Nancy Bozeman

“Dusty Trails” © Nancy Bozeman

Name: Nancy Bozeman

URL:  http://nabozeman.com/

Bio: Nancy A. Bozeman grew up on a farm in the Texas Panhandle, surrounded by animals, fostering the strongest of bonds with the cats and horses - a love she has carried with her throughout her life, only recently equalled by the mules of the Grand Canyon.
As a young woman, still living in the Panhandle, she took art classes under Dord Fitz. He facilitated Nancy to meet and learn other artists such as Elaine De Kooning and Louise Nevelson. Nancy was an art major as a college student at Texas Tech in Lubbock. She graduated from Texas A&M University in 1980 with a Bachelors in Science, a Masters in Science and as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

It was not until she came across Curt Walters' Grand Canyon paintings during a visit to the Prix de West in Oklahoma City in 2007 that Nancy decided actively to pursue a professional career in art. She progressed rapidly, receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2010 Pastel 100 Competition.
Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Landscape, animals

Style: Representational to Impressionist

Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website

Gallery: Works: Plein Air; Landscapes; Animals; Commission Works

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in a viewer on a new page; information is provided on the work; images enlarge further in a pop-up window. Download is permitted. Dusty Trails is 16 x 20 ins, 550 x 439, 354 KB

Demo/Blog: http://nabozeman.com/blog

Artists new to the blog

Due to a misunderstanding I did not receive the April - October issues of the Pastel Journal until last week (with the exception of the August issue, where my piece on Vicente Romero furnished the cover.)
Of course the April Journal is the eagerly-awaited Pastel 100 issue. I have fun with this issue, as I try to guess the prizewinners from the artwork alone, without peeking at the artists' names. I get a lot of them right - some artists are unmistakable in their subject matter, style and approach. I think a landscape by Elizabeth Mowry, Albert Handell, Richard McKinley, Desmond O'Hagan, is easily identified, as are figures by Bill Hosner or Sally Strand, or still life paintings by Claudia Seymour, Barbara Groff, or Nicora Gangi. However, there are always new works, new artists, and this is probably the most exciting part. Thanks to the April issue, and some other sources, I am adding the following artists to the Awaiting Review section.

Brian Sauerland
Lea Colie Wight
Rachel Estrada
Ann Van Blarcom-Kurowski
Sue Gombus
Karen Budan
Patricia Cain
Alice Laputka
Victor Ambrus
Angela A'Court

Kit Gentry

“Iao Needle” © Kit Gentry

Name: Kit Gentry

URL:  http://www.kitgentry.com/

Bio: Kit Gentry was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1969, but lived for 16 years in Hawaii. Kit took to drawing at an early age, and never quit. He graduated with a BFA from University of Michigan in 1991, moved to Hawaii two years later and worked as a night security guard while painting during the day. A fortuitous meeting with artist Jan Kasprzycki got him an introduction to the Village Gallery on Maui, and by 2000 he was living on his art. After 16 years of island life Kit moved to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where he now lives and paints.

Kit’s work is in private collections, and also in the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. He was featured in a 10-page article in the June/July 2012 issue of International Artist magazine.

Medium: Pastel, oil.  Kit is quite specific about his working procedure – there is no point in my repeating it here as all is revealed on the website. Suffice it to say that he prefers to work on darkened paper, and mixes his colours by cross-hatching layer upon layer, never uses fixative, and prefers Sennelier pastels to other brands, especially for their range of darks. He also prepares his own supports.

Subjects: Landscape

Style: Representational

Navigation: Not all pages have links to the whole of the site. At times you need the back button. However, the site is very interesting, with a fund of information, including detailed step-by-step close-ups of his process.

Gallery: Oils; Pastels; Drawings; Portraits; Photographs, Early work. See also Latest Additions.

Image View: Large thumbnails enlarge in a new window; further information is provided on the work, with commentary, working details and dimension. Download is possible. Iao Needle is 14 x 20 ins

Demo/Blog: Not labelled as such, but there is a wealth of information on the site. The What’s New page has some aspect of a blog in that it charts updates to the site.

Annie Cassez

“Carnet de voyage: Equateur” © Annie Cassez

Name: Annie Cassez

URL:  http://www.cassez-artiste-peintre.com/

Bio: Annie Cassez was born in Calais in 1949, but lived for thirty years in the Bergerac region. Passionate about by art and adult education, she studied drawing and oil painting in various studios and art schools of fine arts, also applied arts, art history and architecture, and she is a graduate of the Universities of Lille and Bordeaux.

Cassez worked as a restorer of gilding, Chinese lacquer and polychrome wood from 1979 to 1985; she also worked as a tour guide at Bergerac and Sarlat, accompanied groups to Morocco, and lectured on Prehistory and wall art.

For thirty years she has been exhibiting her pastels and oils (often embellished with gold leaf) in France and Switzerland, and also in Africa.  She eventually reconciled all her passions by establishing the Crisalide studio where she teaches pastel and oil painting.

