Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Archive for December, 2010
Odilon Redon: Christ in Silence
Dec 24th
Odilon Redon "Christ in Silence"
Musee du Petit Palais (France), Dates 1895-1899
Height: 58 cm (22.83 in.), Width: 46 cm (18.11 in.)
charcoal and pastel.
more about Odilon Redon.
Merry Christmass everyone!!!
Old Pastel Master: Herni de Toulouse Lautrec
Dec 19th
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec pastel works
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Born in Albi, France, in an aristocratic family that dated back a thousand years. He started to draw and paint as a kid, by the time he was 10.
Young Toulouse-Lautrec had two accidents braking his legs, one by the other, which have never healed properly and thus stopped growing. That’s why as adult he was only 1.5 meters tall. Deprived of the kind of life that a normal body would have permitted, Toulouse-Lautrec lived wholly for his art and is famous for his paintings of the night-life of late 19th-century Paris (including cabaret dancers, prostitutes, racetracks and circus performers) and show posters.
Henri would also sit at a crowded nightclub table, laughing and drinking, and at the same time he would make swift sketches. The next morning in his studio he would expand the sketches into bright-colored paintings. Becoming part of the Montmartre life and in order to protect himself against the crowd’s ridicule of his appearance, Toulouse-Lautrec began to drink heavily. The invention of the cocktail “Earthquake” or Tremblement de Terre is attributed to Toulouse-Lautrec; a potent mixture containing half absinthe and half cognac.
Among the others such as Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and Herni Rousseau he was well known as Post-Impressionist. He died in family château of Malrom at age of 37.
Upon his death, the majority of his paintings were offered to The Louvre Museum, and the Louvre rejected them. Later his paintings and posters, particularly the ‘Moulin Rouge’ group, have been in great demand and bring high prices at auctions and art sales.
Source: Compton’s Encyclopedia, Wikipedia
Malcolm Jarvis Autumn Landscapes
Dec 13th
Malcolm Jarvis is an internationally recognized artist who holds the Diploma in Design from St. Martin’s School of Art, London, UK. He lives in the rural county of Norfolk, England, and has spent most of his life with the vast skies, the miles of inland waterways and the windswept coast. Although he tends to use watercolor on his travels, the soft pastels are his favorite painting medium. In many of his paintings Malcolm explores the effects of light on the landscape. Malcolm draws inspiration from the English countryside as well as from the Mediterranean light. His work has been exhibited in England, Washington DC, South Carolina and Spain and he holds regular workshops in England, around the Europe and Mediterranean.
Malcolm is the winner and the runner up of the latest Get Dusty competition, held by the Pastel Guild of Europe.
In his words, “I hope you see my pieces as a response to nature, to beauty, to life, to that sudden awareness of being in the presence of a mystery that baffles understanding.”
Featured Pastel Artist: Betsy Kellum
Dec 7th
Betsy Kellum graduated from the College of William & Mary in Virginia, and later studied art at the Art League in Old Town Alexandria, VA. She has studied with the well known artists Burton Silverman, Robert Liberace, Albert Handell, Doug Dawson, Tim Tyler and others. Betsy balances her own painting with her love of teaching art and has served as a juror and judge for art exhibits and shows.
Betsy has achieved signature membership in the Pastel Society of America, Pastel Society of the West Coast, Maryland Pastel Society the Southeastern Pastel Society. She has received numerous awards in the international and national juried shows throughout the U.S. and has been published in the Pastel Journal. She lives with her husband, Joe, 2 cats, 8 fish and 4 chickens in Powhatan, VA.
On her website Betsy offers 5 step demo with the underpainting in a thin oil and turpentine wash. She does underpainting in a deeper value of the colors or in the color compliment of the color to be applied on top.
Barbara Benedetti Newton
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