Artists in Pastel

Lisa Fricker

2012-01-27T17:27:00.000Z

Name: Lisa Fricker, PSA, PSWC-DP
URL: Lisa Fricker has not just one website, but two. They are quite similar, so I don't really understand the rationale. Anyway, here are the links: http://www.lisafricker.com/Home/Home.html and http://www.lisafricker.com/Site_2/newHome.html
Bio: Tennessee native Lisa Fricker started her artistic career drawing portraits from life in a theme park. She attended art school in Nashville, and at Paier College of Art, Connecticut. She was awarded a scholarship to Scottsdale, where she studied with Bettina Steinke. Her work has been published in The Best of Portrait Painting, The Best of Flower Painting, and Painting More Creatively (North Light) as well as in the Pastel Journal and Pastel Art International. She is a member of Oil Painters of America, and holds signature status with the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society; she is a Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society. She has had seven solo shows to date.
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Figurative.
Style: Representational in an impressionistic fashion.
Navigation: Both sites are similar. Links remain visible at top or bottom of pages.
Gallery: Pastels available; Oils available; Archive (no dimensions or medium stated in this collection). Encounters is linked twice, both links ending in the same virtual show – mainly if not entirely pastels. This is wonderful plein air stuff on the move.
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in slideshow, but there is a download button. They may be saved. Gentle Waters is 32 x 40 ins, 800 x 627, 111 KB.
Demo/Blog: No

Joseph Peller

2012-01-27T16:44:00.001Z

Name: Joseph Peller
URL: http://www.josephpeller.com/paper.html
Bio: Born in Toronto in 1953, Joseph Peller's independent development has generally favored private affiliation with artists whose body of work shared common themes with his personal vision. Initially, he studied with A.K. Scott, a Canadian artist and pupil of the distinguished American painters Charles W. Hawthorne, and George Bellows. While still in high school he received a scholarship from the Banff School of Fine Arts to study drawing with Geo Glyde. During formal study at the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto, he maintained a private liaison with Canadian painters Kenneth Forbes and Cleve Horne. His development continued in New York working with noted artists Thomas Fogarty, Jr., and Hilary Holmes at the Art Students League, and Ron Sherr at the National Academy of Design. During this time he received a Revson Foundation Grant from the Art Students League of New York, in 1985.
Peller enjoys experimenting with a wide range of pure and mixed techniques involving oil, pastel, various printmaking procedures, drawing and sculpture.
The artist has been exhibiting since 1994 in solo exhibitions in New York and Toronto, and has participated in group exhibitions in the United States and Canada and Europe. Peller's work has received recognition in national exhibitions and mention in several publications including American Artist Magazine. He is the recipient of some prestigious awards. He has taught at the New York Academy of Art and currently teaches Painting and Composition at the Art Students League of New York. In 2006 he had a Residency at the Forbes Trinchera Ranch as guest of American Artist Magazine and Christopher Forbes.
Joseph Peller is represented in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Currently, he lives in New York City where he works out of his Brooklyn Navy Yard studio on the East River waterfront.
Medium: Pastel, oil, bronze. Peller is not primarily a pastellist, but he is too important an artist to ignore.
Subjects: Figurative. Joseph Peller's paintings, works on paper, and sculpture explore the haunting notions of isolation and ambivalence inherent in his images of individuals caught in the unnoticed rituals of modern urban life.
"Had the concept (notion) of the "floating-world" (ukiyo-e) not yet taken place in art history, one could call Peller a painter of the floating life. He infuses in his interiors and exteriors a valiant (resolute) language." (Martin H. Schmidt)
Style: impressionistic.
Navigation: Links remain visible at top of page. There are only four pastels paintings to be seen on this website – but they are worth viewing.
Gallery: Paintings (oil); Work on Paper (pastels, drawings); Sculpture.
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in new window. They may be saved. Ferry in Fog is 17 x 22 ins, 700 x 535, 85.6 KB.

Linda Dellandre

2012-01-27T10:13:00.000Z

Name: Linda Dellandre

URL: http://www.lindadellandre.com/LindaDellandre.com/Welcome.html

Bio: Linda Dellandre attended art school at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dean’s List in Painting at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, Fine Art Program, Montgomery County Community College, Pennsylvania. She is a founding Member Arizona Plein Air Painters, member of Arizona Pastel Artists Association, and of Plein Air Artists Northern Arizona. Linda worked as a nurse while attending classes and painting out of doors whenever she could. She has studied with with Howard Carr, Wiliamson Tapia, Gregory Hull and at The Scottdale Artists School. She has been winning awards since 2007, including the Richeson Pastel 75 and the Flora B. Giffuni and Joseph V. Giffuni Memorial in 2010.

Linda describes herself as Pennsylvanian by birth, an Arizonian by love, and a Texan by choice. After her artist in residency in Dinan, France for the month of July 2012, I bet she will become a confirmed Francophile too.

Medium: Pastel, oil.

Subjects: Landscapes.

Style: Representational/impressionistic.

Navigation: Links remain visible at top of page. Navigation is clear and images easy to access.

Gallery: Two folders in the Paintings link: Award Winners; Recent Works:

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in slideshow and may not be saved. Information on medium is not always provided.

Demo/Blog: No

Maggi Neal

2012-01-26T15:58:00.000Z

Name: Maggi Neal

URL: http://magginealfineart.blogspot.com/

Bio: A fourth generation Montana native, Maggi Neal was raised in Billings, Montana and now lives in Ulm, just southwest of Great Falls, Montana USA in "Charlie Russell Country" as she puts it. Through the years, Maggi has studied under professional artists where she developed her unique style. She exhibits her work across Montana and Wyoming and shares her knowledge, talent and skills by teaching as a summer art class instructor for the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. Maggi’s paintings have been juried into prestigious exhibitions such as the Western Masters Art Show in Great Falls, Montana and her work has been published in The Western Horseman. Now a fulltime artist, she is represented by the Billings Gallery of Fine Art, which is located in the beautifully restored historic Babcock Building in downtown Billings.

Medium: Pastel, oil, acrylic.

Subjects: The American West.

Style: Representational

Navigation: This website is pure blog.

Gallery: Just scroll.

Image View: Images on blog enlarge in slideshow when clicked. They may be saved. Boots, Hats, and Cowboy Cat is 11 x 14 ins, . 1600 x 1201, 274 KB.

Demo/Blog: This is a blog.

Kristi Billmayer

2012-01-26T15:39:00.000Z

Name: Kristi Billmayer

URL: http://www.kristibillmayer.com/

Bio: Kristi Billmayer lives on the windswept prairie of Northern Montana, with her husband, two sons and other family members.

Her work has been honored with numerous Best of Show and Juror's Choice Awards. She received the 2008 People's Choice Award at the C.M. Russell Art Show and Auction in Great Falls, where she exhibits annually. Her work is housed in collections throughout the US and abroad, and she is currently represented by Wyoming Gallery in Jackson Wyoming.

Medium: Pastel. "I work almost exclusively in pastel because the immediacy of the medium allows me to develop a painting rather rapidly while the idea and inspiration are still fresh and exciting. I feel I have only begun to unlock the possibilities of this magical medium."

Subjects: Animals – domestic and wild. No "pet portraits" thank goodness.

Style: Representational

Navigation: I find the navigation of this site somewhat confusing – there are galleries within galleries, without clear links to all, and often no link back to the Home page. Some links don’t bring you to the page desired – “More Bison Images” on the Paintings page is a case in point. This artist deserves a better web presence.

Gallery: Available Works; Paintings (Sold)

Image View: Thumbnails only. Unfortunately. There is no indication of the dimensions of the original painting.

Demo/Blog: No.

Lori Corradi

2012-01-26T14:56:00.000Z

Name: Lori Corradi

URL: http://loricorradi.com/

Bio: Lori Corradi was born and raised in New York City. She moved to Ojai in Southern California in 1986, world renowned as a destination for artists, collectors and outdoor enthusiasts. It is also the location for the television series Brothers and Sisters!

Lori enjoys painting the landscapes of Southern California and those she encounters abroad during her travels. She enjoys painting en plein air. Lori’s passion for the shapes, colors, textures, light and shadow patterns, and simultaneous contrasts found in nature inspire her to paint her landscapes. She has served on the committees of various pastel societies, and has been winning awards since at least 2008.

Lori donates a portion of her art sale proceeds to non-profit organizations that protect the environment and wildlife. She also donates to organizations that are working to find cures for cancer, MS and other diseases, and which provide assistance to people who are living with illness and/or disabilities such as the Make A Wish Foundation and MS Foundation. She also supports the National Disaster Search Dog foundation (NDSDF) which trains and provides dogs to search for disaster victims around the world (Lori is the proud owner of a Golden Retriever that accompanies her on her hikes).

Medium: Pastel, watercolour, oil.

Subjects: Landscapes.

Style: Representational/impressionistic.

Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website.

Gallery: Works: Landscape Collection; Panorama Collection; Field Studies

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in viewer and may be further enlarged in new viewer. Information is provided on all images, large and small. Poppy Passion IV is 16 x 20 ins, 550 x 443, 200 KB.

Demo/Blog: No.

Don Judah

2012-01-22T22:11:00.001Z

Name: Don Judah

URL: http://donjudah.com/

Bio: Don Judah admits that his formal education in art was limited to high school, college elective classes and numerous evening workshops. After forty four years in health care he has grasped the opportunities offered by retirement to further his education and concentrate on his pastels – how I empathise!

For the last few years he has been involved in the La Strada del Arte art festival, taking two days to convert one of his pastels into an 8’ x 12’ work on asphalt.

Don has exhibited locally including at the Merryville Winery, St. Supery Winery, and Mumm’s Napa Valley. Now there’s a thought – instead of having the wine and cheese at the gallery, have the paintings at the winery! A touch of genius, that!

Don’s series of Napa Valley Chefs is on exhibition at the New Kitchen Gallery in Downtown Napa and in the Liken Galley.

Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Figurative, Still Life.

Style: Representational, but loose and painterly – would you believe a slight hint of Toulouse Lautrec?

Navigation: This website is maintained by FineArtStudioOnline.

Gallery: Works

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in viewer, and can be zoomed further. Information is provided as a tooltip on the cursor.. Download is not prevented. Pizza Oven is 24 x 18 ins, 1024 x 691, 665 KB.

Demo/Blog: No.

Marie-Hélène Auclair

2012-01-20T22:16:00.001Z

Name: Marie-Hélène Auclair, PSA
URL: http://mhauclair.com/
Bio: Marie-Hélène Auclair worked as a dance teacher for about ten years before fulfilling her early ambitions to be an artist. She defines herself as a self-taught artist, and worked in other media before settling on pastel. She has won numerous prizes over the last ten years for her paintings, including the Pastel Journal in 2007 (where she had a feature article in December 2004). She has participated in group and solo exhibitions and she has been featured in Pratique des Arts on at least three occasions. She was also included in the 2006 North Light publication Pure Color – Best of Pastel.
Marie-Hélène is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, the Pastel Society of Canada, the Pastel Society of Eastern Canada, and a member of the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists. Her past experience as a teacher of the dance has contributed to her success as a teacher of pastel.

À St-Benoit de Mirabel au Québec, au détour du rang de la Fresnière, on y retrouve la maître pastelliste Marie Hélène Auclair, habitée d'une grande sensibilité, reconnue pour son style unique et son oeuvre d'un réalisme imposant. "Depuis toujours, peindre est pour moi une passion et un immense plaisir. C'est la façon dont mes sentiments les plus profonds s'expriment..." dit l'artiste qui, à travers les portraits et les natures mortes, fait ressortir les dimensions et subtilités de la vie.Portraits d'enfants, de vieux parents ou de fruits à l'air amusant, le jeu des couleurs et des ombres, l'effet de profondeur et la touche d'un coeur d'enfant, l'artiste peint avec un réalisme saisissant. Des expositions New-Yorkaises aux livres et magazines d'art américain et français, les oeuvres de Marie Hélène Auclair ne laissent personne indifférent. Le monde en pastel, une aventure multicolore d'une pureté à s'y méprendre.
Medium: Pastel
Subjects: Portraits, Still Life – preferably animate subjects.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: This website is in French and in English. Page links remain available on bottom of page, except in the gallery pages, when they are on top (and very small). The French version has links to the Pratique des Arts articles that are not made available in the English version.
Gallery: Gallery (Oeuvres in French)
Image View: Three pages of quite little thumbnails that enlarge on in an Adobe Flashplayer viewer on the same page, and can be zoomed. Information is provided on medium and dimension. Download is not possible.
Demo: Go to http://mhauclair.com/PDF/Pas_a_pas.pdf

Caroline Guernon

2012-01-20T21:31:00.000Z

Name: Caroline Guernon

URL: http://www.cguernon.com/

Bio: Quebec artist Caroline Guernon has been painting for more than two decades. She graduated in 1997 from the University of Concordia with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a year later with a BACC from the University of Quebec (Montreal). She has latterly devoted herself entirely to pastel, becoming a member of the Pastel Society of Eastern Canada. In 2008 she studied with Rémy Lacroix (already featured on this blog), and in 2009 with Master Pastellist Marie-Hélène Auclair (coming shortly!). She has enjoyed numerous group and invitational exhibitions and her work was featured in the French art journal Pratique des Arts, issue 81, August 2008.

Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Still Life, Landscape, Figures.

Style: Representational - with an abstract touch.

Navigation: Page links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Ma Galerie page.

Image View: Some thumbnails (not the majority) enlarge on new page, and can be saved. Information is provided on medium and dimension. Visite au coeur du vieux Québec is 12 x 17 ins, 914 x 615, 213 KB.

Blog/Demo: No

Update 2011-2012

2012-01-17T20:34:00.000Z

I have just completed a trawl through all the artists' websites from the beginning of this blog up to the end of 2010. I checked all the links, and found that several needed to be updated. Inevitably, some sites are now defunct - for the main part, those that never seemed to be well maintained. And of course some deceased artists' sites are no longer maintained.
However, I would like to link back to William Rambaldi in Italy, and especially to Robert Jessel, of Boca Raton, Florida. I checked the Florida pastel societies, to find there are three - Southwest Florida, North Florida, and Central Florida - but nothing for the Southeast.
So if anyone out there - especially in Florida - knows how I can contact Robert Jessel, or whether he has a new web address, I would be very grateful for the information.

Mike Beeman

2012-01-15T20:03:00.000Z

Name: Mike Beeman, PSA

URL: http://mikebeeman.com/

Bio: Born in Colorado, raised in England, Mike Beeman has spent the last 43 years in Wyoming. Mike’s work has won several awards in pastel, oil and watercolor in both regional and national exhibits since 1971 and his work hangs in private collections around the world. He was selected in the Pastel Journal's 100 Annual Competition for 2005 and 2007 for his portrait and figurative work and 2011 for his still life. Mike is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of Colorado; he is also a member of the Pastel Society of the Northern Rockies and the Degas Pastel Society. Mike is represented by Deselms Fine Art in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Eisele Gallery of Fine Art in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Medium: Pastel, oil

Subjects: Still Life, Wildlife

Style: Representational - nice loose, painterly style.

Navigation: Typical FineArtStudioOnline website.

Gallery: Works (seems to contain all the other categories); Still Life Gallery; Figurative and Portrait Gallery; Wildlife and Animal Portrait Gallery; Plein Air Gallery.

Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in new window and can be further enlarged, and saved. Information is provided on medium and dimension. Sparrow is 5 x 7 ins, 550 x 384, 121 KB.

