Soft Pastel News

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Eve

2012-05-10T15:40:09Z

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer "Eve"

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, from 1896
Title: Eve
Pastel and gouache with gold
Size: 46 x 49 cm (18.11″ x 19.29″)
Collection of M. Michel Perinet (Paris, France)

Click on the image for a higher resolution.

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Northwest Pastel Society Best of Show 2012

2012-05-09T09:35:04Z

Barbara Benedetti Newton "Heartbreak Morning"

This pastel painting by Barbara Benedetti Newton has received Best of Show from Juror Elizabeth Mowry at the Northwest Pastel Society‘s 26th International Exhibit. All entries could be found under EXHIBIT at American Art Company.

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Pastelagram 2012

2012-05-02T15:05:09Z

Duane Wakeham "“Portrait of Flora"

Pastelagram is a publication by Pastel Society of America and is published each February, featuring reproductions of the best in current pastel artistry, highlights of the most recent Annual Exhibition, and articles by noted PSA members, who discuss their experiences, style and method of working. The featured artist in the 2012 issue are Liz Haywood Sullivan, Ray Hassard, Isabelle V. Lim, Gwenneth Barth-White, Jen Evenhus and Julene Baker-Smith.
Frank Federico is Hall of Fame Honoree 2012, and as the Pastel Journal editor Anne Hevener is the “Friend of Pastel” 2012 honoree.

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Paula Rego

2012-04-13T14:26:18Z

Paula Rego "Broken Promises"

Paula Rego was born in Portugal, Lisbon in 1935. She grew up in a republican and liberal family, linked to both English and French culture, and studied at St. Julian’s School in Carcavelos. In the 1950s, her father encouraged her to pursue her artistic career away from the Portugal, and Paula enrolled at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London, aged just 17. She met several artists at the school, including her future husband, Victor Willing. In her earliest works, Paula was strongly influenced by Surrealism, particularly the work of Juan Miro. This manifested itself not only in the type of imagery that appeared in these works but in the method Rego employed which was based on the Surrealist idea of automatic drawing, in which the artist attempts to disengage the conscious mind from the making process to allow the unconscious mind to direct the image making. Rego began using pastels as a medium in the early 1990s, and continues to use this medium to this day, almost to the exclusion of oil paint. Paula Rego is claimed by many as one of the top figurative artists of our time. Her work Broken Promises (in this post) was sold at London Christie’s in February 2012 for over a million dollars.
Rego’s quote on this work: “[Broken Promises] started off as Madame Butterfly, in which a girl is abandoned by a man who much later returns to her, bringing his wife. My grand daughter Lola posed on the chair and then I put Lila on the bed with a toy that disgusts her and can’t really satisfy her. I wanted everything jagged and broke up all the umbrellas so that they would have their spikes coming out. In the end I added Saint Sebastian, who actually is pierced by arrows. What interested me was the jaggedness of the relationship and the actual physical look of it.”
Paula currently lives and works in London.

Paula Rego (b. 1935)
Broken Promises
pastel on paper laid down on board, mounted on aluminium
63 1/8 x 47 3/8in. (160.5 x 120.2cm.)
Executed in 2006
sold at Christies London for $1,142,055.17

Click on picture to see the large version at the Christie’s website.

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The Pastel Scream

2012-05-04T13:52:00Z

Edvard Munch "The Scream"

Edvard Munch’s celebrated painting The Scream will be up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York on May 2nd. Edvard Munch made four versions of the composition, which has become the embodiment of angst and existential dread. Three are in Norwegian museums and this one, pastel on board, from 1895, is the only “Scream” still in private hands. It is being sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman whose father, Thomas, was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist. This version of the painting is different from the others in several ways. It is the most colorful of the four, and the only version whose original frame was hand-painted by the artist with a poem describing a walk at sunset (“I felt a whiff of Melancholy — I stood / Still, deathly tired”) that inspired the painting. It is also the only “Scream” in which one of the two figures in the background turns to look outward onto the cityscape.

It is estamated it could bring more than $80 million.

Pastel on Board, from 1895.
Size 59×79 cm.

Update after the sale. May 2nd, 2012.
Munch’s masterpice was sold for $119,922,500 / € 91,033,826 (includes buyer’s premium), in an evening where $330,568,550 marked the highest-ever total for an auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s Worldwide. A group of at least eight bidders showed interest in Edvard Munch’s painting, but it would be an over 12 minutes long battle between two highly determined phone bidders that would settle the final selling price.

