Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Archive for August, 2010
An Interview with Harley Brown
August 31, 2010
Harley Brown
The August issue of the Pastel Scribbler is bringing an interview with Harley Brown. Harley is Canadian artist best known for his pastel portraits of Native American Indians and other characters of the Wild West. He is author of sold out bestsellers Confessions of a Starving Artist, Eternal Truth’s for Every Artist and Inspiration For Every Artist and is a regular contributor to International Artist Magazine. He is one of the living legends of the Soft Pastel Art and I warmly recommend reading this inspiring, 12 pages long interview.
Bold Brush July 2010 Pastel Winners
August 29, 2010
in Competitions
The Bold Brush Painting Competition for July 2010 had many pastel paintings reaching the FAV15. The Outstanding Pastel painting went to Kathleen Newman and James Otto.
The finalist who went into FAV15% with their pastel paintings are:
Sue Gombus,
Ray Hassard,
Margaret Ferguson,
John Philbin Dolan,
Bob Richey,
Mary Aslin,
Mike Etie,
Christy Perrine,
Bold Brush June 2010 Pastel Winners
August 27, 2010
in Competitions
There will be a few posts after my summer break that don’t sound like a news, but I would like to have those artists and events recorded on this blog.
The FineArtViews Painting Competition is now called Bold Brush painting competition. The Outstanding Pastel painting for June went to Margi Lucena who was in FAV15 for many months, and to the winner of May competition, Lisa Fricker.
The finalist who went into FAV15% with her pastel painting is:
Eden Compton
Old Pastel Master: Edouard Manet
August 5, 2010
Pastel Art by Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Some of Edouard’s Manet well known oil paintings are ”Déjeuner sur l’herbe”, at that time considered scandalous, and Olympia (painted 1863), the most shocking work in 1865 presented in Salon. Less known is the fact Manet has used pastel medium in last 3 years of his life when he was forced by paralysis to take to a wheel chair.
Pastel Portrait of Irma Brunner is one of a numerous painted by Manet at that time. He found the pastel medium easier for him to manage than oil, and as result his large oil paintings at this time were few.
Manet not only used pastel medium as it was more convenient, but also because it permitted him to experiment with his theories in the rendering of light and shade to obtain a general effect of luminosity. He did not, as did Degas, depend so much on the individual strokes of the pastels, but sought rather for broader masses of juxtaposed color to produce his effect. The great majority of Manet’s pastels portray beautiful women, women from all stations of society. These delightful portraits of women deservedly rank with the finest work that Manet produced and reveal the immense variety of the artist.
Although Manet was a friend with several French Impressionists and shared some of their ideas and techniques, he has formally never become their member nor did he exhibit with them.
Interesting short films about Manet you can watch on the clip.
More information about Manet at Wiki, Metropolitan Museum of the Art, Musee d’Orsay.