Blog: http://pastelsbeeman.blogspot.com/ and http://beemansdaily.blogspot.com/

Yves Serny

2012-01-09T23:01:00.001Z

Name: Yves Serny

URL: http://www.serny-pastel.com/

Bio: French artist Yves Serny was born in Villegly in the the Aude. A self taught painter, he has drawn since childhood. In the 1990s he made two discoveries : on the one hand the works of old pastel masters such as: Quentin de La Tour, Chardin, Degas, Mary Cassat; on the other those of contemporary pastellists exhibiting in the Société de Pastellistes de France summer show in Feytiat, Limoges. In 2007, he took masterclasses with major French pastellists to perfect his technique. After a career in public service, he has now retired. His works can be seen at his own personal exhibitions. In the last ten years he has exhibited frequently in the Languedoc and Midi-Pyrenees regions, where he has been awarded many prizes. M. Serny lives at Conques sur Orbeil, in the Aude.

Yves Serny est né à Villegly dans l'Aude. Peintre autodidacte, il dessine depuis l'enfance. C'est au cours des années 1990 qu'il fait une double rencontre, les oeuvres des maîtres pastellistes anciens : Quentin de La Tour, Chardin, Degas ou Mary Cassat mais aussi celles des maîtres pastellistes contemporains réunis tous les étés au Festival international du pastel (Société de Pastellistes de France) qui se tient à Feytiat en Limousin. En 2007 c'est près des maîtres pastellistes qu'il se perfectionne. Adoptant définitivement le pastel sec, les natures mortes sont maintenant ses principales sources d'inspiration. Après une carrière professionnelle dans la fonction publique, enfin il a pris sa retraite. Ses œuvres sont visibles à l'occasion d'expositions personnelles. Il participe aussi depuis une dizaine d'années à de nombreux salons dans les régions du Languedoc et de Midi Pyrénées où il a souvent été primé. M. Serny habite à Conques sur Orbeil, dans le département de l'Aude.

Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Still Life.

Style: Representational

Navigation: This website is bilingual, in French and in English.

Gallery: Galerie

Image View: Fifteen thumbnails that enlarge in a new window. Title and image size are provided. Attempts to download are frustrated, as all images apparently download as GIFs - but what you receive is not the painting as posted. La Verre de lait (The Glass of Milk) is 48 x 36 cm.

Richard Banh

2012-01-09T22:27:00.001Z

Name: Richard Banh

URL: http://www.richardbanh.com/index.html

Bio: It was in a moment of serendipty that I happened upon pastel artist Richard Banh. I was doing a search for Denise Larue Mahlke, while updating the links on my blog – Denise’s link had apparently disappeared. Luckily I found the updated URL, but discovered Richard Banh in the process, as he attributed his artistic development to Denise on his website. So what little I know about Richard is gleaned from his own site. Richard took art classes for three years in 2007 thru 2009 from Denise Larue Mahlke, first intending to paint in oil. He was introduced to pastels during her classes and was intrigued enough to switch mediums. He took more workshops with Susan Carlin, Libby Peters, Bob Rohm, Rae Andrews and Rita Kirkman, and made such progress that he was awarded Best in Show for one painting and Honorable Mention for another in the Texas Pastel Society's "Celebrate Texas" 2011 Regional Juried Competition/Exhibition.

Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Landscape; Portraits ; Still Life. Banh’s strength is in Landscape.

Style: Representational

Navigation: Links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Landscape; Portraits; Still Life; Plein Air; Animals.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in new window. Information is provided on image size, and download is permitted. Where Silver Linings Flow is 20 x 16 ins, 1000x798, 937 KB.

Demo/Blog: No

Lee Kimball

2012-01-08T20:56:00.002Z

Name: Lee Kimball, PSA

URL: http://leekimballart.com/

Bio: Lee Kimball graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, and spent the next twenty-five years working in graphic design and illustration. During this time he painted in watercolour, until he took up pastels in 1994, scribbling on brown wrapping paper with a small set of Rembrandts. After only a year he decided to pursue a career in fine art on a full time basis and was immediately accepted into the Pastel Society of the West Coast and the Pastel Society of America. His work has been the recipient of many awards including the 2000 Joseph V. Giffuni Memorial Award from the Pastel Society of America.
Mr. Kimball is a signature member and Master Pastellist, Pastel Society of America as well as a signature member and Distinguished Pastellist, Pastel Society of the West Coast. His work is held in many collections, both business and private.

His work and technique was featured in the Pastel Journal, November/December Issue, 2000.

Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Landscape; Kimball comments : "the elements that I portray are evocative of man’s influence upon the land – the farmsteads, the fields, the roads – all of which have their stories to tell, of generations come and gone. Many of the older buildings hold a particular appeal in that they appear not so much to have been built on the land but more that they seem to have grown from the land.”

Style: Contemporary realism.

Navigation: Links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Artwork.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in new window. Information is provided on image size, and download is permitted. Amish Buggies is 16 x 20 ins, 600x247, 90 KB.

Demo/Blog: No

Karen Israel

2012-01-08T20:15:00.000Z

Name: Karen Israel
URL: http://artbykarenisrael.com/ABKI/Welcome.html
Bio: Karen Israel began painting seriously over a decade ago and started to exhibit in 2006. Her work has been accepted into many national and international juried shows and has won numerous awards, including the Joseph V. Giffuni Foundation Award of the Pastel Society of America in 2009. Karen has taken workshops with Leslie Lillian Levy, Christine Ivers, Robert Norieka, Kristine Sullivan, Frank Federico, Alain Piccard, Richard McKinley, Claudia Seymour, and Susan Ogilvie. She is a member of Connecticut Pastel Society, Pastel Society of America (Associate Member), Connecticut Women Artist Association, Audubon Artist, and an elected member of the West Hartford Art League.
Medium: Pastel
Subjects: Landscape; Still Life; Portraits – her portraits are imaginative, full of action, especially those of children, which manage to avoid the saccharine.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: Links remain available on top of page. Gallery and images are straightforward. The “Home” page seems to me redundant.
Gallery: Landscape; Still Life; Portraiture.
Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in slideshow. Information is provided on image size, but download is not possible. I chose Surface Tension as a sort of compromise between Landscape and Still Life. It measures 24x19 ins.
Demo/Blog: No

Seasons Greetings

2011-12-27T12:15:00.000Z

I would like to wish all who follow this blog - indeed all 80,000 of you who have looked in since the beginning, a very happy Christmas and a positive 2012. I know that many of us are artists in our own right, some well known, others less so, but as long as the artistic spark is alive within, keep fanning it until it burns bright and lights up your life and those around you.
My favourite quote of the year, courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Monge in International Artist, December-January 2012, is that of Norman Rockwell: "I think my work is improving. I start each picture with the same high hopes, and if I never seem able to fulfil them I still try my darnedest".
So, for 2010, try your darnedest! You can do no more!

I will spend the next few days checking the URLs in the older posts, before I post any more. Meanwhile. may I wish you all:
Happy New Year - Bonne Année - Feliz año nuevo - Glückliches neues Jahr - Szczęśliwego nowego roku - Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun - Buon anno - Gelukkig Nieuwjaar - Boldog új évet - Onnellista uutta vuotta - Ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος - 幸せ新しい年 - С Новым годом

(The painting is an oil sketch of the Pyrénées, near St. Savin - I had no seasonal pastel to share with you.)

James Kimak

2011-12-18T15:19:00.000Z

Name: James Kimak

URL: http://www.kimakdesign.com/index.php?page=fine-art

Bio: James Kimak graduated from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, with a BS Fine Art, cum laude in 1976. He worked as a freelance from 1976 to 2005 and his 30 years experience as a designer, art director, photographer, digital artist and exhibiting painter, has served him well. Having honed his skills working with top firms and institutions (including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dow Jones, The New Haven Register, and NBC Shows and Sports) he established Kimak Design to specialise in Healthcare and Public Space Murals, Photography and Art.

James Kimak has been an exhibiting painter since the late 1980s. He has shown in many group shows including the National Art Club, The Parrish Art Museum and the American Museum of Illustration. James works primarily in pastel with mixed media, and occasionally incorporates paintings into his digital public space mural work. The February 2011 issue of the Pastel Journal featured his work in an extensive article.

Medium: Pastel; watercolour. Kimak had his own approach to pastel painting. On illustration board, over a watercolour underpainting, James creates sketchy areas of colour with soft pastels, then uses damp brushes to create gouache-like areas to give a painterly appearance. He usually builds up broad layers of colour before getting into detail. He also combines pastels with acrylic paint on gessoed board, using fixatives so that the painting will not require the protection of glass.

Subjects: Urban Landscape

Style: Representational. In 2001 New York Magazine Online had this to say of his work: “In a style reminiscent of Edward Hopper, James Kimak’s pastels evoke an almost sublime sense of stillness.” He had his first solo exhibition in 1993 – at the Edward Hopper House Art Center, Nyack, NY! And in 2011 Kimak participated in a group show there, entitled "Re-Imagining Hopper." Of his work, Washington Heights, Karen Croke of the Gannet Journal News commented that the piece "definitely has a Hopper-esque feel, especially the play of light against buildings."

Interestingly, Kimak also lists Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud among his influences; Fairfield Porter and even Mark Rothko also get a mention.

Navigation: The gallery page lists the paintings by name on the left,

Gallery: Fine Art

Image View: Click on titles to view. There is no information on image size, but the paintings in the Pastel Journal were variously from 14 x 20 to 22 x 31. Capra’s Muse featured here, is 20 x 28 ins; 670 x 473. 104 KB.

June Maxwell

2011-12-13T16:35:00.001Z

Name: June Maxwell, PSA

URL: http://junelmaxwell.com/

Bio: I have been aware of June Maxwell's paintings for some years now. I don't know why I haven't blogged about her before this.

June L. Maxwell received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, studying under Paulette van Roekens and Arthur Meltzer. Later on she took classes from the late Richard Pionk and workshops with Daniel Greene. Before deciding on fine art as her ultimate direction, she worked as a greetings card designer for fifteen years. Having won numerous awards, both locally and in New York, she was invited to lecture and demonstrate at the Salmagundi Club and the Pastel Society of America. She was also an instructor for the P.S.A. National Arts School. In 1997, she was designated a Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America. Her paintings are represented in collections throughout the country.

June has been exhibiting since 1989 and winning awards since 1991. She was featured in Best of Pastels and Best of Pastel 2 (Quarry Books) and in August 2007 she was the cover story in the Pastel Journal.

June Maxwell lives in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania.

Medium: Pastel; oil. June prefers Sennelier’s La Carte pastel board as a support, in the dark brown or dark grey tints, not working above 18 x 24 ins.

Subjects: Still Life; Landscape

Style: Representational

Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website.

Gallery: Still Life in Pastel; Still Life and Landscapes in Pastel

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge. There is a tooltip on each thumbnail giving details of the painting. The enlarged images can be zoomed in a new window, and saved. However, if you use the "next" button to go from one enlargement to another, you do not necessarily get the next image in the particular gallery - you can hop from pastel to oil and vice versa.The T’ang Horseman is 18 x 24 ins, 500 x 376, 131 KB.

Margi Lucena

2011-12-06T19:14:00.003Z

Name: Margi Lucena

URL: http://margilucena.com/

Bio: Born in San Pedro, Calif., Margi Lucena grew up in southern California and on the east side of the Sierras in country very similar to her present location – mountains surrounding high desert. Margi grew up with the odours of oil paint and turpentine, and has been painting since childhood. After 16 years in Hawaii, she moved nine years ago to the high desert of Socorro, New Mexico. New Mexico has ever since been her source of inspiration. Margi has spent the last decade or so studying her art and learning techniques. But it wasn’t until just a few years ago that she discovered pastels. “I had always painted with oils and watercolors. For the last three and a half years, I’ve painted almost exclusively with pastels. I found my medium,” she says.” Her dedication has been awarded with several awards, including an Honorable Mention in the Pastel Journal 2010 Pastel 100, Landscape Division. She was subsequently featured in a piece by Christine Proskow in the October 2010 Pastel Journal.
Medium: Pastel

Subjects: Landscape

Style: Representational

Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website.

Gallery: Pastel Paintings (6 pages); Sculpture.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge. You can choose to view each thumbnail, or wind through the slideshow of over 100 images. Information is provided both on thumbnails and on enlargements. Clouds over Pederna is 11 x 14 ins. 550 x 412, 164 KB.

Demo: There are two links on her site to videos posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BHPdt7B4i-c#!
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCeEcLukPac&feature=related

Bill Baker

2011-12-06T18:35:00.000Z

Name: Bill Baker
URL: http://billbakerart.com/
Bio: New York artist Bill Baker worked as a carpenter in the Big Apple while teaching himself how to paint. In 1981 in enrolled in a basic art class in Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, and after a year decided that he would either continue on the formal path towards a PhD, or educate himself through travel and experience. He chose the latter course, making it his mission in life to paint indigenous people the world over (not unlike José Luis Fuentetaja). As a result his paintings are to be found in private and public collections worldwide. He has been showing his work since 1988. He was a finalist in the 2009 Pastel 100, and was featured in the Pastel Journal, December 2011 issue.
Bill Baker now lives in Corrales, New Mexico close to the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico.
Medium: Pastel (Bill switched from oils in the late 1980s for the immediacy of the medium. He has been quietly accumulating what he thinks might be the largest collection of pastel sticks in the world!)
Subjects: Figurative.
Style: Colorist.
Navigation: The links remain available at all times. The whole website, including text, is Flash based.
Gallery: Newest Paintings; Feature Works; Paintings on Display; Available Originals; Giclee; My Travels.
Image View: Click on partial thumbnails to enlarge in viewer. This is necessary every time – there is no slideshow, nor any way to progress through the enlarged images other than by choosing each thumbnail in turn. No information other than title provided. (Paintings that were featured in the Pastel Journal varied in size from 29 x 34 ins to26 x 18 ins.) Download is not possible, although there is a print option for each image on the right click dropdown menu. The painting featured is Mango Cart.

Brian O’Neill

2011-11-29T18:04:00.001Z

Name: Brian O’Neill, PSA

URL: http://www.brianoneillstudio.com/

Bio: Brian O'Neill is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America whose work has been displayed in galleries across the United States, Canada, Japan and England. In the spring of 2009 Brian was accepted to begin an apprenticeship at the world renowned Waichulis Studio in Mountain Top, PA. The commitment to excellence practiced at the Waichulis Studio quickly proved to be a perfect fit for O'Neill's love of realism and representational art and an exciting addition to his continued journey toward artistic expression and growth.

O'Neill has received many awards and honors for his work which include most notably, Blossom 2: Art of Flowers international juried competition Jurors Choice Award and Honorable Mention at The Naples Museum of Art in Naples, Florida. The Pastel Journal Top 100 Competition Second Place and Honorable Mention Awards, The Artists Magazine Annual Art Competition/and All Media Competition Honorable Mentions and Finalists Awards, and The Art Renewal Centers Annual Salon Competition Finalist Award.

O’Neill has been exhibiting his work throughout the United States since 2003.

Medium : Pastel, charcoal, oil, acrylic

Subjects: Still Life – especially flowers

Style: Realist.

Navigation: The links remain available on left of page.

Gallery: Realism Dry Media; Realism Oil on Panel; Organic Abstraction; Contemporary (Acrylic) Floral.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in viewer. Safe on Arrival is 18 x 18 ins, 550 x 541, 185 KB.

