Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Archive for March, 2011
Pastel Artist: Mary Ann Cherry
Mar 19th
Mary Ann Cherry is a Master Signature member of the Women Artists of the West and a signature member of the Pastel Society of America. She is co-founder of the Pastel Society of the Northern Rockies and current president. She paints primarily in soft pastel or oils, working in a studio near the Snake River in Idaho, where wildlife and birds are abundant. Although comfortable with any subject matter, Cherry admits that wildlife and Native American dancers are her favorites. Cherry is a workshop instructor and offers an online critique service
The painting in this post Blur of Yellow was the finalist in The Bold Brush Painting Competition in January.
Pastel Artist: Lisa Mitchell
Mar 17th
Lisa Mitchell received her formal art education at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, concentrating her studies in Illustration and Graphic Design. She used to work as an illustrator creating storyboards and comprehensive illustrations for several leading advertising agencies in the Mid-Atlantic region. After that she began a twenty year career painting children’s portraits in her home based studio. Lisa expanded her focus to include landscapes, figures and still life subjects. She offers pastel instruction in her studio to a small group of artists. Lisa is a past President of the Maryland Pastel Society (2005 -2007) and currently serves on the board as the Web Site Administrator. She is a Signature Member of the Maryland Pastel Society, a Signature member of the Maryland Society of Portrait Painters, a member of the Portrait Society of America. Her painting in this post Dominique What’s On Your Mind? was the finalist in The Bold Brush Painting Competition in January.
Clark G. Mitchell Pastel Demo
Mar 14th
Clark G. Mitchell
I was fortunate enough to visit John Pence Gallery in San Francisco and see the pastel paintings by Clark G. Mitchell. Beside a few smaller landscapes there was one huge beautiful pastel painting, bigger than me and I’m sure the biggest pastel painting I’ve ever seen. Clark is a pastel artist with a B.A. in Fine Arts from Colorado College. He has been the feature article on several publications such as American Artist and The Pastel Journal. Clark is well known for his pastel landscapes: a teacher for over twenty years, he conducts both studio and plein air workshops. His studio is in California’s wine county Sonoma. If you will be a lucky participant at the IAPS convention in June you can still catch Clark’s 2 day workshop.
On the Artshow site you can find one of his old pastel demos.
Merethe Torbergsen “Raw Breakfast”
Mar 10th
Merethe Torbergsen named this painting Raw Breakfast, and my wild guess is that she has raw eggs for breakfast after a rock concerts where she sings and plays 
. Merethe is a soft pastel artist form Norway and a rock & blues guitarist and singer in a B.B. Queen & Stringmasters Inc. band.
She started with pastel painting in 2002 and she also works in graphite, charcoal and colored pencils. Her favorite subject is still life and her paintings are sometimes described as a Romantic Realism, where an artist renders everyday objects seen through her eyes. The artist aim for an emotional and personal rendering of the subjects she choose to paint. Merethe is the winner of the latest Get Dusty competition, held by the Pastel Guild of Europe, with the painting above.
You can follow her work on a blog and listen some of her music on the My Space.
Featured Pastel Artist: Bill James
Mar 6th
Bill James is one of the most fascinating pastel artists that I know of. His pastel work is mainly impressionistic with a lot of shifts in light and color and his works in watercolors and oils are equally stunning. For the first part of his career, he worked as an illustrator where he developed a love of painting figures and telling stories by the use of expressing emotion.
Bill is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, which awarded him the title of Master-Pastelist. The articles concerning all three media he works with were published by Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Artist, the Pastel Journal, American Artists, and his paintings have also been included in a different art books. The list of awards is endless and most of them are listed on his very informative website, where Bill offers the online service of looking at paintings created by students, and/or professional fine artists who would like to improve a painting, or solve a problem in creating that painting. He also offers tailored individual online lessons.
Bill James is a graduate of Syracuse University and now lives and works from his studio in a small town in Florida.
Newsletter: the Pastel Scribbler, Feb 2011
Mar 6th
The Pastel Guild of Europe published the February issue of the Pastel Scribbler. This is a free newsletter dedicated to a soft pastel art and is gathering European pastel artists. You can find old issues here and if you like it you can subscribe.
Meet the Get Dusty winner: Isabelle Renoncet
Meet Johannes Vloothuis, landscape teacher
Northern Light — meet German artist Astrid Volquardsen
DVD review: Dawn Emerson paints Ghat Women.
Barbara Benedetti Newton
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