The Pastel Journal January/February 2019

When putting together the special articles for this 20th anniversary edition of Pastel Journal, I used the opportunity to take a look back. I was immediately struck by how much has changed for the pastel community, and for society in general, in the past two decades. I was reminded, too, just how much remains the same. Revisiting the contents of the premiere 1999 issue of the magazine, I found features on celebrated artists Albert Handell, Elizabeth Mowry and Doug Dawson. Today’s landscape painters still want to know how to capture the “poetry” of a place, and how satisfying that painters are still learning how to go about it from these three pastel legends, as well as many others—such as Montana artist Aaron Schuerr. He digs into the inspirational hot spot…

On September 8, 2018, the Pastel Society of America (PSA) held its 46th annual exhibition, “Enduring Brilliance,” displaying 175 exceptional artworks chosen by three jurors: Colette Odya Smith, Rainie Crawford and Jimmy Wright. The pieces were chosen from nearly 600 artists from approximately 20 countries. In a press release, the society called the occasion “among the world’s best displays of accomplishment in pastel.” Awards totaling $40,000 and chosen by juror Calvin Brown, associate curator of prints and drawings at Princeton University Art Museum, were presented at a ceremony on September 23. Among the 52 awards, the PSA Founders Award was given to Diane Rosen; Wende Caporale won the Art Spirit Foundation/Dianne B. Bernhard Gold Medal Award. Master pastelist status was awarded to Theresa Emmett Allison, Janet A. Cook, Barbara Jaenicke,…

Beloved pastelist Frank Federico passed away at his home in Goshen, Conn., on July 30, 2018, at the age of 90. Federico was inducted into the Pastel Society of America’s Hall of Fame in 2013, and was well known as an inspiring instructor of pastel. Richard McKinley, president of the International Association of Pastel Societies, remembers one piece of sage wisdom he learned from the artist and now offers to his own students: “Paint your painting image upside down.” McKinley says he’ll miss “that twinkle in Frank’s eye, wonderful wit and passion for painting.” In a 2014 article in Pastel Journal, Federico described his fascination with color. “Regardless of medium, color is one of my favorite pursuits. If the mood in my given subject demands saturated colors and free expression…

LEARN WHAT HELPS OR HINDERS. Do you work better under pressure? Enter a show, schedule an obligation, make a promise. Are you easily waylaid? Set an alarm to check Facebook and texts, return phone calls and run errands. Need immediate inspiration? Have your photos, art books, quotes at the ready, or make a quick call to your friend/mentor/official ‘nag.’ FIGURE OUT YOUR WORKING STYLE AND USE IT. Do you need creative clutter? Make some. Prefer order and visual space? Clean up and clear away. Need mornings? Set the alarm. Nights? Take an afternoon/evening nap. Are you methodical? Start with those plans and drawings. Spontaneous? Loosen up with scribbles or a quick dance. Become self-aware enough to fashion your practice to suit your individual style. BECOME YOUR OWN TEACHER. Set a…

Give a box of lovely yellow pastels to an artist, and you’ll most likely receive a big smile. Yellow is a color we often associate with sunshine and good times. Sometimes, though, it symbolizes caution, as on a traffic light—or sickness, as with a medical condition, such as jaundice. For the painter, a mark of rich yellow properly placed can lead the eye. A large passage of muted yellow, as in a sunset, might evoke a sense of peace, while earthy yellows sprinkled here and there in a grassy field might signify the advance of autumn. Handled poorly, though, the color can easily overtake a painting and threaten to dominate it. The Beauty of Yellow Yellow occupies a narrow range in the electromagnetic spectrum. Sandwiched between green and orange, it…

A hard yellow pastel stick can be used to warm up a cooler passage by “feathering” or scumbling over it. Here, I started with a sheet of steel-gray Canson Mi-Teintes. On the left side, I blocked in ultramarine blue; on the right, a cool blue-green. I then used a stick of light yellow and feathered it over both sides to warm them gently. I find this approach works best if the feathering stick is a hard pastel, such as Nupastel or Polychromos. For making light, intense marks, such as sparkles on water, choose a very soft pastel in rich yellow; if you choose one that’s too “chalky,” it will appear too cool and won’t work as well. To create the illusion of intense, sparkling light on water, I began with…