Blog: http://www.brianoneillartist.blogspot.com/

Facebook: Yes

Don Rantz

2011-11-29T17:35:00.000Z

Name: Don Rantz

URL: http://web.mac.com/donran/iWeb/Don%20Rantz%20Fine%20Art/Home.html

Bio: Don Rantz of Prescott, Arizona, studied Fine Art at the University of Northern Arizona. He has illustrated three childrens' books with his wife, Beth Neely, and he enjoys working in wood. Since 2002 Don has been painting in pastels, recording the monumental landscapes of the American South West. His work has won significant awards, including the Phippen Museum Art Show and Sale, the New Mexico Pastel Society National Show, the 8th Pastel 100 Ruth Richeson/Unison Pastels award, and the 11th Pastel 100 Best of Show.

Medium : Pastel

Subjects: Landscape.

Style: Realist. Rantz works on Wallis sanded paper with Unison pastels. The scale can be large – his recent Pastel 100 winner was a commissioned painting of 30 x 40 ins. but he also has pieces as small as 6 x 9 in.

Check out the Artists Network site for more information on his working technique.

Navigation: The links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Current Work; Current Work – Collectors’ Room; Archives; Prints.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in a new window, or run the slideshow. Not all images give details of the dimensions of the original. Mystery is 6 x 9 ins, 800 x 529, 130 KB. (I recently watched Deliverance again!)

Sharon Allicotti

2011-11-28T20:54:00.001Z

Name: Sharon Allicotti

URL: http://www.allicotti.com/3/artist.asp?ArtistID=2004&Akey=54XBH589

Bio: Sharon Allicotti graduated with an MFA from California State University, Long Beach, School of Fine Arts in 1987 and is currently an instructor at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art in Van Nuys, Ca. She is also a graduate programme mentor at the Laguna College of Art and Design. Her many awards include a Purchase Award, Works on Paper: Beginnings, Brand Library Art Galleries, Glendale, CA, in 2009. SHe had a Residency Fellowship, at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of Taos, New Mexico, in 2003.

Apat from group shows she has had solo exhibitions in Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, Norwalk and Mount San Jacinto. Her work was featured in an article in the August 2010 Pastel Journal. It is worth visiting http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/art-demos-techniques/pj-allicotti to see her unique artistic process at work.

Medium : Pastel, oil

Subjects: Figurative.

Style: Realist with surreal overtones. Allicotti works at fairly large sizes , from 22 x 30 to 56 x 42, on Stonehenge printing paper, using vine charcoal, hard and soft pastels and pastel pencils; she avoids fixative

Navigation: The links remain available on top of page.

Gallery: Galleries: Paintings in Pastel; Drawings; Oil Paintings.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in a slideshow, or click again to enlarge further. Information is provided on each piece, if you click on the word Description at bottom left of viewer. Download is blocked by disabling the right click function. However, Mojave Rain Pool did not have the dimensions attached.

Sam Liberman

2011-11-28T20:10:00.000Z

Name: Sam Liberman

URL: http://samlibermanart.com/

Bio: Sam Liberman did not take to painting until he was in his early 40s. He was trained as a lawyer and conducted civil rights litigation in his home town of St. Louis, Missouri for many years. But he has now been painting colorful art work for over 35 years. He now works primarily with pastels, while also fashioning a number of oils each year and drawing on a regular basis. His art education began in a class with Sheldon Helfman, and he has studied pastels with many excellent teachers, including Doug Dawson, Albert Handell, Colleen Howe and many others. He did not consider himself a professional artist until the 1990s when he gradually wound down his law practice. In the late 90s, he and his wife, Terri LaBriola moved to Sacramento, where in addition to the Sierra Pastel Society he is connected to the Capitol Art Center and the S12 Studio and Gallery. He often paints and draws there, as well as exhibiting his work. Sam’s paintings have been exhibited in over 50 competitive national and international art exhibitions. In June, 2009 he had a one person exhibition at the prestigious Butler Institute of American Arts.

Medium : Pastel, oil

Subjects: Landscape, architecture, figurative.

Style: Expressionist to colorist... Sam explains: "My work contains a little of expressionism, color field, post-impressionism and other identifiable movements, but I enjoy many others art movements, such as art nouveau and fauvism. I would have to admit the most of the painting I love most was done between 1825 and 1950”

Navigation: The links remain available on top of page. Navigation is well facilitated.

Gallery: Works: Pastel Landscapes; Oil Landscapes; Figures; Plein Air; Still Life; New Paintings.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in a slideshow, or click again to enlarge further. Full information is provided on each piece, including commentary, dimensions, medium, and prices. Auguste in the Parc is 21 x 23 ins, 550 x 507, 272 KB.

Blog : Sam comments with honest self-criticism on his work in his blog. However, when I looked some images refused to load or have a missing link.

Simone Lainé

2011-11-27T20:07:00.000Z

Name: Simone Lainé

URL: http://simone.laine.perso.neuf.fr/index.htm

Bio: I have little biographical information on Simone Lainé but I suspect that she works and exhibits mostly in and around Paris- there is a list of salons on her website. She attended the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She must also teach, as I have found a reference to the “ Simone Laine School, one the most rigorous and professional Parisian schools.” She has been Director of Art and Design Drawing at St Mandé – now on the Parisian metro as St Mandé Tourelle. S’il y a quelqu’un qui peut me renseigner, j’en serais très reconnaissant.

Medium : Pastel.

Subjects: Landscape

Style: Impressionist. She reminds me somewhat of Jean-Claude Baumier.

Navigation: This website is presented in French and in English.

Gallery: Gallery/Galerie: Three pages of thumbnails

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in a slideshow, or click again to return to gallery. Clicking on the Catalogue button on the top left of then pages opens a list of titles, dimensions, and prices. Un matin au bois is 57 x 38 cm, 900 x 613, 446 KB.

Jean-Yves Marrec

2011-11-23T21:06:00.003Z

Name: Jean-Yves Marrec

URL: http://www.jeanyvesmarrec.weonea.com/

Bio: Breton (France) artist Jean-Yves Marrec was born inn Brest in 1961. Painter and decorator by trade, his knowledge and fascination with colour led him to become a prolific and dedicated archivist of the Brittany littoral. Self-taught, his passion for pastels has led him to explore the world of painting via the meandering route that many self-taught painters follow – exhaustive reading, studying colour theory, perspective, art history, meetings and discussions with fellow artists, minute examination and analysis of the work of others. His dedication and talent has been duly recognised – he is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, and he has participated in group and solo exhibitions since 2005. He was recently (2011) a featured artist in the pastel supplement of the French journal Pratique des Arts.

Jean-Yves Marrec is a member of the Association de peintres et sculpteurs de Quimper Cornouaille.

Jean-Yves Marrec est peintre pastelliste Quimpérois, né à Brest en 1961. Autodidacte, le pastel est pour lui une véritable passion. Il s'est formé au fil du temps, au contact d'amis peintres et de différentes rencontres. Sa carrière professionnelle lui a fait côtoyer « la couleur » de toutes les manières possibles. Peintre en bâtiment de métier puis peintre décorateur, il suit ensuite une longue formation qui lui fait approfondir le travail sur la théorie des couleurs, les perspectives dans leur ensemble, la pédagogie et l'histoire de l'Art. Il devient formateur en peinture en C.F.A. Il a beaucoup lu, regardé et analysé la peinture des autres. Il dit: Je pense que la curiosité nous amène à apprendre et à mieux comprendre ce qui nous entoure!

Medium : Pastel.

Subjects: Landscape, especially coastal views. Jean-Yves has a special love for boats as a subject, especially if stranded or abandoned.

Style: Representational.

Navigation: All links remain available on top of page. This is a French website; but it has a translate button on the top left of the main page.

Gallery: Œuvres (5 pages of thumbnails of Finistère Sud). There is also drop-down box on top left of page that orders the pastels by location - on page each other than the favoured South Finistère.

Image View: The gallery pages are sets of thumbnails that enlarge in an automatic slideshow when clicked. Image information is given on mousover on the thumbnails, or along the top of th enlargement. Download is not blocked – but of course the usual copyright notice applies. Le Phare, Combrit-Sainte-Marine is 38 x 28 cm, 547 x 550; 286 KB.

Demo/Blog: No

Facebook: Yes.

Michael Norman

2011-11-20T22:38:00.002Z

Name: Michael Norman, PS.

URL: http://web.mac.com/michaeljnorman/Michael_Norman_-_Painter_in_Pastels/Welcome.html

Bio: Michael Norman was born in 1943 in Clevedon, Somerset. He is a pastel artist living and working in the South West of England. He was elected to membership of the Pastel Society UK in 2007 and became Honorary Treasurer the following year. In recent years he has built up a growing reputation as a talented pastel painter. Having experimented with pastels for some years, he began to appreciate how versatile they are and now prefers them to any other medium. (He painted for many years in oils and watercolours before taking up pastels, and was a member of the Birmingham Watercolour Society.) Most of his work is purely pastel, but he does occasionally combine pastels with watercolour or acrylic paint. He has won awards for his art, the most recent being the Sarah Samuels Fine Paintings Award, 2006, the Unison Pastels Award, 2007, and the Bill Patterson Memorial Award, 2008.
Michael now lives and works in Devon, within ten minutes walk of the Exe Estuary and the South Devon coastline.

Michael Norman’s paintings may be viewed in the Fred Keetch Art Shop, The Strand, Exmouth, Devon; Gallery LeFort, 5 Margarets Buildings, Bath; the Appledore Gallery, 31 Bude Street, Appledore, Bideford, Devon.

Medium : Pastel. Michel states : I usually work from sketches made on site. I often take a Unison pastels colour chart, which I use to annotate my sketches with colour references. I also use a digital camera for back-up information, and for detail that I may have omitted to record at the time.I paint in soft pastel on either pumice paper, solid-core mountboard, to which I apply a coloured pumice surface, Sennelier pastel card or Canson paper.I quite often make an underpainting in pastel by blocking in all the main areas of colour and then dragging the applied pastel down with the side of my hand over the whole picture area. This creates a ghostlike image, and also has the effect of unifying the colour. I sometimes draw out my subject in charcoal.
I usually have three or four paintings in progress at any one time.

Subjects: Landscape, especially coastal views. His inland landscapes are quintessentially English, and his Venetian scenes are very fine indeed.

Style: Representational.

Navigation: All links remain available on top of page. A rich and rewarding website.

Gallery: Exe Estuary paints; South West Coastal paintings; Landscape paintings; Italy paintings.

Image View: The gallery pages are sets of thumbnails that enlarge in a viewer that retains the thumbnails along the top of the slideshow. A download button is provided. My only gripe is that the size of the original paintings is not cited. However 18 x 24 ins or 45 x 60 cm seems to be about right, based on paintings on the LeFort gallery website. Still morning, Camperdown creek is 800 x 609; 134 KB.

Demo/Blog: No

Lisa Stauffer

2011-11-20T22:02:00.001Z

Name: Lisa Stauffer
URL: http://lisastauffer.com
Bio: Lisa Stauffer received her Master’s in Design from the University Of Minnesota, and she studied Illustration at Parson’s School of Design (NYC). She continued to take workshops from nationally recognized painters whose work inspires her, including Albert Handell, Richard McKinley, Sally Strand and Anita Louise West. She has taught art at the University of Minnesota, the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, and the Waterfront Art Works in Duluth, where she currently resides.She was awarded Master Circle status by the International Association Of Pastel Societies (IAPS) in 2009. She was awarded the H.K. Holbein Award at the Pastel Society Of America Show at the National Arts Club in New York City, September 2010, and her painting was one of twenty chosen by the Director of the Butler Institute Of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, to travel to their exhibit American Pastels, 2010. Lisa is represented by Waters of Superior, the Art Dock and Lizzard's Gallery in Duluth.

Medium : Pastel. Lisa says: I often use a watercolor underpainting as a setup for the pastel layers in my work, which adds the interplay of transparent and opaque mediums to the visual quality of the final piece.
Subjects: Landscape, especially en plein air; Still life.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: All links remain available at left of page. This is a FineArtStudioOnline website.
Gallery: Works – four pages of images
Image View: Four pages of thumbnails that may be viewed in their entirety. Thumbnails enarge in a viewer and may be further enlarged in a new window. Information is provided. Download is allowed. Cottage Tales is 12 in sq; 547 x 550; 286 KB.
Demo/Blog: No

Barbara Jaenicke

2011-11-17T16:59:00.000Z

Name: Barbara Jaenicke, PSA

URL: http://www.barbarajaenicke.com/default3.asp

Bio: Barbara Courtney Jaenicke was born in 1964 in New Jersey. She graduated with a B.A. in Art/Advertising Design, from the College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College), in 1986 and spent the next decade as an art director in advertising before working in corporate marketing communications. In 2002, she was able finally to concentrate on her fine art career, as practising artist and instructor. She has studied with Susan Ogilvie, Albert Handell, Anita Louise West, Greg Biolchini, Margaret Dyer, Greg Barnes, Duane Wakeham and Marc Hanson. She has won numerous awards for her work, including Honorable Mention in the 12th Annual Pastel 100 Competition, April 2011.

Currently residing in Roswell, Georgia, Barbara teaches weekly pastel classes and various workshops throughout the metro Atlanta area. Her work is available through the Raiford Gallery in Roswell. She is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America and a Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society.

There was a major feature on Barbara’s work, written by Deborah Secor, in the December 2011 issue of the Pastel Journal.

Medium : Pastel, oil

Subjects: Landscape; Still life.

Style: Representational, but with a colorist’s interpretative approach. Barbara says: “when the light, medium and dark values are where they need to be...color becomes my plaything.”

Navigation: All links remain available on top of page. This is a well designed and elegant website.

Gallery: Paintings: Landscapes; Still Life.

Image View: Scrollable thumbnails on top of the viewing window allow one to choose the image to view, or you can scroll backwards or forwards through the bigger image in the viewer. Information on title, medium and size is provided. The bigger image may be further enlarged. Download is allowed.
Warm Sunlight on a Cold Winter's Day (14 x 18 ins) is extraordinary in that it reverses the usual warm foreground/cool background approach to landscape - a reversal that works very well in a wintry scene. The painting Copper Pot, Pitcher and Flowers (12 x 16 ins) is a great example of the use of primary colours red, yellow and blue, plus green, to give an integrated, harmonious approach to a colorist still life.

Blog: Barbara’s blog is an illustrated diary of her work and workshops.

Françoise Masmontet

2011-11-16T20:00:00.006Z

Name: Françoise Masmontet

URL: http://www.fmasmontet.odexpo.com

Bio: Françoise Masmontet lives in Sanguinet, in the Landes area of South West France, a region of pine forest and lakes, but within easy reach of the Bay of Biscay. In 2000, Françoise gave up her day-job to concentrate on her art. In 2006, she discovered pastel and was immediately seized by the possibilities offered by the medium to her painting style – spontaneity and sensitivity. Françoise joined the l’Art du Pastel en France in 2007 and ASPAS in 2009. She has exhibited extensively and been a prizewinner at salons both national and international – in Bordeaux, Giverny, Saint Aulaye, Biscarrosse, Pau, Paris and Oviedo.
Résidant dans les Landes et passionée par l'ocean, les lacs et la foret, Françoise Masmontet a depuis toujours tenté de traduire sa vision de cette nature par le dessin et la peinture. Pastelliste dediée depuis 2006, cette technique correspond parfaitement à sa vision de la peinture: spontenéité et sensibilité.
Medium : Pastel, oil.

Subjects: Landscape; Seascape; Figurative; Still life.

Style: Representational.

Navigation: All links remain available on left of page. This website is in French, but image navigation is self-evident.

