Your Eyes to the World of Soft Pastel Art
Featured Artists
Featured Pastel Artist: Jill Stefani Wagner
Dec 28th
Jill Stefani Wagner
Jill Stefani Wagner works in two quite different mediums: watercolor and pastel. She finds watercolors to be very fresh and intuitive medium and she is ready to throw away many pieces. Pastel on the other side is more forgiving and she will changes color, form, and position until the wanted effect. She strives for realism with a painterly twist, but sometimes allows the rich hues and textures of a scene to dominate. Jill often works from resource photos from her travels but, when weather permits, she loves to paint from life or plein air.
Her pastel paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the MidWest, and her work hangs in various public and private collections throughout the United States. Jill’s pastel work has been given the Art Times Award from the prestigious Pastel Society of America Exhibition and she was recently honored with a National Award of Exceptional Merit from the Pastel Society of North Florida. Her work was given two honorable mentions in the Pastel Journal’s Pastel 100 Competition. She is a member of the National Watercolor Society, Pastel Society of America, Michigan Water Color Society, Great Lakes Pastel Society, Ann Arbor Women Artists and Ann Arbor Area Pastelists. Jill was born in Port Huron, Michigan. She received a B.F.A. from The University of Michigan School of Art and is senior partner of a successful graphic design firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Featured Pastel Artist: Dan F. Gray
Nov 4th
Dan F. Gray Collage
Dan F. Gray is an artist from Canada and he has worked in soft pastel since 1975. The great majority of his portfolio are an plein air landscapes of British Columbia, Canada, together with motorcycles and cars blended in colorful nature. He has very recognizable style and at least for me there is some similarity between Dan’s landscapes and some of the James Whistler’s Venice pastel works. Dan had a couple of interesting projects, he was following 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver with his pastel paintings and I especially like his project “2010 Figures” in year 2010. Dan was a host for Canada’s Master Pastelists Exhibition earlier this year and there was already a post about it.
Dan is one of Canada’s leading practitioners of the pastel medium, winner of the Silver Pastel Plate and a Plaque of Distinction from the Canadian Pastel Society. His work has been presented in many newspapers and magazines including Pastel Journal in 2008. On his website you can find 3 very instructional demos.
Featured Pastel Artist: Jean-François Le Saint
Jun 19th
Jean-François Le Saint "Le poisson"
Jean-François Le Saint is french pastelist and The Société des Pastellistes de France named him the Master Pastel Artist. I was lucky enough to get a short interview with Jean-François.
Can you tell us something about your art background?
“I guess I am self taught. I did go to art school, but it was a graphic arts school, we were not actually taught painting techniques. They had us try different media and that is how I first came into contact with pastels and instantly adopted them as my favorite technique.”
I find the portraits of the kids to be extra challenging and yet you make it look so easy. Is there any secret to a good kid portrait?
“Probably painting hundreds of them helps 
. I can’t say it is easy, but I know that for the result to be good it has to be done without strain. If I encounter difficulties I leave the portrait aside and sometimes pick it up again after some weeks or months have passed. Whatever the subject, if you struggle, it shows in the result and usually it is no good, I think.”
Do you have any favorite old pastelist?
“One of my favorite old pastel artist is Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer. I also often look at the works of Edgar Degas, but I can’t say he is a favorite of mine, although I do like to inspect how he worked.”
Please check the Jean-François Flicker photostream and prepare for the long hours of the pure pastel delight . His work was presented in the french art magazine Pratique des Arts in two separate articles and you can find the soft copy versions on the Flicker as well.
Featured Pastel Artist: Cuong Nguyen
Apr 26th
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.
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.
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.
Featured Pastel Artist: Tony Allain
Nov 4th
Tony Allain was born and raised in the Channel Islands (English Channel) where he thought art from 1987 until 1992. He lived some time in Cornwall, UK and after a recent trip to New Zealand he fell in love with the country and is now working and living there.
Tony is a painter of light and movement, and the subjects are ranging from marine and landscapes, town and street scenes through to still life. His painting has a brisk impressionist style, which is suited to the use of pastels. What I like the most about his art is the combination of gray and brilliant colors, together with the simplified scenes and interesting design.