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Featured Pastel Artist: Barbara Benedetti Newton

2012-03-14T09:36:15Z

Barbara Benedetti Newton

Barbara Benedetti Newton was born 1943 in Puyallup, Washington, and attended Art Institute of Seattle. Barbara began her professional art career as a fashion illustrator in 1965. Working exclusively in colored pencil for more than a dozen years, she became one of the masters of the medium and co-authored Colored Pencil Solution Book, published in 2000. In 2002 she began exploring other mediums and has been working primarily in soft pastel since then. Making the transition from a precise, time-consuming, transparent medium to spontaneous, fast-paced, opaque soft pastel has been a journey of discovery. With a change of medium, Barbara also departed from her trademark light-filled still life subjects to impressionistic landscape scenes. Barbara has authored articles in American Artist Magazine, The Artist’s Magazine and International Artist Magazine. Her work has appeared in all editions of the Best of Colored Pencil series and as a feature article in The Pastel Journal magazine. She is past president of the Colored Pencil Society of America, a Signature Member of the Northwest Pastel Society, the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and has been awarded Master’s Circle membership in the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS).
Barbara is a very active blogger and has many interesting posts for general public. A pastel demo can be found at the Mighty Art Demos

“For me, painting is a journey of discovery from challenges of mastering the medium to contemplation about my message. I portray natural and man-made objects in a light filled environment. Presenting a variety of relationships is facinating to me – color to form, object to subject, shadow to light. I combine surface characteristics, color, and attention to detail to portray the spare elegance of ordinary objects and everyday scenes through contemporary realism. My most recent work has been creating landscape paintings through the luscious color and buttery texture of soft pastel.”

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“Pastel 100″ Winners for 2012

2012-02-27T11:57:19Z

The Pastel Journal selected the top Pastel 100 works in the 13th annual competition. This year’s winners were selected from nearly 3,000 entries. The preview of the top winners can be seen on this youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMICpgxjkNY

The Pastel 100 winners for 2012 (in alphabetical order)
Abel Marquez, Andrew McDermott, Anne Van Blarcom-Kurowski, Arlene Richman, Barbara J. Mason, Barbara Noonan, Barbara S. Groff, Bill Baker, Bob Russin, Brian ONeill, Brian Sauerland, Carl Desrosiers, Catherine Lidden, Cheri Dunnigan, Chris Johnson, Christine Ivers, Christine Swann, Christine Troyer, Cindy House, Danielle Richard, Daria Tallman, Darleen Urbanek, David Melchior, David Vincenzi, David Wells, David Will, Deborah Crossman, Deborah Quinn-Munson, Denise LaRue Mahlke, Dennis Rhoades, Don Rantz, Don Williams, Ed Chesnovitch, Eileen Casey, Eileen Healy, Elizabeth Breed, Elizabeth Ganji, Enid Wood, Ina Prosser, Jacqueline Meyerson, Jane McGraw-Teubner, Janice D. Burton, Jennifer L. Hoffman, Jessica Fine, Joanne Burney, John Philbin Dolan, John Ribble, John Roush, Jude Tolar, Karen Ferrick, Karen Israel, Kathryn Fehlig, Kathryn Hall, Kelly Milukas, Kristy Asaro, Lawrence C. Barone, Lea Colie Wight, Lee A. Kimball, Lee McVey, Lisa Mitchell, Liz Jones, Lyn Diefenbach, Margi Lucena, Mary Aslin, Mimi Jungbluth, Mira M. White, Ned Mueller, Nicora Gangi, Patricia Catherine Kling, Patti Arbino, Paul Miners, Rachel Estrada, Rita Kirkman, Robert K. Semans, Sandra Burshell, Sandy Byers, Sarah Blumenschein, Scott Hale, Sharon Bamber, Shelley Aquino Brandon, Shelly Eager, Sonja A. Kever, Stan Sperlak, Sue Gombus, Tatijana Jacenkiw, Ted Smuskiewicz, Teresa DeSeve, Terri Ford, Theresa Emmett Allison, Tom Christopher, Tony Allain, William A. Schneider, Willo Balfrey

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Love Pastels 2012

2012-02-16T08:44:19Z

Cheryl Culver

The Love Pastel is the 113th Annual Exhibition by The Pastel Society (UK) open to the public from 14-25th February 2012. During the 2012 exhibition, Members of The Pastel Society will be working in the Gallery. The Pastel Society will also run workshops during their Annual Exhibition. The exhibition is open for the non-members as well and if you would like to join this group of super class pastel artist consider to apply for the 2013 show.
The painting in this post is the Winner of the Henri Roche Pastels Award
“They hang suspended until Winter takes them all” by Cheryl Culver PS.
Katherine Tyrrell was at the exhibition and you can read a nice review together with some photos on her blog Making a Mark.

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Northwest Pastel Society International Open Exibition

2012-02-08T17:07:15Z

Elizabeth Mowry "Reflecting Moon"

Northwest Pastel Society is having 26th Annual International Open Exhibition. If you would like to participate the prospectus is available on the Society’s website. Couple of the show details
Where: The American Art Company
Address: 1126 Broadway, Tacoma, WA
When: May 5 – June 16, 2012
Awards: Best of Show $1,200
Entry deadline: March 1st, 2012
Show Co-Chairs are Janice Wall and Bonnie Griffith.
Juror: Elizabeth Mowry
To get the inspiration visit the gallery from 2010 International Show.

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Pastel En Plein Air Demo by Michael Chesley Johnson

2012-02-06T18:36:51Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRZXBLvle8

More work by Michael Chesley Johnson.

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