Gallery: Galerie 0-11 for Pastels; Galerie 12 of oils.

Image View: Each gallery contains 9 thumbnails. Click to see enlarged image in scrollable viewer. Informaton on title, medium and size is provided. Download is not possible. Le Pin couché is 50 x 65 cm.

Ana Bayón

2011-11-10T20:10:00.000Z

Name: Ana Bayón

URL: http://www.anabayon.com/

Bio: Ana Bayón is a figurative artist who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was educated in New York City at the Art Students League, the Frank J. Reilly School of Art and privately. Then went back to Buenos Aires where her artistic career began and where she did a number of shows mainly as a draughtsman.

Most recently, her work has been exhibited in the Philadelphia area. Her work is also in private and corporate collections throughout the United States.

Her influences were always representational artists and she particularly admires Giacometti, Fernando Fader and Lola Mora.

Medium : Pastel, oil.

Subjects: Figurative.

Style: Representational.

Navigation: All links remain available on left of page.

Gallery: Portfolio (38 images).

Image View: The image viewers allows the sequential viewing of images, or one can scroll through the thumbnails to the right of the viewing window. Image information is provided. Organza is 21 x 19 ins,

Blog: The images may also be seen on her blog, although it is an images-only blog, without commentary. http://abayon.blogspot.com/

David Napp

2011-11-05T15:32:00.001Z

Name: David Napp

URL: http://www.davidnappfineart.com/

Bio: Born in 1964, Londoner David Napp trained at Canterbury College of Art, England, 1981-1985. He graduated with a first class diploma, Chartered Society of Designers. He has exhibited with the Royal Watercolour Society and the Pastel Society, and has held annual solo exhibitions in the Bourne Gallery in Reigate since 1987. (Click on the link to see his portfolio there.) He has also shown in Holland and in the USA. He was Lecturer at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, 1988-1992 and the Grace Barrand Design Centre, 1999-2003.

David Napp settled in the south of France because the strong light suited his subject matter and style. His website has him currently residing in Italy.
Medium : Pastel, oil, watercolour. David says of his work:

I am a colourist and I seek to enhance the colour quality of the subject matter and use colour to express my reaction to the landscape emotively. Chalk pastels are my main medium because of their tremendous vibrancy of colour and they inspire me to paint with a much richer palette. The general rule of thumb when working with chalk pastel is to work from dark to light. After years of practice with this medium I now enjoy breaking with tradition and experimenting with colour harmonies and contrasts. I look for ways of describing the subject matter that generate unusual harmonies of colour. This creates a strong stance, something that I believe to be characteristic of my work. I will, for example, put bright blues among reds, and magentas into greens, bring cool colours forward and make warm ones recede. I prefer using the vibrant colours of the spectrum and tend to limit the use of earthy natural colours. I often create an under-painting of warm reds, oranges and yellows that come through and create a notion of heat, whilst purples, blues and magentas are used to create cool-feeling shadows.

Subjects: Landscape. Figurative.

Publications: David Napp has contributed to numerous publications: articles in and covers for the Artists and Illustrators magazine; the front cover and four-page article in The Artist magazine, 2000; and contributions to the Encyclopedia of Pastel Technique, Quarto Publishing, 1992; Trees Flowers and Foliage, Batsford Press, 1994; Pastels Workshop, Harper and Collins, 1994; Colour, Harper and Collins, 1994; Painting Still Life by Peter Graham, David & Charles, 2001.

Style: Representational, colorist.

Navigation: All links remain available on right of page. Latest date mentioned on the site is 2009.

Gallery: Oils; Pastels; Limited Editions

Image View: Each gallery consists of a number of pages of thumbnails. Each enlargement opens in a new window, with full information in the legend. There is no impediment to download. Casa sul Lago Maggiore is 60 x 80 cm, 517 x 390, 45 KB.

Gérard Jan

2011-11-02T11:29:00.000Z

Name: Gérard Jan

URL: http://www.gerardjan.com/

Bio: Gérard Jan trained in the graphic studio of Rene Izaure at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, Toulouse from 1979 to 1985. His early interest was in the play of light and shade, as expressed in monochrome techniques. Indeed, his interest in the technical side of art led to early experiments in casein and in encaustic. Exploring colour in the 1990s, pastel met his requirements for a material that had immediacy, purity, and that could be pushed beyond its apparent constraints. From 2006 – 2009 he has been spending more time in Italy, especially in Rome and in Florence. He has been exhibiting since 1987, in France, Switzerland and Germany. Gérard Jan’s work and technique was featured in an excellent issue of Pratique des Arts, number 97, Mars-Mai 2011.

Medium : Pastel, monotypes, etchings, drawings.

Subjects: Landscape – trees and hills, and Italian urban architecture.

Style: Pared down to the essentials.

Navigation: This French website presents a homepage of thumbnail images, together with links to Contact, Expositions and Archives. The thumbnails are assembled in groups of nine, and link to a new page where the nine images are displayed.

Gallery: Pages of thumbnails linked to home page (see Navigation).

Image View: The thumbnails may be enlarged – there is a zoom function. Each enlargement opens in a new window, where details of medium and dimension are displayed. There is a back (Retour) button. There is no impediment to download. Village is 58 x 72 cm, 924 x 616, 215 KB.

New Additions

2011-11-02T09:57:00.005Z

French artists Pierre Caro (left) and Gérard Jan deep in discussion at the Festival International du Pastel, Feytiat, Limoges on July 1st, 2011.

After a long and busy summer with a limited internet connection, I shall shortly add the following artists to the blog. When the names and links get added to the "to be reviewed" section, this post will be deleted. But for now, for those of you hungry for new pastellists, I am simply listing them here - in no particular order! All have been published in some publication or other, so while the style and quality of the work varies, they have been "juried" by a journal, including the American Pastel Journal and the excellent French Pratique des Arts, both of whom follow this blog. (I would gratefully accept a free subscription to the Pratique des Arts, if the marketing department is listening. I know that artists have appeared in the magazine subsequent to being featured on this blog.)

Laurent Chantraine

2011-10-28T20:09:00.001+01:00

Name: Laurent Chantraine (Cantarana)
URL: http://cantarana.fr/
Bio: Laurent Chantraine was born in Paris in 1963. He is a graduate of the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués and has an advanced training certificate in Visual Expression from the École Supérieure Estienne. He has also gained a Higher Diploma in Arts and Techniques of Communication. Laurent has been a graphic designer and freelance illustrator from 1987 to 1990 and was manager of the Atelier du Point du Jour art galerie in 1990 et 1991. He has been teaching since 1991 and leader of a painting workshop from 1993 to 1998. He heads up a drawing workshop at the IUFM (instituts universitaires de formation des maîtres - teacher training college) since 2004. Member of Arts-Sciences-Lettres Academy since 2008, and member of Art du Pastel en France and Salon du Pastel en Bretagne. He has been exhibiting his work for many years, and winning prizes, in France and in Belgium.
Laurent Chantraine est né à Paris en 1963.
Diplômé de l'École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués.
Brevet de Technicien Supérieur en Expression Visuelle
à l'École Supérieure Estienne.
Diplôme Supérieur des Arts et Techniques de la Communication
Graphiste, illustrateur indépendant de 1987 à 1990.
Gérant de l'Atelier du Point du Jour, galerie d'art, en 1990 et 1991.
Parallèlement, donne des cours de dessin
au conservatoire de Gagny (93).et dans un lycée privé de Villemomble (93).
Enseignant depuis 1991.
Anime un atelier de peinture de 1993 à 1998 et anime un atelier de dessin à l’IUFM depuis 2004.
Membre de l'Académie "Arts-Sciences-Lettres", celle-ci lui décerne le 10 mai 2009 une médaille d'argent..Membre des Associations de Pastellistes : "Art du Pastel en France" et "Salon du Pastel en Bretagne"
Medium : Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape – especially sea and water; some figurative work also.
Style: Representational..
Navigation: This up-to-date French website is also presented in English and in Spanish. All links remain available on left of page.
Gallery: Catalogue (2007-2010) sixteen pages of annotated thumbnails; Catalogue (2011 - ...) four pages of annotated thumbnails.
Image View: The thumbnails may be enlarged – there is a zoom function. Each enlargement opens in a new window. There is no impediment to download.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Alain Voinot

2011-09-03T21:17:00.002+01:00

Name: Alain Voinot
URL: http://voinot-pastels.waibe.fr/
Bio: Alain Voinot was born in 1953 and lives in Toulouse, France.
A self-taught pastellist, he studied for several years of classical drawing classes with Catherine Escudié, an engraver and illustrator from Toulouse. He also studied at the Académie de dessin de Luc Peltriaux. He practised classical design with a clear preference for black and white. When he moved to colour he chose pastel as the medium that best fit his style and subject matter.
Then followed a twenty year "apprenticeship" developing his knowledge of pastels, and the realisation that his strength was strong contrast combined with the softness of pastel. Hence his choice of black paper which perfectly highlights the colour and lights.
Alain often works en pleine air, in part because passers-by at times make intelligent remarks about his work. He also teaches pastel in the Toulouse area.
Alain has an exhibition coming up in "Les Carmes ", Toulouse, in February 2012
Medium : Pastel. Alain uses a black background, whether Canson mi-teintes or Pastel Card. He does not use fixative.

Alain has this to say about himself:

Pour ce qui est de ma formation, je suis autodidacte, pour ce qui concerne le pastel.
Mais j'ai suivi pendant plusieurs années des cours de dessin classique chez Catherine Escudié, qui est graveur et dessinatrice, assez réputée dans la région de Toulouse.
J'ai pratiqué le dessin classique avec une fascination évidente pour le noir et blanc.
Puis j'ai cherché le médium qui me correspondrait le mieux pour passer à la couleur.
Après quelques essais en peinture à l'huile, en aquarelle, je suis finalement tombé très vite sous le charme du pastel.
Ont suivi ensuite vingt ans, ou je me suis cherché, ou j'ai tenté de trouver mon " style ".
Cette recherche a développé ma connaissance du pastel et j'ai fini par comprendre que mon " truc " c'était les contrastes forts alliés à la douceur du pastel.
D'ou mon choix du papier noir qui met parfaitement en valeur la couleur et les lumières.
Je travaille souvent d'après nature, parce que j'aime m'immerger dans l'élément naturel, et parce que parfois les passants, dans leurs commentaires, me révèlent des choses intéressantes sur ma pratique.
Je travaille également d'après photo, bien sûr ( on a beau être passionné, l'hiver est rude... ), photos réalisés par moi même, durant mes longues ballades de découverte et d'observation de la nature. La photo n'est qu'une aide, et on voit avant tout avec l'esprit quand on est peintre, plus encore qu'avec les yeux probablement. Donc, tout ce qui est " impressions ", je le récolte durant ma ballade d'observation, et c'est cela qui est décisif, c'est cela que je vais restituer ensuite en m'aidant de la photo.

Subjects: Landscape.
Style: Representational to impressionist
Navigation: All links remain available on top of page.
Image View: Each thumbnail on the gallery page may be viewed alongside in an Adobe Flash slideshow. All images bear their title and original dimension. No download is possible. Cascade is 50 x 65 cm.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Madeleine Kelly

2011-08-28T20:48:00.002+01:00

Name: Madeleine Kelly
URL: http://www.madeleinekelly.com/
Bio: Despite a childhood interest in art, Madeleine Kelly only took up coloured pencils at the age of 47, graduating to pastels within a few months. She became a 'weekend painter' at first, painting 11 months out of the year on her balcony outside her small third floor apartment. Eventually she shared a very small studio with four other artists, and four years of part-time painting followed; losing her job due to a merger/acquisition proved to be a blessing in disguise. She now has her studio where she teaches and paints. Currently her work can be found in private collections throughout the US and in galleries and shows in Pennsylvanis, New Jersey and Delaware. She was featured in the March/April 2010 issue of American Artist.
Medium : Pastel, acrylic.
Subjects: Landscape, Still Life.
Style: Representational..
Navigation: All links remain available at all times.
Gallery: Under Pastel: Barns; Landscapes; Others; Philly; Seascapes; Still Life.
Image View: Each thumbnail enlarges on a new page when clicked, title and dimension are labelled. Download is permitted. Fire Road is 16 x 20 ins. 500x384, 297 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Natures Mortes au Pastel - Patrick Martin - part 2

2011-08-27T15:34:00.001+01:00

With reference to my previous post, here's a translated version of the contents of Martin's new book. It can probably be purchased direct from the publisher Ulisseditions. I have also translated the opening section of Chapter One. Just a taste - il faut la dégustation, quoi!

CONTENTS
1.Still Life - definition, subjects, themes
2. Pastel - history, supports, medium, techniques, colour.
3. The Creative Process - the spark, choosing the objects, texture and material, composition, lighting
4. The story of a painting from A to Z
5. Step by step demos (3 different paintings)
6. Close up on the details
7. The artistic series
8. The finishing stages
9. Twelve steps towards progress
- Keep on trucking
- Take a step back
- Avoiding painter's block
- Put quality first
- Hasten slowly
- Deepen your learning
- Take master classes
- Don't rest on your laurels
- Accept criticism
- Don't desperately seek an individual style
- Learn to be modest, humble even
- When you are ready, take on the world.

Chapter 1 - Still Life
Definition - a minor art form.?

My definition of Still Life can be summed up in a single phrase:
Esthetic painting represents a set-up, on a support, of made objects and/or of elements animal, vegetable or mineral, in an organised fashion, that can have a decorative or intellectal mission.
Three apples suffice. But not just any apples. Three apples chosen for their beauty, form and color. And not placed haphazardly. Placed with care, with deliberation. Each placed in relation with the others, in different positions, in a calculated space. Despite its apparent simplicity, the exercise of still life painting is governed by rules and laws with which the artist must be familiar.
According to the historical classification of painting genres, still life was considered a minor art form. But despite its Cinderella status and perceived lack of prestige, it has exercised an irresistable attraction for numerous artists over the centuries. Great painters have approached this discipline and elevated it to greatness: Chardin, Van Gogh, Manet, Cézanne, Braque - the list is unending.
Why so many? It is an essential stage, decided by the artist, to discover himself, to find himself, an affirmation of his artistic self. It is a laboratory where one works on one's technique, creates a style. There can be no excuses. The ensemble of parameters must be mastered. Time stands still; nothing moves. The artist decides the subject, the elements, the composition, the light, the setting, the harmony, the treatment - there are no concessions. It is an excellent school wherein to learn humility and self-doubt. It is a style of painting wherein one's self is reflected. No cheating is possible. An essential aspect of art, still life is a test of truth.

Natures Mortes au Pastel - Patrick Martin

2011-08-26T23:19:00.001+01:00

French pastellist Patrick Martin has written a new book on Still Life in Pastel; it is published by Ulisse Editions in Paris. It expresses Patrick Martin/s 40 years' experience as an artist, concentrating on still life chiaroscuro. It is valuable to the experienced artist and to the debutante. It is so well illustrated that a knowledge of French is not essential. My single criticism is that the dimensions of the paintings are not indicated.

128 pages - Format 215 X 280
Illustrations couleur - Broché
ISBN 978-2-844-15-173-5

Diplômé de l’Ecole Supérieure des Arts appliqués et des Métiers d’Art, l’auteur démarre sa carrière comme styliste en création textile, il mène maintenant une double carrière d’enseignant et d’artiste peintre, professeur d’enseignement artistique en dessin, peinture, aquarelle, pastel, volume ; responsable des ateliers municipaux d’art plastique de la ville de Bondy ; membre et artiste de la société des pastellistes de France ; médaillé du conseil général du Val de Marne ; médaillé Arts, Sciences et Lettres ; il a obtenu le titre de Maître pastelliste. Il participe régulièrement à des expositions, des salons en groupe ou en invité d’honneur à Paris et en province.

