Matthew Flinders Art Prize - Matty Award 2024
Best in Show - FAB exhibition Beachmere. 2023
Winner 2D FAB exhibition Beachmere. 2023
Finalist Pure Color 6th Annual Online International Juries Exhibition.
Finalist Lethbridge Landscape awards 2022
Finalist Pure Color 5th Annual ONLINE International Juried Exhibition of Pastel Paintings 2021
Member Prize – Matthew Flinders Art Prize 2021
Gallery Finalist Lethbridge Landscape Awards 2021
Finalist Moreton Bay Art Awards 2021
Highly Commended PSA Landscape award 2020.
Ardency Art Awards. Highly Commended 2019
Finalist NSW Parliament Plein Air Prize 2018
Pastellist of the Year Awards – Portrait and Animal Section – First Prize 2018
Best In Show – Oatley 101 Society of Artists Members Exhibition. 2018
Best In Show – National Pastel Exhibition South Coast Pastel Society. 2018
Finalist 30th Juried Exhibition International Pastel Awards 2017. USA
Pastellist of the Year Awards – Landscape section – first Prize 2016.
Pastellist of the Year Awards – Still Life section – second prize 2016
Pastel Society of Australia Annual awards– Still life second prize 2015
d’Arcy Doyle Art awards - Highly commended. Landscape section. 2014
Kenilworth LGI trophy Competition - Landscapes First Prize 2013
Pastel Society of Australia Awards 2013 - People’s Choice
Pastel Society of Australia Awards 2013 - 1st prize Landscape
Pastel Society of Australia Awards 2013 - 2nd prize Still Life
Royal Queensland Art Society Pastel Exhibition 2013 - 2nd prize
Brisbane Rotary Art Spectacular - Finalist 2013
John Jeffrey Memorial Award 2012 - for Service to the Pastel Society
Royal Queensland Show – Seascapes - First Prize 2011
Master Pastellist Status awarded May 2011
Pastel Society of Australia Winner Pastellist of the Year 2010
Galleries Present
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Seaview Gallery, Moffat Beach Qld. co-operative member. Current.
Beachmere and Artisans Gift Shop.
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Past
Studio Gallery Precinct 75 Saint Peters NSW.
Royal Art Society of NSW exhibiting member.
Stevens Street Gallery Yandina Qld.
Past Curator - Yandina Historic House Gallery.
Publications:
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Plein Air Magazine article to be published in the February edition 2025.
Unison Color Pastel Academy – how to pastel 2021
Unison. Pastel Academy Blog – Limiting your Pallet.
Australian Artist Magazine: Article October edition 2018 – Landscape colour control.
Australian Artist Magazine: Article July edition 2018 – portraits in pastel and charcoal
Australian Artist Magazine: Article April edition 2018 - Reflections
Australian Artist Magazine - Capturing Movement and Light in Seascapes. 10-page article, July 2014
Art Edit Magazine - Edition 1, January 2014
Australian Artist Magazine: 8-page Article portraits. January 2012
Australian Artist Magazine: How Did You Paint That - Seascape March 2011
Exhibitions
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Joint Exhibition – Redcliffe Fire Station Gallery. Redcliffe Qld. July 2024
Solo Exhibition – Roma on Bungil Gallery. Roma Qld. June – August 2024
Solo Exhibition One88 Gallery Katoomba. 2023.
Group Exhibition – Bribie Arts Centre 2023.
Solo Exhibition Surat on Balonne Gallery June 2021
Solo Exhibition Redcliffe Fire Station Gallery. March 2021
Solo Exhibition Bondi Pavilion Gallery – Capturing the Light – Bondi Beach. 2019
Group Exhibition – “Then and Now” Stevens Street Gallery, Yandina Qld.
Solo Exhibition – Graydon Gallery, New Farm Brisbane Qld April 2017
Seaview Gallery – Moffat Beach Qld – Member artist 2010-2017, 2022 to Current.
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Recent Teaching Workshops and Classes:
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Grampians Brushes. 2024
New Zealand – Painting Tour April 2024.
Flinders Ranges – Painting tour. September 2023. October 2024
CASS Art in the Country tutor 2023.
Sturt Winter School tutor 2023
Grampians Summer Brushes tutor January 2023
Australian Pastel Expo 2022 and 2018.
Mcgregor Winter School Tutor July 2019.
Workshop 5 day – Sturt Summer School Mittagong January 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. 2021, 2022. Winter School 2022.
Online School:
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Tricia has an online self-paced pastel course “Understanding Colour” and Seascapes workshops are available.
International Tutoring
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Current Mastrius International Online Mentoring Tutor.
New Zealand – 7 day plein air painting group April 2024
USA Appalachian Pastel Society Zoom demonstration and Workshop March 2023
France – 10 Day workshop Domaine Du Haut Baran October 2022.
New Zealand Tour 2019 – workshops Nelson, Otaga, Kaikoura, New Plymouth, Coromandel.
New Zealand Tour 2018 – workshops Nelson, Tauranga, Omaru, Kaikoura Invercargill. March 2018
France – 10 Day workshop Domaine Du Haut Baran August 2017.
New Zealand – Taranaki – Workshop Seascapes October 2016
New Zealand – Nelson – Workshop Composition October 2016
New Zealand – Kairkoura Plein air workshop October 2016
USA Montrose Gallery Ridgeway Colorado - Plein air painting 2 day workshop 2015
Fiji - Daku Resort Savu Savu - 7 day art workshop May 2015
New Zealand - 10 day plein air Colours of Autumn Tour April 2015
New Zealand - 7 day Plein air Kaikoura - Marlborough Art Group.2015
