Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Archive for January, 2010
Monet reborn: Kieron Williamson
Jan 31st
Kieron Williamson
A seven-year-old boy is being hailed as an art genius and has drawn comparisons to Pablo Picasso. He does not like that comparison and says he would like to develop to become Monet. 
Can you believe the kid? Last month Kieron’s second exhibition in a gallery in his home town of Holt, England, sold out in 14 minutes. The sale of 16 new paintings swelled his bank account by 32.000$. There are now 680 people on a waiting list for a Kieron original.
Kieron Williamson from the eastern English town of Holt reportedly has artistic skills that would be the envy of any serious painter. Here are some of his pastel and other paintings and you can read more about him in this article by ABC news and Daily Mail.
Get Your Painting on a T-shirt and Win Some Cash
Jan 30th
If you have a painting or a part of your pointing that you know would be good for a T-shirt, you can enter this contest and check what others feel about it. The Design by Humans have contest daily (500$), weekly (750$), monthly (1000$) and special events. The cash prices are excellent and you can get some more exposure for your art. If your T-shirt is a good sell, you get extra money.
Van Gogh and his Letters
Jan 29th
Vincent van Gogh - The Letters
The British Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of the work of Vincent van Gogh. The focus of the exhibition is the artist’s remarkable correspondence. Vincent van Gogh’s letters have long been prized as some of the most valuable documents in the world of art. Not only do they throw light on Van Gogh’s own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process.
The Royal Academy is offering free six volumes of his correspondence and all you have to do is to give your contact information and wait. The prize draw closes on the 18 April 2010. Winner will be drawn at random and notified on 19 April 2010.
The New Pastel News Banner
Jan 28th
Thanks to generous Dianna Ponting who went through all the trouble setting this up, photographing it, reediting in the Photoshop and who knows what else, me and you dear readers, got a new banner and the new look of this blog. It needs a bit more tweaking but I hope you will not notice it for a few days until I fix it all.
Dianna, thanks a million!!!
Henri Roché Soft Pastels
Jan 27th
Henri Roche logo
Are you a soft pastel artist who still haven’t tried the most famous pastels in the world? Well, join the club . I promised myself I will buy a small set the first time I’m completely happy with my painting. While that can still take some time I can at least surf on the net to see why there is so much noise about the Henri Roché pastels. The legend says that the old masters of impressionism used these beautiful pastels. Degas, Chéret, Whistler, Sisley, and later on Bussy, Vuillard, Poliakoff and many others have by their expectations contributed to the elaboration of Roché pastels. The pastel set grew up to 1800 pieces at the peak of production before Second World War and the collection of 1650 colors won the gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. I guess the old masters were making a lot of money if they could have afforded such exclusive pastels . The production of these pastels is having a second life since the Isabelle Roché took over the business from her relatives in 2000. Before that there was a small operation run by three elderly sisters carrying on the work of their grandfather, Henri Roché. When the oldest sister was asked why she is still maintaining no profit business at the age of 85 she said “She didn’t want to let the artists down.”
Today Isabelle is producing palette of 600 Henri Roché soft pastels and you can visit her website “La Maison du Pastel”. The website is very nice and you can almost feel the spirits of the old soft pastel masters.
The price for a single stick is from 15$ to 20$ and you can find them at Rochester Art Supply. I found the better deals for the sets on the Amazon.
A couple of resources: a very entertaining story by Barry Katz published in the Pastel Journal 2007. Interesting story from Reuters 2008. Short interview with Isabelle on youtube.
I got good pointers thanks to Casey Klahn and Katherine Tyrell’s blogs.
Still-Life the Colourful Way
Jan 26th
Mario Vukelic "Color glass"
Whether you are a blooming artist exploring the world of soft pastels or you are an established master pastelist, here is a great lesson, or better to say many great lessons which can open up a new way of painting, or it can enrich your style. This online lesson was given by Charlotte Herczfeld on the WetCanvas.com forum and was commented by many artists. The post thread is very long and this index will help you find your way through a lot of useful information. The lesson in that thread is based on the work and teachings of Susan Sarback. If you don’t know Susan it is enough to say that the International Artist Magazine named Susan one of the Master Painters of the world. To learn more about her teachings I recommend you read her book Capturing Radiant Light and Color in Oils and Soft Pastels.
Featured Pastel Artist: Dianna Ponting
Jan 25th
If you are a soft pastel artist it is very unlikely that you haven’t come across Dianna Ponting. Dianna is an award winning Canadian artist and lecturer who excels in soft pastels. She is an elected member of the Pastel Society of America and holds Senior Signature status in the Federation of Canadian Artists.
Dianna’s use of light, shadow and her ability to denote texture results in nothing less than a stunning art.
Dianna is an international artist and pastel instructor with students and patrons in both North America and Europe. If she comes close to your place don’t miss her. The list of workshops can be found on her website and you can join her Facebook fan page.
Dianna is a regular contributor to Wet Canvas and the first time I saw her work I was overwhelmed. Her ability to make realistic paintings is hard to match. You can try out her licorice candies lecture on Wetcanvas.
The Best of America pastel Artists – volume II
Jan 24th
The Best of America Pastel Artists
The Visual Art Guide is hosting websites for many artists and they publish really nice books. They have recently issued book “The Best of America Pastel Artists – volume II” which you can browse online and even download for free. The shorter presentation of the book can be found here and you can enjoy some fantastic soft pastel works.
If you like those books you can enter one of the competitions and if you are chosen among top 200 artists you can be published and get 2 pages in the book.
Donate your Art for devastated Haiti
Jan 23rd
There will be an online auction organized by 140hours on Jan 29th where you can donate your work or you can bid and buy some artwork.
This online auctions site uses Twitter to bid, and if you want your painting to be auctioned you need to open Twitter account. On regular auctions they keep 10% and artist gets 90% of the final price, but for this auction I could not find out how much will they keep and how much will they send to Haiti. They just have general rules and if somebody has time to dig this out, please add a comment to this post.
You can also see the gallery of already submitted works for this and previous auctions.
Pear and Pastel Connection
Jan 22nd
Mario Vukelic
If you love pears, there is a great place for you – visit Pearathon website. They have collection of over 30 original paintings and the collection is growing. What is interesting to see is the amount of paintings done in pastel. There are over half of the works in soft pastels. This is unusual since the similar online galleries have majority of the works in oils and acrylics with a few pastels. Only conclusion that comes to my mind is that pastel artists love pears .
If you have your own painting of pears you can also submit your work, and if folks at Pearathon like it, it will end up in the gallery. Your pear painting needs to be original, and not a copy of some other work or photo, and it needs to be already somewhere on the web.
Barbara Benedetti Newton
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