"Natures mortes au pastel clair-obscur" est un livre complet, très didactique et raconté avec humour, on ne s’ennuie pas avec Patrick Martin… on apprend, étape par étape, l’art de la mise en scène, la composition, la disposition des objets par rapport à la lumière pour obtenir des clair-obscur intéressants…

La personnalité de l’auteur est une présence permanente, un guide intelligent, pas de bêtes pas à pas mais des explications claires, une conversation entre l’enseignant et l’étudiant, d’égal à égal, un débat passionné qui n’a rien à voir avec d’autres ouvrages didactiques, certes, mais ennuyeux.

La nature morte est un sujet facile à aborder, nous sommes entourés d’une multitude d’objets, vous apprendrez ici l’art et la manière de les mettre en valeur.

Nicole Clément

2011-08-26T10:13:00.001+01:00

Name: Nicole Clément
URL: http://www.nicoleclement.com/
Bio: I first saw Nicole Clement's work in a little gallery in Magné, the Marais region of Deux Sèvres, France in 2010. Magné is a small town with a big reputation. holding a two-day painting festival every July for over twenty years now, always hugely popular. Little did I know that this Parisienne had been exhibiting her work internationally since 1978 - in Paris, Japan, the USA, Germany, China, and South Korea, where she is represented in private collections. Clement is active in art associations in the Paris region, and a member of Artistes Français, Automne, Dessin-Peinture à l’eau, Indépendants, Nationale des Beaux Arts, Violet, and la Fondation Taylor.
Nicole Clement believes, as Renoir said, "a painting should be something pleasant, cheerful and pretty, there are enough annoying things in life - we do not need to manufacture even more!"
Nicole Clément pense, comme Renoir le disait, "qu'un tableau doit être une chose aimable, joyeuse et jolie, il ya assez de choses embêtantes dans la vie pour que nous n'en fabriquions pas encore d'autres!"
"Participation à de nombreux salons de Paris et de la région Parisienne, professionnels et amateurs d'arts, Nicole Clément aime communier avec la nature sauvage, qu'il s'agisse de bord de mer, de paysages ou de champs de blé ... Elle parvient, avec simplicité, à décrire les saisons, à transcrire ses visions en les harmonisant selon son humeur et sa volonté. Ses pastels sont sensuels, orchestrés avec amour et nous proposant un univers où se mêlent spontanéité et sincérité. Chez cette artiste à la générosité d'âme communicative, l'oeuvre réalisée est, pourrait-on dire, la traduction adéquate de sa personnalité."
Patrice de la Perrière, Univers des arts.
Medium : Pastel, watercolour.
Subjects: Landscape, still life.
Style: Representational..
Navigation: All links remain available on top of page, but use the Retour button from the gallery.
Gallery: Some two dozen thumbnails.
Image View: Each thumbnails enlarges on a new page when clicked, title and dimension are labelled. Download is permitted. Pink Reflections is 41 x 24 cm., 538 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Christine Bodnar

2011-06-09T19:02:00.000+01:00

Name: Christine Bodnar
URL: http://www.christinebodnar.com/
Bio: Boston artist Christine Bodnar has worked in all media but pastel painting is her medium of choice. She received her B.A at Central Michigan University in 1982 with a studio major in painting and subsequently attended the Massachusetts College of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her artwork has been selected for exhibition in many national and international juried pastel exhibits, and she has received awards from numerous art associations and publications, including the International Association of Pastel Artists and Artists Magazine. In May 2011 she was awarded Master Circle status from the International Association of Pastel Societies. Christine does much of her painting on the southern shores of Massachusetts, where, she says, there is always something to stimulate the artist's palette.
Medium : Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape, still life.
Style: Impressionist.
Navigation: All links remain available on page.
Gallery: Paintings: Five (not four) pages of thumbnail images.
Image View: The thumbnails yield up their title and dimension if you rest the cursor on them. They enlarge in a slide viewer, and may be saved. Chance of Rain is 10 x 10 ins.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Kathleen Galligan

2011-06-09T00:47:00.003+01:00

Name: Kathleen Galligan

URL: http://www.kathleengalligan.com/

Bio: Kathleen Galligan graduated in 1972 from Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania with a B.A. Fine Arts, and in 1979 from Philadelphia College of Art with a B.F.A. Honors. llustration was her focus of study at Philadelphia College of Art, and although she preferred to take the route of painting as a career, Kathleen has from time to time indulged in illustration projects, including archaeology. A recent publication was the cover painting and design for her husband, Dr. Warren Riess' book Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon, (ISBN 0-9713438-0-2 ) the history of and search for the remains of a seventeenth-century ship, built for Sir Walter Raleigh’s last expedition to America in 1617.
Kathleen has been exhibiting her work in Philadelphia, New York and Maine since the early 1980s. She switched from oil to pastel after taking a workshop with Albert Handell. She was granted a one month residency at the artist’s colony, YADDO in Saratoga Springs, New York and later a two week residency in Acadia National Park, in Maine. An article about her work was published in the February 2008 issue of The Pastel Journal, and in 2010 Kathleen was included in the international artists section of the pastel edition of French art journal, Pratique des Arts.

Her work is in the collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Bates College Museum of Art and in many corporate and private collections worldwide.

Medium : Pastel, oil. For pastels, Kathleen works on Ersta or Wallis sanded papers, blending the softest of pastels – Unison, Schminke, Sennelier, Daler-Rowney – to create her luminous, atmospheric pieces.

Subjects: Landscape.

Style: Sometimes representational, lately more impressionist.

Navigation: All links remain available on page.

Gallery: Recent pastels; Recent oils; Selected work – Grand Canyon, Plein Air, European, A Few Favourites.

Image View: The images may be enlarged and viewed serially by using the “next” button. Curiously, there is no “back” button, if you wish to view a preceding image. Images may be saved. Spring Migration is 9 x 17 ins, 504 x 223, 33.8 KB.

Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Marge Levine

2011-06-08T23:58:00.004+01:00

Name: Marge Levine, PSA.

URL: http://mlevine.artspan.com/

Bio: Marge Levine graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City with a degree in textile design. She also studied at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Art Students' League of New York, and the Cambridge Art Association in Cambridge, England. She has also worked as a book illustrator, greeting card designer, and etcher. She is a member of the Degas Pastel Society, The Pastel Society of America, and the Pastel Society of Cape Cod.
She is a recipient of many prizes for her work, not only in pastels but also in other mediums. Her work has been shown in exhibitions across the United States and Canada, has appeared in the volume One Hundred Ways to Paint the Landscape, and was showcased in the April 2006 edition of American Artist magazine. Marge currently reside in the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.

Subjects: Landscape, especially en plein air.

Style: Representational to impressionist

Navigation: The main menu remains available on the side.

Gallery: Pastel paintings.

Image View: The gallery navigation is a little unclear to me. Best to click on the first image to enlarge it, and then proceed along the rest of the paintings. The “next” button is missing at painting no. 9 – just click on 10. Details of size are included in the notes, and the images may be saved. American Egret is 11.25 x 16.5 ins., 500 x 345, 60.6 KB.

Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Patrick Hedges

2011-06-08T23:34:00.000+01:00

Name: Patrick Hedges
URL: http://patrickhedges.com/
Bio: Patrick Hedges was born in Kampala, Uganda, and lived for 14 years in and around East Africa. This early childhood instilled in him a love of wildlife and the outdoors. His description of his life at home sounds like an African version of My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - from a bedroom full of live snakes to 40 dwarf toads in the bathtub. Patrick and family moved to England in 1974 after his father died, but he soon developed a severe case of wanderlust, and when he started to develop his skills as an artist, it soon became evident that his subject matter was always going to be wildlife.
Nowadays Patrick Hedges lives in Adelaide, South Australia, with his wife and children.
Medium : Scratchboard , pastels, acrylic, oil, pencil.
Subjects: Wildlife, portraits.
Style: Realistic and detailed renditions of his subjects.
Navigation: The website is a blog.
Gallery: My Art: Scratchboards; Pastels; Other Media
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails that enlarge when clicked. The size of the original is not noted, but the enlargements may be saved.
Blog: This site is a blog.
Demo: Yes – go to the art blogs for serial development of paintings.
Ebay/Flickr: No

In memoriam Joan Marti Aragones

2011-06-02T22:33:00.001+01:00

Name: Joan Marti
URL: http://www.joanmarti.es/
Bio: The late Catalan painter Joan Marti Aragones was born in Barcelona in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War. At thirteen years of age he was admitted as an apprentice to the studio of Nolasc Valls. Marti showed a predilection for Figurative Art from the start and enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, whence he graduated in 1959 with a BFA. After completing his studies he won a scholarship to further their studies in Italy and America.
At twenty years of age, Marti had his first solo exhibition. Six years later, and after a deep reflection on his painting, he had his successful second exhibition, this time in the Gallery Jaimes in the famous Paseo de Gracia in Barcelona.
In 1986 he moved to Rome, to the Cinecitta film studios, where the film Othello was shooting, and with full authority from director Franco Zeffirelli, took notes on Placido Domingo, Katia Ricarelli and other actors. Martí completed 25 works on the theme of Othello with Placido Domingo as the main model for a traveling exhibition which went worldwide in 1992. From then he held exhibitions in the major Spanish galleries, and throughout the world.
Joan Marti passed away in February, 2009.
Medium : Oil, Pastel, Watercolor, Graphite.
Subjects: Figurative; Landscape.
Style: Representational. Of his figurative painting, the critic Josep Pla said that it was full of "practical realism, almost magical, extremely intelligent and enjoyable."
Navigation: The website is nominally in Spanish, Catalan and English, but only the Catalan links are active.
Gallery: Cuadros (Paintings) – Cuadros en venta (Paintings for sale) – Galeria 01; Galeria 02; Galeria 03.
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails that give information on title, size and medium if you rest the cursor thereon. The majority are in oil, but there are some pastels. Clicking on a thumbnail opens a larger image on a new page – this image may be saved.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Tom Weinkle

2011-05-30T23:56:00.001+01:00

Name: Tom Weinkle
URL: http://www.tomweinkle.com/
Bio: Tom Weinkle was born in Miami, Florida. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design. After working for an industrial automation company in Pittsburgh, he returned to Miami and started his graphic and web design firm, Vortex Communications in 1986. Tom has been helping local, national, and international companies succeed through design communications. His work has won many regional and national awards for creativity.
In 2006, Tom began devoting more time to drawing and painting. Currently, he is focused on regional landscapes and portraiture created in pastel.
Subjects: Landscapes, portraits, figurative.
Style: Representational - Impressionistic. His recent work has been created primarily in soft pastel, combined with a variety of liquid mediums to achieve more painterly results. The varying style of his current paintings is a result of his interest in experimenting with the application and manipulation of pigments
Navigation: Main menu remains available at bottom of page. This is an elegant website, a pleasure to browse.
Gallery: New Work; Southeast; Northeast; West; Homestead; Figurative; My fellow artists.
Image View: Each gallery opens in a slideshow viewer page with thumbnails at the side. Full information is available on all images. They may be downloaded. Monhegan Trap Yard is 26 x 18 ins, 700 x 500, 317 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Rick Lee

2011-05-30T23:38:00.000+01:00

Name: Rick Lee
URL: http://rickleephoto.com/rlpastel/
Bio: Richard S. Lee (Rick) has worked as a professional photographer in Charleston, West Virginia for more than 25 years. Mr. Lee's numerous artistic photography exhibitions have included the West Virginia Juried Exhibition, the Parkersburg Art Center Juried Photography Exhibit, and the Huntington Museum of Art 280 Exhibition : Works on Walls.
In 1996, Rick branched out into pastel illustrations of architectural scenes, combining his interest in historic architecture and his interest in drawing which he has nurtured since childhood. In March of 1998, he mounted a one-person exhibition of pastels at WVU Institute of Technology. In August of 1998, he exhibited pastels at the Annex Gallery at Taylor Books, Charleston, WV. In 2000, he exhibited 12 pastels in the David L. Dickirson Gallery at the Tamarack Center in Beckley and in November he was featured in The Pastel Journal.
Subjects: Architecture, cityscapes.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: The website is primarily a photography website.
Gallery: A single page of images – scroll down the main page.
Image View: Large thumbnails that do not enlarge further. There are no paintings more recent than 2000. The River Cam is 20 x 29 ins.
Blog: Only about photography.
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Karen Margulis

2011-05-30T22:55:00.000+01:00

Name: Karen Margulis, PSA
URL: http://www.karenmargulis.com/
Bio: Karen Margulis received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Florida; she went on to study for her masters in Art Education at Florida Atlantic University but it wasn’t until 2005 that she began painting seriously. Karen is a productive daily painter, posting daily to her blog every day - she estimates that she has completed about a mile of paper!
She has studied with Albert Handell, Anita Louise West, Terry Ludwig, Stan Sperlak and Margaret Dyer. She continues to study with Marsha Savage. Her paintings hang in private and corporate collections around the world including the University of Alabama’s Gorgas Library and the caneel Bay Resort on St. John, USVI. (Karen traveled extensively with her family throughout the US and Caribbean and many of Karen’s paintings are inspired by her memories and photos of her travels.) She has had work juried into regional and international shows receiving awards and positive reviews.
Karen is represented by the following fine art galleries in the Southeast: High Country Art in Blue Ridge, Georgia, Bella Vista Fine Art in Asheville, North Carolina and Frameworks Gallery in Marietta, Georgia, and Primary Elements Gallery in Cannon Beach, Oregon. She a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America and a Member of Excellence in the Southeastern Pastel Society. Karen lives in Marietta, Georgia, USA.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscapes – especially wildflowers. Karen is passionate about plein air painting.
Style: Impressionistic.
Navigation: This website is a blog.
Gallery: A single page of images.
Image View: The eighteen or so images posted in the gallery have some information available if you rest the cursor on the image. They open in a slideviewer when clicked, and may be downloaded. Don’t miss the images in the blog proper. Purple Haze is 16 x 20 ins, 1024 x 819, 190 KB.
Blog: Paintings are posted in chronological order, as in all blogs, the most recent on top.
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Lorenzo Rappelli

2011-05-27T21:16:00.000+01:00

Name: Lorenzo Rappelli
URL: http://www.lorenzo-rappelli.com/
Bio: An Italian in France, Lorenzo Rappelli lives to paint the Brittany coast, the forests and pools of the Limousin where he lives, and Venice, in homage to his origins.
Rappelli is the founding president of the International Association of Landscape Painters, a member of Art du Pastel en France, and ASPAS. He has exhibited internationally in France, Spain, Belgium, Luxemburg and in the U.K. but has a permanent exhibit (by appointment) in his studio in the Monts d’Ambazac, Haute-Vienne.
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Publications: Peinture au couteau – le paysage; Ulisse Editions, 2011. ISBN-10: 284415171X ; ISBN-13: (EAN13) : 9782844151711
Subjects: Landscapes – especially water and snow.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: This website is in French. Each page seems to be based on an image, thus taking time to load. The Main Menu stays on top.
Gallery: Oeuvres: Pastels; Huiles (oils); Huiles petits format (small oils). There is a shortcut to the diaporama at the right side of the page.
Image View: All thumbnails are labelled with information on dimension of original, and open in in a “diaporama”. Download is not possible. Moulins à Kinderdÿk is 50 x 35 cm.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Natalia Repina