Since January 1st 2010 Tony set a task to paint one small painting a day and post them on a blog. I was delighted after a recent discovery that he publishes paintings in big enough size where all strokes and details are clearly visible. Tony mostly works on the Canson Mi-Teintes paper and uses pastels on the softer side like Unison, Schminke and Sennelier. There is a nice 3 step demo on his blog from January 2010 (bottom of the page). He is a member of New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and the Pastel Association of New Zealand. His work is regularly featured in The Artist and Leisure Painter and the Pastel Journal.
Featured Pastel Artist: Penelope Milner
Oct 6th
Penelope Milner is a well established and distinguished artist who has produced a diverse range of work in a variety of mediums. However she has tended to work more with pastels and has exhibited both with the Pastel Society in London and at the Society de Pastellistes in Paris. Penelope is a member of the French Pastel Society and was awarded the great honor of “Maître pastelliste” in 2009. She was recently featured in the Special Pastel Edition of the French Magazine “Pratique des Arts”.
Penelope offers pastels courses in landscape and portrait technique from her studio in Catus, France. Here is how Penelope describes her work:
Penelope Milner
“Light has always been of primary interest in my work. Often the sky is merely suggested; reflected in water or in tarmac or in the violet cliffs when the sun is low. In the market scenes I am attracted to the deep reds and oranges which reflect through the parasols and cast their light on everything around. I often choose subjects which allow me to exploit this love of reflected colour; water, ice and polished surfaces. In my more recent pastels I am exploring the reflections of artificial light where the pavements are wet with rain. I am also becoming interested in conveying the sense of figures in motion. In these paintings shapes are vague and hard to decipher. People merge into the shadows forming solid or broken shapes.”
Featured Pastel Artist: Terri Ford
Sep 9th
Terri Ford is a native Californian, she attended the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, and she is living in San Jose. Terri has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Mexico and her pastel paintings include landscapes, portraits, the splendors of Paris, the backroads of France, and Italy… She likes the play of light in a different conditions and is greatly inspired by old architecture; barns, bridges, missions, cathedrals, clock towers, turrets and spires. I especially like her surprising use of vibrant colors like the painting Fishing nets which I can’t stop starring at .
Terri’s pastel paintings have gained national and international recognition. She was conferred the title Masters Circle by the IAPS in 2007. She has been awarded Distinguished Pastellist status by the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Pastel Society of New Mexico & Sierra Pastel Society. Terri teaches plein air workshops in California and abroad. She was a demonstrator at the IAPS Biennial Convention in Albuquerque, NM, May 2009.
“My passion for pastels never subsides. It becomes more intense as I continue my journey with them.The tactile nature of pastel in hand, the surface, with nothing in between continues to excite me. My work is driven by drama of light, and a poetic resonance in a subject.”
Featured Pastel Artist: Monique Straub
Jul 28th
Monique Straub is California based pastel artist with a very recognizable style. Formally trained in fine art photography, art history, illustration and painting, she works freely, unrestricted by the traditional rules and concepts. Monique paints in studio but her works are inspired and created using outdoor sketches and photographs as inspiration. Occasionally she will paint on a location. Since 2001, she has taken to painting full-time, and actively participate in juried art competitions, art festivals, daily painting groups, and various community art activities. Monique is currently a member of the “San Diego Museum of the Living Artist” and The Pastel Society of San Diego.
If you are interested in her style (like I am) here is what Monique says about it:
“MY TECHNIQUE: Usually working in series, my inspiration comes from everyday scenes that I capture with a digital camera. These photos are only my “jumping off” point, since I freehand render only rough sketches onto my paper. My rough sketches are then refined and adjusted with ink and brush, and sometimes a watercolor wash for additional background color. My color palette is decided before I begin. I make choices based on the mood of the scene, and sometimes stay within a range to complete a series.”
Artists statement:
“I enjoy painting the world with my own twist. Rather than producing textbook renditions, I choose to concentrate on emphasizing the individual character of my subject. Blending of traditional materials allows me to give unique personality to everyday scenes. I approach each of these original works as an adventure. The result is as surprising for me as I hope it is for you.”
Monique runs very active blog and you can enjoy her regular posts on Monique Straub’s Painting a Day blog.
Jill Stefani Wagner
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