Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Archive for April, 2011
Featured Pastel Artist: Cuong Nguyen
April 26, 2011
Cuong Nguyen was trained to be a traditional portraitist at the age of 10 in his native Vietnam. He finds the natural beauty in the people that surround him—from the men and women he painted to earn money on the streets of Saigon as a child, to the denizens of Silicon Valley that he often paints today. Faces inspire him—so much so that that he has been known to approach strangers to request that they model for him. He works in a variety of media, from oil and pastel to digital media and for much of the past decade, he has been active in streetpaint art festivals around the world. Cuong is also a professional illustrator and icon designer for Yahoo! Inc., where he creates digital artwork no larger than 50 square pixels.
He has won several awards for his painting, including Best in Show at the International Association of Pastel Societies’ 15th Juried Exhibition and a Gold Medal at its 16th Juried Exhibition. The artist is a member of Oil Painters of America and the International Guild of Realism and is a Distinguished Pastelist in the Pastel Society of the West Coast.
Cuong won the Pastel Journal Grand Prize Award for 2011 with the painting Spring.
Don Williams, The Pastel Journal Best of Show
April 24, 2011
Don Williams "Hopper Car in Fog"
Night scenes of empty streets, ships and trains in a fog, old cars and gas stations… if you see it masterfully painted in pastels, you can be very certain it was done by Don Williams. His paintings are very quite and always show dramatic lights.
Don earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Newcomb Art School at Tulane University. He paints in both oil and pastel, and also works in drawing media, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions and one-man shows at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the San Jose Museum of Art and the Sheldon Art Museum in Lincoln, Neb. The artist lives in Sonoma, California.
Don won the Pastel Journal Best of Show award for 2011 with the painting Hopper Car in Fog.
Daggi Wallace Non-Profit Project
April 15, 2011
in pastelist
Daggi Wallace is a pastel painter born in 1962, in Berlin, Germany, currently living in Dallas, Texas. Primarily self-taught, she had her first painting lesson at the age of five and continues her studies through workshops and classes as well as many museum visits during her frequent travels to Europe. Her pastel paintings have been juried into many exhibitions including the IAPS and PSA and the awards have included Best of Show, Awards of Excellence and Purchase Awards in regional and national juried exhibitions.
In 2010 Wallace started a non-profit project called “Moni’s Kids”, painting portraits of children in need and using the proceeds to deliver aid to the children portrayed. The first series of Haitian children was exhibited in Miami in November 2010. To learn more about Moni’s Kids, please visit Daggi’s website.
“Painting portraits to me is all about exploring our shared humanity, the connection we have to each other and our common Source. Each face tells a story and communicating this to others is my goal. As these portraits are given new homes my hope is to bring the world outside our own little circles a little closer.” ¨- Daggi
Daggi was recently elected as a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America.
Paul Gauguin: Tahitian Woman
April 7, 2011
Paul Gauguin "Tahitian Woman"
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
Tahitian Woman, ca 1894.
Charcoal and pastel on paper, glued to yellow wove paper and mounted on grey millboard.
Dimensions
54.9 × 49.5 cm (21.61 × 19.49 in)
Current location: Brooklyn Museum
Click on image to enlarge.
Jean-Francois Millet, Dandelions
April 2, 2011
Jean-Francois Millet, 1814-1875,
Dandelions, 1867-68,
Pastel on tan wove paper,
40.6 x 50.2 cm,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Click on image to enlarge.
