The Colorist

Red Tulip

2025-05-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

Red Tulip. 2025. Pastel on Sanded Card.

14.5" x 10.25". Casey Klahn.

Daffs

2025-04-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Daffodils. 2025.

Pastel on Sanded Card. 13" x 9.6". Casey Klahn.

5 Minute Sketch

2025-04-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

Vine Charcoal & Pastel on Strathmore 500. Full Sheet. Casey Klahn.

Hairdo

2025-03-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hairdo. 2025. Pastel on Ingres.

15.5" x 13.5". Casey Klahn.

Craftsman Vase

2025-03-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Craftsman Vase. 2025.

Pastel on Sanded Card. 15" x11".

Casey Klahn.

Romanian Cloth

2025-03-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

Romanian Cloth & Dried Flowers. 2025.

Pastel. 11.6" x 6.6". Casey Klahn.

Flower

2025-03-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

Flower in Her Hair. 2025. Vine Charcoal & Pastel on Sanded Card. 12" x 6". Casey Klahn.

2025-02-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Message me for inquiries.

North Wind Blizzard. Live Painting.

2025-02-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

Studio Early Winter. 2022. Pastel. 14" x 8.6". Casey Klahn.

My little studio is anything but "all weather". It leaks air like a creaky baffle. But, the best direction for wind and snow to attack, from my point of view as a survivor, is from the north.

This pastel was done by opening the door and huddling in the doorway, and watching the storm.

Driver Hat

2025-02-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Maquette. Driver Hat. 2025.

Vine Charcoal, Black Pencil, Dry Ground & Pastel on Newsprint.

9" x 9".

Casey Klahn.

Stockings and Skirt

2025-02-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Dark Stockings and Skirt. Seated Pose. 2025.

Charcoal and Pastel on Sanded card. 15" x 11". Casey Klahn.

12 minute pose.

Modernist Pastel

2025-02-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

Sketching and Smoking. 2023. Pastel. 12.25" x 8.5". Casey Klahn. 10-20 minute pose on Zoom.

I'm re-visiting some images to draw. Sometimes a pastel will become a drawing, and vice versa. While re-drawing this "from life" pastel, I realized I overlooked how much I like this one. It has Modernist chops.

Seated Pose

2025-02-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

Seated in Underwear. 2025. Vine and Pencil Charcoal, Pastel on Ingres Paper. 10" x 8.5". Casey Klahn.

2025-02-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Dakota Pastel Workshops/ Casey Klahn

Join me in Mt Vernon, WA. We'll sketch and paint from live models and focus on gesture and color. Beginner through advanced.

2025-02-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Fauvist. 2014. 14.25" x 13.5." Pastel, Charcoal and Graphite. Casey Klahn.

Artist

2025-02-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

2025-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Dakota Pastel Workshops/ Casey Klahn

Join me in Mt Vernon, WA. We'll sketch and paint from live models and focus on gesture and color. Beginner through advanced.

Zoom Model from Rome

2025-02-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

White Knee. 2025. Vine Charcoal, Dry Ground & Pastel on Ming Sanded Paper.

13.75" x 10". Casey Klahn. @ 15-20 minute pose.

Robed Model Motif

2025-02-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

Green Robe (Bat Tattoo). 2025. Vine Charcoal, Pencils & Pastel on Ingres Paper. 16" x 13". Casey Klahn.

Medal Awarded to Klahn

2019-06-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Davenport, WA artist Casey Klahn was awarded the Master's Circle status from the International Association of Pastel Societies, June 8th, 2019. The award is indicated for his achieving the IAPS master's status in 2017, when he secured a fifth point in the international association's system for recognizing artists achieving either awards or exhibition placement.

Klahn is a past member of the Northwest Pastel Society, and a signature member of the Pastel Society of America. He is represented in the contemporary marketplace of various social media platforms, and teaches art workshops internationally.

The award of Master's Circle is signified by a bronze medal coated in 18K gold, struck with a design of a rose rendered by IAPS founder and former president, Urania Christy Tarbet. On the back is engraved the awardee's name and date of the award. An artist may use the letters IAPS/MC to indicate his or her status, and in Klahn's signature the letters PSA are also used to note his status as a signature artist in the Pastel Society of America.

The pastel medium is among the oldest mediums used by artists. It is composed of pure pigment and the least amount of binder or body necessary to make a paste, which is then dried and forms a stick similar to a crayon. The difference being that a crayon is of gross materials, and the pastel of the finest. Pastel artworks are considered the most archival colors, even exceeding oil paint for lightfastness. Contemporary pastelists enjoy the availability of archival surfaces now, compared to the past when some paper substrates were of a fugitive nature. One of the formal qualities of pastel that Klahn enjoys is its ability to portray bright, pure color, which is a keynote of contemporary visual art.

Happy Easter - 2019

2019-04-20T15:34:00.002-07:00

The Descent from the Cross c. 1435. Oil on oak panel, 220cm × 262 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden.

Green Pants

2019-04-15T07:19:00.001-07:00

Green Pants and an Interior with a Red Carpet. 2019. Pastel, White Chalk, Graphite & Vine Charcoal. 19.25" x 10.25". Casey Klahn.

New Color Expression

2019-04-07T07:13:00.003-07:00

caseyklahn.com

The Beautiful Troublemaker

2019-04-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Top:

Nude on the Couch (from the movie The Beautiful Troublemaker). 2019. Vine Charcoal on Old Master's Paper. 10" x 18.5". Casey Klahn. Actress Emmanuelle Béart.

Bottom:

Nude on the Couch Seen from the Back (from the movie The Beautiful Troublemaker). 2019. Vine Charcoal on Old Master's Paper. 10" x 18.5". Casey Klahn. Actress Emmanuelle Béart.

It's not the best practice: using a photo for your reference. Worse, yet, someone else's photo. Worser, yet, from a movie. But, I told myself when I started this 200 Figures Project, that instructional figure model videos were allowable. After all, I'd be needing practical, fresh sources on a constant basis, and it is about practice.

La Belle Noiseuse (1991, which is The Beautiful Troublemaker, is as much an instructional video as any other. It features long shots of the model posing, and also long sequences of the artist just drawing, or re-arranging the studio furniture. I think that's courageous of the filmmaker; it dares to bore the viewer. I wasn't bored at all! I grabbed my iPad and started sketching along with the sessions.

I am a little more than halfway through this project, but it doesn't help that I go through and cull out works occasionally (I got rid of 2 this morning!). Most of my source work is sketches from life models, and I am constantly re-mining those for new works. I am allowing master copies, and by my count those make up 9-10% of what I've posted. Instructional sources, such as Croquis Cafe and this movie, are fewer, yet.

Thanks for following along.

Mojo

2019-03-14T15:43:00.003-07:00

Female Nude Standing with Arms Up and Behind Head. 2019. Pastel, Vine Charcoal, Dry Ground & Spray Acrylic Varnish on Old Master's Paper. 18.5" x 12". Casey Klahn.

As I approach a hundred figure drawings on my 200 figures project, I have been culling the worst of them. I actually have done well over the hundred, but rejected before finished, or else after looking at them on Pinterest, I scratched my head, and deleting them. This is a fresh look at one of the rejects, and what I did was go to Edgar Degas for certain body parts as reference material.
Some artists don't like Degas, but for me he is the top of the heap. As it turns out, I did not copy the body part, but got his attitude; his mojo. Maybe I should've titled this one "Mojo."

You can see my 200 figures progress on Pinterest.