Medium: Pastel, oil.

Subjects: Still life; Figurative

Style: Representational

Navigation: This website is in French. Links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Photothéque

Sub-galleries : Dessins; Huile: fleurs et natures-mortes; Huile: portrait; Oeuvres anciennes; Pastel: nature mortes; Pastel: portraits

Image View: Images enlarge in popup window on clicking; dimension is rarely mentioned. Download is possible. Equator is 60 x 80 cm.

Blog: There are probably more images to be found on the blog than on the website; and the dimensions and supports of the originals are posted.

Sophie Burbaloff

“ Homage to Bacon” © Sophie Burbaloff

Name: Sophie Burbaloff

URL:  http://www.sophieburbaloff.com/

Bio: Sophie Burbaloff was born in 1970 in Lyon, France, and  lives at Chessy in the Rhône. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Plastic Arts in 1991 at St Etienne, and subsequently exhibited at the Marché de la Création, Lyon from 1991 to 1996.

Her work has appeared in Pratique des Arts in issue n°82, 2008 and Hors-Série Pastel June 2012,

She has mounted solo exhibitions since 1993.

Medium: Pastel, acrylic. She works on Lavis Vinci, 300 g/m² supplied on rolls.

Subjects: Figurative ; landscape

Style: Linear Exploratory. Think Feliks Topolski. Burbaloff cites among her influences Rothko, Schiele, Diebenkorn, Barceló. She states that her earlier work was more narrative and picturesque; her present work has been pared to the essentials.

Navigation: Links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Portraits; Paysages (Landscapes); Scènes (Scenes)

Image View: Images enlarge in viewer on clicking, and may be further expanded. You may continue to scroll through the paintings in the viewer, or close it to return to the gallery. Dimension is indicated. Download is not possible as such.

Demo/Blog: No. Although in the June 2012 issue of Pratique des Arts she does a portrait demonstration, apart from the main article on her life and work. 

Sally Trueman

“ Crouching Figure” © Sally Trueman

Name: Sally Trueman

URL:  http://sallytrueman.com/

Bio:  Born In Margate, England in 1960, Sally Trueman  trained as a portrait painter under John Hughes-Hallett, official portraitist of Queen Elizabeth II. She financed her studies in alternative medicine by the sale of the paintings, and practised until 2000, when she moved to Toulouse in the south of France to paint full time. Her portrait work continued – including a painting of Zizou – French footballer Zinedine Zidane; and she launched herself into a series of oils and pastels on the theme of the sea and bathers. More recently she has concentrated on painting flowers, and has returned to Kent, England, and more to oil.

Sally Trueman has had many successful exhibitions and is the receipient of numerous awards. She was featured in the 2012 edition Hors-Serie Pastel of the French magazine Pratique des Arts.

Medium: Pastel, oil.

Subjects: Figurative, flowers.

Style: Sally’s painting style combines elements of expressionism and realism with abstract painting techniques. She is obsessive about finding the right tint, making the right mark, even if it becomes invisible to the viewer. Her signature is colour, form, and texture.

Navigation: Links remain available on bottom of page.

Gallery: Nudes (Prudes please note; Sally has the following caveat on this gallery page: “Please note, this is a tasteful exhibition / website by a highly respected International artist – however, clearly it is unsuitable for anyone offended by nudity” ; Flowers; Oils

Image View: Images enlarge on new page on clicking, and may be downloaded. You must use the back button to return to the gallery. Dimension is indicated. Crouching Figure is 40 x 60 cms, 525 x 285, 272 KB.

Demo/Blog: No.

Ruben Belloso

“ Those summer evenings” © Rubén Belloso

Name: Rubén Belloso

URL:  http://rubenbelloso.blogspot.com

Bio:  Rubén Belloso born in Seville in 1986. He has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville, where he began his studies in 2005. He studied perspective, art history, anatomy and life drawing among other subjects. He received the award for Best Portfolio, Faculty of Fine Arts of Seville, 2010; (this was no surprise, as he rose to the challenge of presenting an exhibition of portraits of his 18 professors at the end of his fourth year – see the link on his blog Retratos de una experiencia); the Honours Thesis Faculty of Fine Arts of Seville, 2009/2010; the University Award Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla for the year 2009/2010; and the Award of Excellence, City of Seville 2011. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, both national and international, and has solo shows in Spain, Italy and Portugal. He has received several awards among which are the 1st Prize Girault in the First International Biennial of pastels in Spain 2011, and the 1st Prize Juan Robles for Culture in Youth in 2010​​. His work has appeared in numerous media, whether in newspapers, radio and TV, including Pratique des Arts Hors-Série Pastel 2012. At 26 years of age he has already completed more than 300 paintings.

Medium: Pastel.

