In the event that you haven't noticed it already, we thought we'd draw your attention to the nice review of Alan Flattmann's work on the Pastel News blog. Fans of the artist will enjoy highlights from his impressive career in pastel.

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There are many ways to get your reading done these days: You can listen to a book on tape; read it on a Kindle (or very soon an iPad); or you can pick up one of those printed editions, you know, those books with paper pages between two covers.

When pastel artist (and Pastel Journal contributing writer/columnist) Deborah Secor decided to do something with the book-size collection of material she'd compiled over many years as a pastel instructor, she decided to publish it chapter by chapter on a blog: http://landscapesinpastel.blogspot.com. Call it the 21st-century version of reading novelists, like Dickens, in serialized installments.

With weekly posts, Secor has shared what she knows about a number of pastel- and landscape-painting topics including: materials, surfaces and effects, getting started, values, landscape subjects, aerial perspective, and mountains. Visit the blog to read these first few chapters, and then sign up to become a follower so you won't miss any new posts, including the next one, chapter 7, on skies (coming soon).

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For more pastel instruction from Deborah Secor, check out her two ArtistsNetwork.tv videos available on DVD or as digital downloads at the North Light Shop.

It's March Madness time again, a season I look forward to every year (even if I haven't watched a single basketball game up to this point). But you know what's funny about the tourament? Even though I know I filled out my bracket last year and watched many, many games, I can't recall what team won the championship game! Let's pause while I google [pause]. Oh yes, it was North Carolina over Michigan State. I was rooting for Michigan State (Duke alumni are not allowed to root for the Tar Heels). But here's my question: Is it the same for Pastel 100 champions?

If you've seen the latest April issue of The Pastel Journal, you know that artist Don Rantz took top honors in this year's Pastel 100 competition for his amazing desert vista, Home of the Ancients (shown here). But do you remember who earned Best of Show last year? How about the top winner in 2007? 2006? 2005? Maybe you have a neat, orderly stash of all of your old issues of the magazine that you can turn to in cases such as these. But if your archive is a little more, well, back-of-the-closet than that, you may want to think about collecting The Pastel Journal on CD. Here's how the CD can help: Who won the Best of Show award in the 6th Annual Pastel 100 in 2005? Well, let me pop the 2005 Pastel Journal CD into my computer [pause]. Now I'll just click on the April issue; click on Table of Contents, and then select "Best of Show." Voila! The Best of Show winner that year was Paula Lawson. And yes, indeed, her landscape, Laguna Madre, Sunset, is magnificent.

And here's the other reason I like the CDs. The title of Lawson's painting just brought sunsets to mind, and I have this idea that there was an article about skies in the magazine some time in 2005. But what issue? With the CD, I can use the search tool; type in "sunset" and I get three documents, and nine "sunset" instances. One of the documents is "The Color of Light and Air," a special feature with Paul Murray, Stan Sperlak and Donna Levinstone about painting skies from the October 2005 issue. That print issue is no longer available, but you can get it on the 2005 CD.

If you think you might enjoy doing obscure searches like this and want to start your own Pastel Journal CD archive, you'll find collections of all the issues from 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 in our online shop. And, right now, you can get copies of the 2005 CD, the 2006 CD and the 2007 CD for $14 each—that's about 50% off the regular price. It's like our own little March Madness sale!

On the Pastel Pointers blog post, artist Richard McKinley talks about the value of working, at least some degree, in all of the main art subject areas of landscape, still life and art, for there is something to be learned in each. "A wise instructor," writes McKinley, "passed this thought on to me many years ago: To learn value relationships, it’s the still life; to draw, it’s the portrait; and to become sensitive to color, it’s the landscape. Each has something to offer. Practice them often and then paint your passions!” To prove he does his homework, McKinley inluded an image of one of his portrait drawings. Check out the full story, and other pieces of advice and commentary, at http://pastelpointersblog.artistsnetwork.com.

Apparently on the same wavelength, pastelist Maggie Price, best known for her landscapes, recently posted on her Artblog about her latest explorations outside the area of landscape. She writes: "I often mention in my workshops that I believe it's good for artists to push out of their comfort zones. If you always paint in a horizontal format, try a vertical now and then. If you usually paint very large, try something very small. And if you always paint landscapes—well, maybe it's time to change the subject." She recently decided to take her own advice, and has painted a few pastels that introduce figural, animal and still life elements into her work. See, for example, Shadowplay, pictured here. To read her entire post, and see a second example, vist her blog at www.maggiepriceart.com/artblog.

Then, how about challenging yourself to push outside your own comfort zone this week? You may be surprised what you can learn; it might even be something that you can apply directly to the subject area you generally favor.

You can tell us about right here in the Comments!