2011-05-27T20:29:00.000+01:00

Name: Natalia Repina
URL: http://www.nataliarepina.com/
Bio: Natalia Repina was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1967, where she attended the Middle Art School from 1979 until 1985.She studied painting at the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (The Academy of Fine Arts ) graduating in 1991 in “easel painting”. She taught Graphic Arts until 1997 at the Architectural Construction Institute in St. Petersburg. In 2002 began to teach painting at the Primo Levi University, Bologna,Italy; since 2006 she has been teaching Fine Arts at the Oil Painting School in Bologna. Natalia Repina has been exhibiting internationally since 1989. Since 1998 she became a member of the Russian Artists’ Union and various art associations in Italy and USA. Her work is to be found in Museum of Scientific Research with the Fine Arts Academy, and the Museum F.M. Dostoevskij, both in St. Petersburg, Russia;and in private collections in Italy, China, India, Finland, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA
Repina received an Honorable Mention in the Portrait/Figure Category, the Pastel 100 Competition organized by the Pastel Journal, in 2010.
She is included in the International Dictionary of Artists 2011.
Medium: Pastel, oil, pencil.
Publications: Painting and Design by Natalia Repina, Petropol Publishing, St Petersburg, 2006;
Subjects: Figurative; Landscapes.
Style: Representational- impressionistic.
Navigation: This website is in Italian and in English.
Gallery: Figurative Composition (Sub-galleries 1988-1999; 2000-2009) – these are all oil paintings; Landscapes (Sub-galleries 1988-1999; 2000-2009) - all are oils; Works on the paper support (Sub-galleries 1988-1999; 2000-2009) – these are pastels, with some graphite and a single watercolour.
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in a slideshow, with full information on medium and dimension of original. There is a facility to enlarge the images further in a new window; download is not possible. Twilight on the river Reno is 32 x 46 cms.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No

Vicente Romero

2011-05-20T10:32:00.002+01:00

Name: Vincente Romero
URL: http://vicenteromero.wordpress.com/
Bio: Vicente Romero Redondo was born in 1956 in Madrid as the eldest of four sons. During his childhood, his interest in art manifested itself as he drew sketches and caricatures of schoolmates and teachers in every school where he studied (due to the work of his father, he grew up in many different towns all over Spain). The family returned to Madrid when Romero was 15 years and he began studies at the prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid (Salvador Dali’s alma mater). He started with sculpture, but soon switched to painting, and he graduated with honors in 1982. Then he spent several years working on the street, just as José Luis Fuentetaja had done, painting pastel portraits in villages along the Spanish coast and on Tenerife, Majorca and Ibiza. In 1987 Romero and his wife settled on the Costa Brava, with its marvellous light, where he perfected his individual style and subject matter, converting intimate situations of life into the leitmotif of his art, a modern interpretation of the great Spanish Maja tradition. Since the early ‘90s Romero has had one-man exhibitions in Spain, France and Portugal. In 2001 he moved back to Madrid, but he still spends time on the Costa Brava.
Romero is represented internationally by galleries in Portugal (Euroarte, Lisboa), Spain (Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid), France (The Little Gallery, 14 rue de la Porte Bouqueyre, 33330 Saint-Emilion,) and the USA (Alexander and Victor Fine Art, Miami).
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Figurative, the nude, portraits.

Je viens de trouver cela dans une traduction française de La Maja Desnuda par V. Blasco Ibañez :

L’adjectif majo (féminin : maja) n’a pas d’ équivalent exact en français. Il signifie à peu près : beau, élégant d’allure, mais avec une nuance d’ostentation. A la fin du XVIIIe siécle et au commencement du XIXe, c’est à peu près exclusivement aux femmes du peuple habillées avec une certaine élégance que le mot maja s'est appliqué. Le costume de la Maja, qui consiste en une jupe étroite recouverte d’une résille de soie, avec une ample mantille envellopant la tête et le buste, a été adopté, au temps de Goya, par les femmes de la plus haute aristocratie madrilène, et il a été consideré depuis, dans le reste de l’Europe, comme le costume national des Espagnoles.

Style: Traditional, representational. He owes his technique in oil painting to his academic training, although he has increasingly explored pastel, wich he finds more direct, more spontaneous, and as he quotes provides the opportunity for “unrivalled delicacy”.
Navigation: This is a Spanish website, based on the Wordpress blog format. The above URL connects to an English version. The main menu remains available at top of page.
Gallery: Gallery 2007-2009; Gallery 2010-2011
Image View: Each gallery consists of a page of large thumbnails these enlarge further in a new window when clicked. Informaton on medium and size of original is given as a tooltip when the cursor rests on the image. Download is allowed. The image displayed is 60 x 81 cm, 1382 x 1020, 329 KB.
Blog: The Spanish version of Vincente’s blog is available here.
Demo/Ebay: No
Flickr: No.

Timon Sloane

2011-05-14T12:35:00.000+01:00

Name: Timon Sloane
URL: http://www.timonsloane.com/
Bio: Californian artist Timon Sloane states that he never planned to become a full-time artist. He initially painted as a creative outlet while working in the technology sector. He responded to the challenge of rendering objects with paint, and wanted more. He started to paint en plein air to loosen his painting style, and it became a life-changing experience.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape, seascape.
Style: Impressionist.
Navigation: Main menu available at top of page.
Gallery: Artwork: Seven pages of thumbnails.
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in a slideshow, with full information on dimension of original. There is a facility to enlarge the images further in a new window (not the earliest archived work); download is allowed. Bright Bluffs is 8 x 10 ins, 800 x 657, 64.5 KB.
Blog: http://timonsloane.blogspot.com/
Demo/Ebay: No
Flickr: Yes.

Jerry Messman

2011-05-14T12:05:00.000+01:00

Name: Jerry Messman PSA
URL: http://jerrymessmanfineart.com/
Bio: Architect Jerry Messman was born in 1948, in Woodstock, Illinois and attended both the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Graduated with a degree in architecture, and has been a practicing architect since 1978. In the mid 1990’s, he did the “House of the Future” design for Newsweek magazine which was later built for the television show HOMETIME. He also designed the ABOD, a low cost housing system built for South Africa as slum replacement housing.
Jerry has received numerous awards for his pastels, including the Best In Show at the All Island Art show on Martha's Vineyard in 2005. His work was featured in the April, 2010 issue of the Pastel Journal. He is a signature member of the American Pastel Society.
Medium: Pastel, acrylic.
Subjects: Landscape, seascape.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: Main menu available at side of page.
Gallery: Artwork 1; Artwork 2
Image View: Thumbnails only, that do not enlarge. There is no information on dimension of original.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Peter Barker

2011-05-14T11:41:00.002+01:00

Name: Peter Barker
URL: http://www.peterbarkerpaintings.co.uk/index.htm
Bio: Peter Barker was born in 1954 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Much of his childhood was spent in the surrounding countryside, where his inherent love of nature was instilled through bird-watching, fishing and breeding butterflies and moths, hobbies which would feed his interest in conservation, and later inspire his paintings. In 1983 he abandoned a professional golf career and became a full-time artist. Although self-taught, he did receive much early encouragement from renowned artist Caesar Smith and by 1985 his work was being accepted by galleries. Since that date he has had numerous one-man shows.
Peter’s paintings are in collections in the United States and in Australia. They have been accepted by the Pastel Society (where he won the Frank Herring award in 2006), The Royal Institute of Oil Painters (where he won the Ranelagh Press Award for 'an exceptional small oil' and the Stanley Grimm Memorial Award for the favourite painting as voted for by the public) and the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries in London.
Medium: Pastel, oil, acrylic, watercolour.
Subjects: Landscape, wildlife and animals, still life.
Style: Traditional, representational. Peter paints both plein air and in the studio.
Navigation: Main menu always available at top of page, except in the gallery pages, where there is an up-arrow to Home.
Gallery: Paintings - Archive - Landscape Archive (148 images); Marine Archive (67 images); Animals and Wildlife Archive (37 images, mainly pastel)
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge in a slideshow on a new page. There is no information on medium or dimension of original. Download is possible.
Blog: Chatty blog at http://peter-peterbarkerpaintings.blogspot.com/
Demo: Yes, in pastel and in oil.
Ebay/Flickr: No.

Andrew Hemingway Landscapes

2011-05-10T22:25:00.001+01:00

I have previously done a post on the pastels of Andrew Hemingway, who does not have a website of his own, but whose work is too important to ignore. Hemingway is indisputably among the top five exponents of pastel in the world today. He has in the past been known for his exquisite still life paintings. Now he has undertaken a new venture, bringing his powers of observation and delineation to bear on the Swiss landscape in all its majesty.
A new gallery, The School Gallery, in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire, has gone on line with a collection of Hemingway's landscape, mainly pastels, but with some oil paintings too. Don't miss the opportunity to see a master at work, at the top of his game.
The Sisters at Loèche les Bains is 35.5 x 54.5 ins. and may be viewed here.

Karen Vanderpool

2011-05-08T20:50:00.001+01:00

Name: Karen Vanderpool.
URL: http://www.kvanderpool.com/
Bio: Texas artist Karen Vanderpool has an undergraduate degree from Austin College (1986) and a Master of Art in Medical Illustration from UT Southwestern Medical Center (1998).

Medium: Pastel, oil, acrylic.

Subjects: Landscape, still life.

Style: Expressionist, with a Fauvist leaning in terms of colour. Karen states, “ I use strong imaginative color and many layers of pastel to create contemporary images. The interaction of color and composition evolves to describe the world as I see it.”

Navigation: Main menu always available either at side or at bottom of page.

Gallery: Pastel Portfolio (2 pages); Medical Portfolio.

Image View: Thumbnails in the pastel portfolio enlarge in a pop-up. Some (not all) have information on dimension of original. The medical illustrations do not enlarge. Download is possible. Yucca is 5 x 5 ins.

Blog: http://www.karenvanderpool.blogspot.com/

Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Judy Pelt

2011-05-07T16:37:00.000+01:00

Name: Judy Pelt, PSA, KA
URL: http://judypelt.com/
Bio: Aside from a course in oil she took in high school, Judy Pelt is self-taught. her mother Sylvia, was a painter, a poet, jewelry maker, leather worker and clay enthusiast. Judy began painting professionally in 1975. For 16 years, she was shown in Fort Worth, Texas, at the Evelyn Siegel Gallery. Judy was elected signature member of the Pastel Society of America in 1978, and Master Pastelist nine years later. In 1992 she was granted full membership of Knickerbocker Artists. In 1994 she was included in Who’s Who in American Art. Her work has been featured in The Best of Pastel, The Best of Pastel, II, and in Pure Colour, among others.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape, flowers, still life, figurative.
Style: Representational to Impressionist
Navigation: Main menu always available either at side or at bottom of page.
Gallery: Landscapes; Flowers, Still Life and Figurative; Sold Paintings.
Image View: Judy’s work is displayed in Adobe Flash Player, There are no thumbnails – you must proceed “blind” through the slideshow to view all the paintings. Download is not possible, Cat on a ledge is 20 x 24 ins.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Rodrica Tilley

2011-05-07T16:04:00.001+01:00

Name: Rodrica Tilley
URL: http://www.rodricatilley.com/
Bio: Rodrica Tilley has been a professional artist for over 40 years since graduating from Moore College of Art, Philadelphia. She has had eleven one-woman gallery shows and numerous group and museum exhibits. She was invited for three years to participate in the NYC Central Park Paint Out as an invited signature member of the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters. In 2004 she was the first Artist in Residence at Salt Springs State Park. Her pastel plein air paintings have been chosen twice by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to be presented as awards for lifetime achievement. Her work is held in collections in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Rodrica has achieved signature status in Pennsylvania En Plein Air Society as well as International Plein Air Painters and Landscape Artists International. She is a member of the Pastel Society of America. Rodrica lives and works in N.E. Pennsylvania.
Medium: Pastel, watercolour
Subjects: Landscape – plein air and studio.
Style: Impressionist
Navigation: Main menu always available either at side or at bottom of page.
Gallery: Watercolors and studio paintings; Plein Air paintings; Recently sold work.
Image View: Thumbnails enlarge on new page. The enlarged images contain information on medium and size and may be downloaded. Copper Crown Lilies is 20 x 30 ins, 600 x397, 109 KB
Blog: http://rodricatilley.blogspot.com/
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Maria Sylvester

2011-05-07T15:21:00.000+01:00

Name: Maria Sylvester
URL: http://www.mariasylvester.com/about.html
Bio: Maria has spent the 27 years in the field of Graphic Design - her BS was in Advertising Design. In the field of fine art, Maria is an award winning artist. She is a past president and a signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, based in Sacramento. Her work has been featured in the the Pastel Journal, including a feature article about floral painters. In 2005 Maria won a second place in the Still Life/Floral Category of the Pastel 100.
Medium: Pastel, oil, watercolour.
Subjects: Botanical
Style: Representational.
Navigation: There is only the one page of pastels to view.
Gallery: This is displayed as an Adobe Flash slideshow with thumbnails running along the bottom of the viewer.
Image View: No information is provided on medium or size of original painting. Download is not possible as such.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Rosa Elvira Caamaño

2011-05-06T21:33:00.000+01:00

Name: Rosa Elvira Caamaño
URL: http://www.pintoresgallegos.com/rosa_elvira_caamano/rosa_elvira_pastel.html
Bio: I know nothing about this Spanish artist. Her work is displayed on the website of the artists of Galicia, Northern Spain, and
Medium: Pastel, oil, charcoal, mixed media.
Subjects: Landscape ; Still Life.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: There is only the one page of pastels to view.
Gallery: You may access other images in other media: Oil, drawing, prints, mixed media, etc.
Image View: Six paintings are presented on one page. Beluso Beach, Pontevedra, is 50 x 60 cms.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Bonnie Williams

2011-05-02T20:33:00.000+01:00

Name: Bonnie Williams, PSA
URL: http://bonniewilliamsfineart.com/
Bio: Bonnie Williams, a national award winning pastel artist, was born and reared in Louisiana. She studied art while attending the University of McNeese in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She has since attended workshops with Albert Handel, Skip Whitcomb, Alan Flattmann, Gil Dillenger, Lorenzo Chavez, Maggie Price, Kitty Wallace, and Dalhart Windberg, among others.
Bonnie's work has been included in major pastel exhibitions from coast to coast. She is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America, Pastel Society of New Mexico, Lonestar Pastel Society, Degas Pastel Society, and the Pastel Society of the Southwest. Her work hangs in collections across the U.S.A.
Bonnie Williams lives in Brookeland, a rural community in east Texas.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape
Style: Representational.
Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website.
Gallery: Landscapes; Hayfields; Tumbling On Series; Southern Creeks and Landscapes; Still Lifes and Florals.
Image View: The very small thumbnails provide information on medium and dimension on mouseover, and enlarge in a viewer when clicked; they will then enlarge further in a pop-up, and may be saved. September Afternoon#2 is 12 x 18 ins, 550 x 357, 192 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Larry Blovits

2011-05-02T20:09:00.002+01:00

Name: Larry Blovits, PSA
URL: http://www.larryblovits.com/
Bio: Larry Blovits emerged with a BFA and an MFA from Wayne State University (Detroit) in the 60’s. Receiving numerous awards and honors in national shows ever since 1962, Larry has also achieved signature status in many prestigious national art organizations including the Salmagundi Club, Knickerbocker Artists, Oil Painters of America, and the American Society of Portrait Artists. The Pastel Society of America bestowed Master Pastelist status on Larry in 1996. He is featured in Who’s Who in America, and in Who’s Who in the World. He has taken portraiture workshops with Daniel Greene, and with Richard Whitney. He has attained a national reputation for excellence in painting oil and pastel portraits, landscapes - and teaching. Larry spent 26 years as an Art Professor at Aquinas College and has himself been teaching workshops since the mid-seventies.
Medium: Pastel; oil
Subjects: Figurative; Landscape.
Publications: Pastel for the Serious Beginner, Watson-Guptill, 1996.
No Experience Required: Sketching and Drawing, North Light Books, 2004.
ISBN-10: 9781581805055; ISBN-13: 978-1581805055
Pastel interpretations, Madelyn-Ann Woolwich, North Light Books, 1993. Featured artist
The Art of Pastel Portraiture, Madelyn-Ann Woolwich, Watson-Guptill, 1996. Featured artist .
Style: Traditional.
Navigation: Main menu is always available. I have the impression that the website has not been updated for some time.
Gallery: Portraits; Landscapes
Image View: The thumbnails enlarge on a new page when clicked; information on medium and dimension is provided here. Download is possible, but the images are not large. Linda is 30 x 38 ins. 437 x 340, 57.7 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Le 1er mai, la fête du travail

2011-04-30T21:28:00.000+01:00

Bonjour à tous -
Pour vous des bouquets de muguets, des petites clochettes d'amitié...
Bon W.E du premier mai!