Subjects: Figurative, Portrait

Style: Representational. Belloso’s works are larger than life, literally. His facial portraits, painted on board, may measure 150 x 120 cm.,

Navigation: This website is a blog; it is in Spanish. The links at the side open pages of images that can be scrolled in the usual blog fashion.

Gallery: Otras obras; Serie Historias de la calle (Street stories); Serie Retratos de una experiencia (Portraits of an experience)

Image View: Images enlarge on clicking, and may be downloaded. Dimension and support is generally indicated. Those Summer Evenings is 100x 70 cms

Demo: There is a video on http://rubenbelloso.blogspot.ie/search/label/otras%20obras

Blog: This is a blog.

Jerry H. Brown

“ Evening Light” © Jerry Brown

Name: Jerry Brown

URL:  http://jhbrownart.com/

Bio:  Jerry Brown was born and raised in Kirksville, Missouri. He enrolled in college in 1964, took several art classes, enjoyed them and decided to earn a degree in Art Education. After two years in the Army he earned a Masters Degree in Studio Art from The University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Jerry taught High School art for 30 years. During that time he continued to work on his art, and frequently exhibited his watercolours in local and national shows. Now retired from teaching, he is pursuing his art full time.

Jerry worked as a watercolour artist for 30 years before moving to pastels. Many of the skills he developed with watercolour have influenced the way he uses pastels. He likes to paint a variety of subjects, figurative being his favourite. At present he is busy painting landscapes of Missouri and Kansas.

The artist maintains a studio in his Lee’s Summit home. He teaches workshops with a theme of landscapes and/or cloud paintings.

In the Pastel 100, Pastel Journal, 2002, Jerry’s painting Girl on the Beach was awarded 1st place in the Portrait and Figure category and was included in the book Pure Color - Best of Pastel, North Light Books, 2006.  Jerry also featured in the 2007 and 2010 Pastel 100 awards.

Medium: Pastel.

Subjects: Figurative, Landscape

Style: Representational.

Navigation: Menu remains available at bottom of page.

Gallery: Pastels (two pages)

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in a viewer, and may be downloaded. Dimension of work is indicated. Evening Light is 12x 18 ins, 602 x 401, 64 KB.

Demo/Blog: No

Grace Paleg

“Chicks” © Grace Paleg

Name: Grace Paleg

URL:  http://www.gracepaleg.com.au/default.htm

Bio: Every now and then I come upon an artist whose work is so striking I wonder how I could possibly have missed it. Grace Paleg is a case in point, and if I hadn’t picked up a copy of Pratique des Arts when in France this summer I would still be unaware, and the poorer for it.

Grace Paleg studied Graphic design at Swinburne in Victoria and life drawing and portraiture at East Sydney Tech. Studies followed with the late Lesley Sinclair and David Moore at Montsalvat and Allan Martin at his studio in Eltham. Grace's earlier work consists of over 300 commissioned portraits and in the past years she has diversified in subject matter to Life Drawing, Landscape and Still Life. With a young family Grace found it more and more difficult to juggle the busy lifestyle with the restrained requirements that go along with working in oil. When a friend and fellow artist introduced her to the medium in 1987 it solved that particular problem and she began exhibiting (and winning awards) in 1990; and she joined the Victorian Pastel Society in 1993. Grace is a member of the Australian Pastel Society, and of the Australian Guild of Realists Artists; and member and past President of the South Coast Pastel Society. In conjunction with these activities she has been an invitation judge at Art Shows and has been giving demonstrations and workshops for Art Societies throughout Victoria, N.S.W. and A.C.T.

After a move to the south coast of N.S.W. in 1994 with her family, Grace commenced work as a tutor with the Eurobodalla Adult Education Centre teaching portraiture. The Grace Paleg Fine Art Studio Gallery was opened in November 1996 and it is from there that Grace continues to work and teach. Her life and work was featured in Pratique des Arts Hors-Série Pastel in 2012.

Medium: Pastel.

Subjects: Life Drawing, Landscape, Still Life

Style: Representational. But this artist possibly wields her pastels in the most luminous manner that I have ever encountered. To see her rendition of nacre and mother of pearl in a nautilus shell is quite extraordinary. Her favourite support is Canson Mi-Teintes in the lavender shade; she supports the Australian pastels from Art Spectrum, but also Schminke. She achieves her unique effects by liberal use of her fingers, hands, fist and even arms to super-pose (never “rub”) layers of pastel in a fashion that she describes as “modifying the darks”.

Navigation: Menu remains available at side of page.

Gallery: Single page of thumbnails.

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge on a new page, and may be downloaded, but they all have a copyright watermark. There is no indication of the dimension of the original painting but they may be as large as 100 x 60 cm. according to the Pratique des Arts feature.  (If you can at all find this issue, buy it tout-de-suite!) Grace's painting, Chicks, won the 2012 Terry Collins award for the Australian Guild of Realist Artists. 

Demo/Blog: No