JoEllen Murphy

2011-04-27T21:31:00.000+01:00

Name: JoEllen Murphy

URL: http://web.mac.com/joellenmurphy/Site/Welcome.html

Bio: JoEllen received a BFA in medical illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1979, and began her career at the Boston University School of Medicine where she illustrated medical textbooks for four years. For twenty-four years, she was an artist at the Washington Post, where she won numerous awards from PRINT, the Society of Newspaper Design and the Art Director’s Club of New York for both illustration and design.

More recently, she has been accepted into numerous juried shows and has received national recognition for her pastels. She also came in first place (the artist’s choice award) in a plein air competition in 2007 through the Yellow Barn studio in Bethesda, Maryland.

She has taken workshops with Richard McKinley, Susan Ogilvie, Margaret Dyer, Doug Dawson, and Wolf Kahn. She has also taken oil painting classes with Jill Phillips and Susan Yanero at the Washington Studio School (focusing on the figure and still life) and has studied with Glen Kessler and Walt Bartman at the Yellow Barn Studio at Glen Echo. She is a juried member of the Pastel Society of America and a juried signature member of the Maryland Pastel Society. JoEllen is also part of the Columbia Pike Artist Studios in Arlington. JoEllen lives in Washington DC.

Medium: Pastel; oil

Subjects: Figurative; Landscape.

Style: Impressionist.

Navigation: Main menu and relevant sub menus are always available,

Gallery: Figures/Portraits; Landscapes/En Plein Air Work; Pet Portraits.

Image View: The thumbnails enlarge in a slideshow viewer when clicked and you can proceed forwards or backwards through the enlarged images, or click on one of the thumbnails that remain visible on top of the viewer. Download is not possible. Repose (18 x 24 ins) was was one of 160 paintings out of 1,260 chosen to exhibit in the 38th annual Pastel Society of America show, the National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, NY.

Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Marcia Holmes

2011-04-27T21:08:00.001+01:00

Name: Marcia Holmes
URL: http://marciaholmes.com/
Bio: Marcia Holmes was born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, home of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. Marcia started painting and exhibiting in 1999 after a career as a corporate C.P.A. She attended Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) and USM (University of Southern Mississippi), acquiring a Masters in Accounting. In the arts, her teachers have been Albert Handell, Gil Dellinger, Doug Dawson, Maggie Price, Alan Flattman, Camille Przewodek, Sally Strand, Frank Federico and Jimmy Wright, among others. Marcia teaches workshops - she currently lives in Mandeville - and conducts travel/painting trips to France.
Marcia was featured in the October 2007 issue of The Pastel Journal, and her work has recently been featured in both the March and May 2011 issues of the American Art Collector Magazine. She was a member of the Degas Pastel Society group that exhibited in the Festival International du Pastel at Feytiat, Limoges in 2008.
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Landscapes; Botanical; Figurative.
Style: Representational and abstract.
Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website. I don’t know to what extent this site may be customised, but the garish green, orange, pink, red and blue typefaces on the home page do not set up your eyes to view the paintings.
Gallery: Paintings: Preview Current Exhibit-Rue du Pont Breaux Bridge ; Mallory Page Gallery - Jammin' on Julia; Studio - Mandeville, LA ; Landscapes ; Botanical ; French Countryside.Venice, Italy; People; Limited Edition Prints.
Image View: The thumbnails enlarge in a pop-up when clicked and you can proceed forwards or backwards through the enlarged images. Download is not blocked. Images are labelled with information on medium and dimension. Passion Flower is 24 x 30 ins, 550 x 446, 305 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Nancy Poucher

2011-04-24T11:32:00.000+01:00

Name: Nancy Poucher
URL: http://www.nancypoucher.com/main_page.html
Bio: I have little biographical information on this New England artist, apart from the fact that she lives in Provincetown, Cape Cod. She also spends time in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Nancy is part of the daily painters movement and her work may also be seen there.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Seascapes; Landscapes.
Style: Representational. Many, if not most, are plein air.
Navigation: Website is easy to navigate, with main menu available at side.
Gallery: Water gallery; Land gallery.
Image View: The thumbnails enlarge in a pop-up when clicked and you can proceed forwards or backwards through the enlarged images. Download is not blocked. Images are labelled with information on medium and dimension. Hatches Harbour is 9x 12 ins. 746 x 550, 296 KB.
Blog: http://poucherpastels.blogspot.com/
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Dinelli

2011-04-15T21:23:00.001+01:00

Name: Dinelli (Valérie Genty)
URL: http://www.dinelli.fr
Bio: Valérie Genty studied and worked in different arts fields in Paris, including photography and graphic arts. After two years in Indonesia she progressively devoted herself to sculpture, oil and pastel painting.
Her work is primarily figurative with a surrealist interpretation, taking inspiration from music: the spontaneity of jazz, and from views of Paris that inspired her first series of "Roofs of the World".
Dinelli has exhibited in her native France; Poland, China, Russia, Japan and Canada.She was awarded the Grand Prix d’Honneur at the 2003 Biennale Internationale de Peinture – followed in 2004 by an award from the American Pastel Society at the National Arts Club in New York.
She is a member of Figuration Critique ; and of SODAL.
Her work and methods were featured in Hors Series No. 17, June 2009 issue of Pratique des Arts.
Medium: Pastel; Oil; Wood; Bronze; Clay.
Subjects: Landscapes
Style: Surrealist
Navigation: Website is in French and in English.
Gallery: Creations: Wood; Bronze; Clay; Pastels.
Image View: The pastels gallery has an arrow in the centre that allows you to scroll through more thumbnails – don’t miss it, or you will only see four images. Clicking on these causes them to enlarge in a pop-up, whence they may be saved. Dimensions are not given, nor medium (you are after all in the pastel gallery and those in oil are noted). Sizes are generally about 65 x 50 cms.
Blog: http://dinelli.blog.free.fr/ does not seem to have been updated since 2007.
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Elsie DiNardo Dresch

2011-04-15T20:25:00.001+01:00

Name: Elsie DiNardo Dresch, PSA
URL: http://www.elsiedresch.com/
Bio: Elsie Dresch marked a milestone in March, 2010 with the opening of her one-woman show of oil and pastel paintings at Watson Gallery in Midtown, Atlanta. An 85th milestone, to be exact, that celebrated Elsie's 85th birthday. What is perhaps even more remarkable is, rather than show a retrospective of her lifetime’s work, Elsie displayed 85 recent paintings.
Elsie's art education began in Philadelphia at 13, when she studied at the Graphic Sketch Club then attended the Fleisher Memorial School of Art in addition to studying with several contemporary artists in workshops throughout the southeast.
She is a Member of Excellence of the Atlanta Artists Center and of the Southeastern Pastel Society and a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America. She has received over 60 awards in regional and national shows. Her work is in many private and corporate collections in the United States, Canada and Italy. She is represented in Atlanta by the Watson Gallery and in Blue Ridge, Georgia by High Country Arts and Antiques.
Elsie is the mother of artist Janet Mozley.
Medium: Pastel; Oil
Publications: Create Better Paintings; ISBN-10: 0978852400; ISBN-13: 978-0978852405
Subjects: Landscapes, Figurative, Animals.
Style: Representational..
Navigation: Main menu remains available at bottom of page.
Gallery: Paintings
Image View: The single gallery page consists of thumbnails that enlarge on a new page when clicked. Rainy Day in London is 18 x 24 ins.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Janet Mozley

2011-04-15T20:01:00.000+01:00

Name: Janet Mozley
URL: http://www.janetmozley.com/
Bio: Janet Mozley had her first solo show in Hawaii in 2001. Later that year she moved to Beaufort, S. Carolina, to a different landscape. Maine, Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia inspired three more exhibitions, culminating in commissions and the 2009 Pastel 100 award in Animal and Wildlife category. Janet comes from an artistic background and cites her mother Elsie Dresch as a source of inspiration and motivation.
Medium: Pastel; Oil
Subjects: Landscapes, Animals.
Style: Realistic.
Navigation: Main menu remains available.
Gallery: Landscapes; Animals; Pets.
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails which may be clicked to enlarge one by one in Adobe Flash Player, where information is provided on the medium and dimensions of the original work. The image can not be saved.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Robin Frisella

2011-04-15T09:32:00.001+01:00

Name: Robin Frisella, PSA
URL: http://www.robinfrisella.com/
Bio: New Hampshire artist Robin Frisella took her first pastel class in 2000 and has been exhibiting and winning awards ever since. Her first piece won Best of Show; it was a "eureka" moment. By 2005 Frisella had left her job to pursue her art career full time. She has continued studying with local artists and teaches the medium to a keen following of students. In 2006 Robin opened Frisella Fine Art Studio in Candia, New Hampshire. Her work has featured in a number of publications, including American Artist Magazine, May 2010 and September 2009; and in Best of American Pastels Volume II, Kennedy Publishing, 2009.
Medium: Pastel. One hint I picked up from Frisella, who works on several paintings at a time, is that when finished she lays sheets of newsprint paper over the top and applies heavy weights to press the particles of pastel into the support (she uses Wallis).
Subjects: Still Life; Portraits; Landscapes.
Style: Realistic.
Navigation: Main menu remains available.
Gallery: Still Life; Portraits; Landscapes.
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails which may be clicked to enlarge on a new page. There is no information on the dimensions of the original work. The image can be saved. As with all artists whose work is excellent throughout a range of subjects, choice of a single image typique is always going to be tough. I think Frisella is perhaps most keen on still life, so I have chosen Sweet Memories which I know is 12 x 18in as it was published in American Artist.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Paul Billard

2011-04-09T20:53:00.005+01:00

Name: Paul Billard
URL: http://www.artactif.com/billard
Bio: Paul Billard was born in Nantes, France in 1950. Self-taught, he has always drawn, painted, sculpted, but has devoted himself solely to pastel for the past 20 years. His travel inspire and inform his award-winning paintings - Venice, India, Morocco, Egypt, Mongolian horse, and the nude.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Figurative.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: The website is in French but there is nothing to navigate, You are presented with five tantalising thumbnails of the artist’s work. That’s it.
Gallery: None.
Image View: Each thumbnail can be enlarged in a viewer,then further enlarged - but right-click is disabled.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Joan Agostinelli

2011-04-09T20:14:00.000+01:00

Name: Joan Agostinelli
URL: http://www.agostinart.com/
Bio: With a Masters Degree in Education, Joan Agostinelli pursued College-Level Studio Art Classes at the University of Connecticut, Manchester Community College, Wesleyan Graduate Liberal Studies Program. She has been exhibiting her paintings since 2004. Joan was President of Connecticut Women Artists from 2005 through 2009; she is a Signature Member of the Connecticut Pastel Society, a member of the Salmagundi Club, and associate artist of the American Pastel Society. Joan has been selected as Artist-in-Residence at three National Parks – Acadia (Spring 2009); Weir Farm National Historic Site (Autumn 2009); and Mesa Verde National Park (Autumn 2010.)
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Landscape; Still Life.
Style: Impressionistic to representational.
Navigation: Main menu remains on top, except when you enlarge an image. Then you lose the menu entirely.
Gallery: Gallery of the Elements; Still Life Gallery; Landscape Gallery
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails with information on medium and dimension. Clicking on a thumbnail enlarges it in a new page. You need to use the back button at this point to return to the gallery. Download is possible, with the usual copyright restriction on reproduction. Crystal Charisma is 24 x 30 ins, 500 x 360, 60 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Paul Dumestre

2011-04-09T19:51:00.001+01:00

Name: Paul Dumestre
URL: http://p.dumestre.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Bio: Paul Dumestre was born in 1974 in Périgueux, France. He started his professional career as a chemist, converted to IT and has been employed therein since 2001. For fifteen years he has been painting still lifes, at first in oils, but since 2005 in pastel. He has taken workshops with master pastellists Lionel Asselineau and Chris (Serrurier). His landscapes are based on the mountains of the Bigorre, but with more than a nod to fantastical composition.
Paul Dumestre has been showing his work since 2001. His pastels will be included in the Société des Pastellistes de France at Feytiat this July (I have already given notice of thsi exhibition) and also at St Aulaye in the Dordogne from the 13th to the 28th August (Salon Pastel en Perigord).
Paul Dumestre naquit en 1974 à Périgueux. Il a fait des études de chimie mais il s’est reconverti depuis quelques années dans l'informatique. Peintre amateur depuis une quinzaine d'années, son domaine de prédilection est la nature morte réaliste. A l'origine, il travaillait essentiellement à la peinture à l'huile, mais depuis quelques années, il utilise beaucoup le pastel sec. Aujourd'hui il réserve l'huile au trompe-l'oeil. Parallèlement, il réalise donc au pastel des natures mortes plus classiques ainsi que quelques paysages (de montagne principalement, traités sous une approche un peu fantastique).
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Landscape; Still Life; Figurative.
Style: Realistic.
Navigation: Website is in French. Main menu remains on top.
Gallery: Natures Mortes (Still Life); Figures; Paysages (Landscapes); Divers & Fantasy (Tolkien casts a long shadow).
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails that open in a Flash viewer when clicked. Download is not possible. The galleries are grouped per medium, over a numbner of pages – all the oils paintings are together, likewise the pastels. Pont Brisé is 40 x 30 cms.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Jeanne Leemon

2011-04-08T21:20:00.000+01:00

Name: Jeanne Leemon, PSA
URL: http://jeanneleemon.com/
Bio: Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Jeanne Leemon has lived in the Knoxville, Tennessee area since 1993. As an artist she is self-taught, and has attained the status of Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America; Jeanne is also a juried member of the Oil Painters of America, the International Guild of Realism, and the Women Painters of the Southeast, and also a member of the Portrait Society of America. Her paintings have been accepted into numerous juried shows throughout the Southeastern United States. She won Honorable Mention twice for her pastel work in the annual Pastel 100 competition of The Pastel Journal in 2009 and 2010.
Medium: Pastel, oil.
Subjects: Landscape; Still Life; Figurative..
Style: Realistic.
Navigation: A FineArtStudioOnline website.
Gallery: Recent Works; Still Life; Figures; Landscapes.
Image View: Each gallery consists of thumbnails which indicate title and size, but not medium – you can get that information as a tooltip by resting the cursor on the image. Or by clicking to enlarge. You can then zoom again; the image can be saved. The prize-winning Cipolline Onions is 14.5 x 16 ins; 500 x 495, 185 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Jean Fonquergne

2011-04-08T20:33:00.001+01:00

Name: Jean Fonquergne
URL: http://www.la-palette-de-jean.fr/la-palette-de-jean/accueil.htm
Bio: Jean Fonquergne was born in 1963 in the Midi-Pyrenees region of southern France. After three years of vocational courses in industrial design and drawing, Jean was involved in a serious road accident that confined him to a wheelchair at the age of seventeen. Not until 1995 did he start to draw again, self-taught at first, followed by a three year course with Daniel Maurice-gril, primarily a painter in watercolour, whom Jean met in1998. He has spent the time since then learning and perfecting the art of pastel. Since then Jean has exhibited his paintings regularly in different salons in the region. The website is all his own work.

Jean Fonquergne est né en 1963 dans la région Midi-Pyrénées où il réside actuellement. Dans son adolescence, il a suivi lors d'un apprentissage dans un lycée professionnel et durant trois années consécutives, des cours de dessin industriel en bâtiment suivi de quelques cours de dessin d'art.

En 1981, à l'âge de 17 ans, il a été victime d'un grave accident de la route qui l'a rendu paraplégique pour la vie. Après de longues années de souffrance de toutes sortes, il a commencé le dessin en autodidacte en 1995 et ce n'est qu'à partir de 1998, suite à sa rencontre avec Mr Daniel Maurice-gril, peintre aquarelliste, auprès duquel il a étudié durant trois ans, qu’il a pu apprendre et perfectionner la technique du pastel. Depuis, il expose régulièrement ses tableaux dans différents salons de peinture de la région.

Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape; Still Life; Figurative.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: This website is in French. There are some unnecessary features – animated gifs, overuse of the “blink” tag etc. - that betray the amateur nature of the web design. However, the galleries are easy to access.
Gallery: Galleries: Canal du Midi; Animaux (animals); Natures Mortes (still life); Paysages divers (various landscapes) ; Personnages (people) ; Dessins (drawings).
Image View: This is a frames-based website. The thumbnails in the left frame will display full size in the main frame when clicked. This may be downloaded. Ecluse de Gardouch is 29 x 34 cm, 600 x 399, 85 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No. The Tutoriels link is not a demo.

Sonja Kever

2011-04-08T17:47:00.000+01:00

Name: Sonja Kever
URL: http://www.sonjaakever.com/SAK_Pastels/Welcome.html
Bio: Sonja A. Kever grew up in Northern Iowa and from an early age had aspirations of being an artist. She was a fine art major at the University of Kansas but transferred to and graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising. Careers in fashion, as a child welfare supervisor, and paralegal followed. Her art career was all but forgotten as she married and reared two daughters. In 2003 she attended a pastel exhibit at the North Hills Gallery in Austin, Texas and was awed by the luminous medium. Having had no previous experience with pastels, she immediately began taking lessons, attending workshops and pastel exhibits. The artist with whom Sonja has taken workshops is a veritable Who’s Who of American pastelists: Desmond O’Hagan, Judith Carducci, Claudia Seymour, Denise Larue Mahlke, Eve Larson. John Roush, Libby Peters, and Jim Cox. Sonja is a juried associate member of the American Pastel Society, a signature member of the Pastel Society of the Southwest, and is also a member of the Pastel Societies of Austin, Texas, Central Texas respectively, the Portrait Society of America, and the Capitol Art Society.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: See Gallery.
Style: Representational.
Navigation: Main menu on top. Very easy to navigate this site.
Gallery: Portrait/Figure; Still Life Miniatures; Still Life Floral; Landscape and Interiors; Animals and Pets;
Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in slideshow, with information attached. Viwer is effectively a Flash slideshow; there is a download option. Monk Parade is 16 x 12 ins., 800 x 600, 94.4 KB
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Kim Lordier

2011-04-06T20:26:00.001+01:00

Name: Kim Lordier
URL: http://kimfancherlordier.com/
Bio: Born 1966, and native to the San Francisco Bay Area, Kim Lordier graduated from the University of San Francisco, with a BFA Illustration in 1989, and from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. After college, Lordier flew for a major air carrier, which gave her the advantage of being able to experience many domestic and foreign locations, all the while keeping up with her painting. She switched careers late in 2001 in order to spend a year at the California Academy of Painters, and she continues to study occasionally with master pastellist Bob Gerbracht. She is currently a Signature member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters, the Pastel Society of America, a Distinguished Pastelist in the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and Artist Member of the California Art Club. She has won many awards including the Pastel 100 Grand Prize in 2007. Kim has been featured in the Pastel Journal, American Artist, American Art Collector, and Fine Art Connoisseur, among others.
Medium: Pastel.
Subjects: Landscape.
Style: Impressionistic; Kim paints in the plein air tradition.
Navigation: Main menu remains at side. This is a FineArtStudioOnline website.
Gallery: Works: California Interior Landscapes; Coastel; Desert, Southwest and Colorado; High Sierra.
Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in viewer, with full details. Download is possible. Illuminated is 18 x 24 ins. 550 x 413, 208 KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Ian Ingram

2011-04-04T10:44:00.002+01:00

Name: Ian Ingram
URL: http://ianingram.com/
Bio: Sometimes I stumble upon an artist who is outside the mainstream of "pastel artists" in the sense that the medium is not necessarily the message, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan. Ian Ingram is one such artist, and is featured on this blog because he does make extensive use of pastel in his work.

Ian Ingram was born in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, but also attended Washington University, St. Louis, and Temple/Tyler Art School, Rome, Italy. Ian Ingram currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.
Having made a self-portrait every year since he was 16, Ingram has recently been working on a highly anticipated series of large-scale self-portrait drawings
His work is often about moments of transition, points in life where change occurs. His self-portraits are autobiographical reflections of meaningful events, such as his wedding, or the birth of his child. Ian describes these emotional moments as “times when a decision or an action changes your entire worldview. The image is of leaving one world and pushing through to another.”
Cross contours, grids, and blending build the subtleties, nuances, and porous surfaces of the human face. Working with a base of charcoal, pastel, ink, and watercolor, Ingram has also begun incorporating more unconventional materials into his work, such as beads, beeswax, metallic thread, silver leaf, string, and even butterfly wings.

This is from a blog written by Ian’s wife:
“My husband, ian, is an artist. his current work is a series of charcoal self portraits – intense and magnificent – that are 7 feet high and 5 feet wide. he starts with a big white paper and spends 3 focused months creating each piece. using his hands or sponges or self-made tools, he rubs and grinds charcoal into the paper’s surface. I am continually astonished by what he can create out of burnt wood and white paper.
what mystifies me is that he’ll sometimes take a black lump of eraser in his hand and remove days of hard work in order to start over. but he says that the paper has a memory. though he can take it back to white, the grit of the paper has changed, inevitable altering the piece. and what was in fact important was what was learned between white and white.”

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010 Self-Portraits, Barry Friedman Ltd, New York, NY
2006 The Opposite of Death: Translations of India, Turner Carroll Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2004 Five Skin Ten Skin: Drawings by Ian Ingram, Quan Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2001 Jazz: Drawings by Ian Ingram, Churchill Grounds, Atlanta, GA
2000 Drawings by: Ian Ingram, The Youngblood Gallery, Atlanta, GA

Medium: Pastel, charcoal, gold leaf, watercolour, embroidery, metallic threads, string, beads, beeswax, butterfly wings........
Subjects: Self-portraits
Style: Hyper-realistic.
Navigation: Main menu remains on top.
Gallery: Work: New Work; Divining.
Image View: Images are displayed in a viewer above a series of thumbnails. The main window of the viewer acts as a magnifier of the piec e; which is an essential part of the experience given the huge scale of Ingram's work. The painting featured here, Pierrot, measures 82.5 x 51 inches, and is made of Charcoal, pastel, watercolor and gold leaf. This is the biggest file I have uploaded to date, at 3.25 MB.
Blog: On his website.
See also http://alchymie.wordpress.com/category/ian-ingram/

Irene Georgopoulou

2011-04-01T11:15:00.002+01:00

Name: Irene Georgopoulou

URL: http://www.artistcolony.net/irenegeorgopoulou/

Bio: There is a growing trend among artists to maintain a website and a blog and maybe a Facebook page too; some eschew the website, and keep only a blog. This is fine if, as in the case of Jean-Charles Peyrouny, the blog is well thought-out and intelligently designed so that it works as a website, with well-signalled gallery pages. Other blogs might well express the artist’s thoughts and travels, but have disproportionately little in the way of pictorial content. I tend not to review those blogs, unless they are an adjunct to an up-to-date website.

I have been in two minds about mentioning if an artist is in Facebook. Some artists are quite happy to have a public FB page, while maintaining a private one as well. Others have what appears to be more a "Fanbook" with an unmanageable amount of “Friends” (Daniel Greene has, as of today’s date, 1858 FB Friends).

All this is by way of preamble to Irene Georgopoulou. Irene has a website that is full of pictorial content; her blog is also picture-based; and she is very active on Facebook.

In Irene’s case, had she only the website, she should be featured here; likewise had she only the blog. So I strongly recommend you to visit both.

Irene Georgopoulou was born in Athens, Greece in 1964. She always wanted to paint but life got in the way; she finally got to start her career in 2006 and has since progressed apace. For the most part she is self-taught although she has has attended workshops led by professional artists. She is a member of International Guild of Realism and the Pastel Guild of Europe. She was a finalist in the April/May 2009 edition of International Artist Magazine flowers and gardens competition.

Medium: Pastel.

Subjects: Still Life; Floral.

Style: Hyper-realistic.

Navigation: Main menu remains on top.

Gallery: Gallery 1; Gallery 2.

Image View: Click on thumbnails to enlarge in new page; details are provided on size and medium. Images may be saved. Red Apple, Blue Flowers is 13 x 9 ins.

Blog: There is a wealth of paintings to be seen on the blog. Visit it.

Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Joan Raset

2011-03-31T23:45:00.000+01:00

Name: Joan Raset
URL: http://www.joanrasetpastel.com/
Bio: Spanish artist Joan Raset was born in 1938 in Barcelona. Raset was trained, and worked in technical architecture, but abandoned it in the 1970s for fine art. He started attending the Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc and later the Cercle Real in Barcelona. He was initially attracted to abstract painting, and also created signs for discothèques and nightclubs in trendy cities along the costa. But he also spent time on pastel portraiture and more figurative work, to which he attributes his eventual artistic development.
Already his pastel work was distinctive and it resulted in a publishing contract with Editorial Parragón. El Desnudo femenino al Pastel (The female Nude in Pastel) was one of his most popular works. At the end of the 1980s Raset launched into oil paintings, practically with the same concept and graphics as his pastel paintings. In 1992 he met Sam Benady, art dealer and gallery owner, at the Miami Art Fair Art-Miami, and they began a business relationship and a friendship which has continued up to today. Raset continues to paint in his garden, and home studio, next to the Mediterranean in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Girona.
Medium: Pastel; oil; drawings.
Subjects: Figurative
Style: Post-impressionist or expressionist. Think of a post-modern Toulouse-Lautrec. (Merci M. Lautrec pour toutes vos folies – et merci M. Testarode pour les paroles.)
Navigation: This website is in Spanish. It is effectively a blog, but features a number of valuable paintings without too much inconsequential chat.
Gallery: Still Life; Figurative.
Image View: The paintings appear on the blog page and can be clicked on to enlarge, and downloaded. El vestido verde is 65 x 50 cm; 1302 x 993, 143 KB.
Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Summer Exhibitions, French Pastel Society, Société des Pastellistes de France

2011-03-29T19:42:00.000+01:00

For those of you who might be in France during the summer, please take note of the dates and locations of the summer exhibitions of the French Pastel Society. I promise that it will be a highlight of your trip.
Expositions tout à fait incontournables de la Société des Pastellistes de France:

Abel Marquez

2011-03-28T20:43:00.002+01:00

Name: Abel Marquez
URL: http://www.abelmarquez.com.ar/
Bio: This morning the lastest edition of the Pastel Journal dropped through the letter-box; this is one of the highlights of the year, as it is the issue with the Pastel 100 award winners. No one can accuse the Pastel Journal of dishing up the usual suspects – there is always something new, someone new. Last year I was very happy to discover the landscapes of Turkish artist Javed Soleimanpour. This year the still lifes of Argentina-born Abel Marquez are a real find.
Abel Marquez was born in Trelew, Patagonia. He left his first choice, medicine, to enrol in in the School of Art, University of Cordoba in 1986, and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 1990. He took up pastel when he moved to the USA, basing himself in Miami, painting professionally in the medium from 2005, and immediately beginning to amass awards, culminating in the Ruth Richeson/Unison Pastel award in the current Pastel 100.
Medium: Pastel; oil; charcoal; watercolour.
Subjects: Landscape; Figurative
Style: Realistic.
Navigation: This website is in English and in Spanish.
Gallery: Still Life; Figurative.
Image View: The galleries consist of thumbnails one views by running the mouse over the numbers at the base of the viewer. Information on the chosen thumbnail (title, medium,dimension) is displayed to one side. Click on the appropriate number to see the enlarged image; you can then use a “zoom” feature to focus on the detail of any portion of the image if you so wish. The image viewer is Adobe Flash player, hence download is not possible as such. The Guardian is 8 x 11.5 ins.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.

Tom Sierak

2011-03-26T20:01:00.000Z

Name: Tom Sierak
URL: http://www.tomsierak.com/
Bio: A native of Newburyport, Massachusetts, Tom Sierak graduated from the Vesper George Art School in Boston, Massachusetts, where he came to greatly admire artists such as Ingres, Vermeer, Rockwell, and others while perfecting his drawing skills and absorbing the knowledge and experience of many of the accomplished artists/instructors with whom he studied, among them Robert Douglass Hunter, Paul Rahilly and Charles Cooper.
After trying his hand at a few commercial art jobs, Sierak found that his real artistic desire existed in drawing and painting people. He concentrated on portraiture to make a living and also discovered his abilities as a musician, another of the arts that he loved. Choosing to pursue both avenues, he primarily performed as a musician for the better part of 10 years, while occasionally painting and drawing. Now painting full time, his paintings are in numerous private collections throughout North America. He has been commissioned by notable organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Reminisce Magazine, and numerous corporations. He has been the featured cover artist in The Artist's Magazine and had many works published in Ideals magazine. His work has been published worldwide on catalogue and book covers, wall prints, puzzles, and calendars.
Medium: Pastel
Subjects: Figurative; Landscape.
Style: Realistic, deliberately sentimental. “Painting tomorrow’s memories today”... is how Tom Sierak likes to describe his paintings. He says, “People often talk about the “good ol’ days”, and how nice it would be to return to them. I think the times we are living now are tomorrow’s good ol’ days. Places and things may change around us, but that special bond that exists between children, parents, and grandparents and even pets, never does. I try to convey a message of warmth and emotion, and hope these late 20th century portraits of American life eventually become viewer's window to the past.”
Navigation: Easy to navigate, commercially-oriented site.
Gallery: Original Paintings: Children; Family; Romantic; Reminisce.
Image View: The galleries consist of thumbnails that on click enlarge with full information in a new window. Download is permitted. The Duet is 26 x 35 ins, 468 x 344, 66KB.
Blog/Demo/Ebay/Flickr: No.