The Pastel Journal Spring 2023

The Pastel 100 is, by its very definition, a competition. Now in its 24th year, the annual event invites the participation of an increasingly global community of artists to enter their best work in pastel. With the collective efforts of five category jurors, the assembled “Top 100” creates a showcase not only of exceptional artistic talent but also a presentation of the creative potential of the pastel medium. ‘What keeps me going is not winning... It’s the pursuit of excellence.” — RON O’BRIEN (OLYMPIC DIVING COACH) This year, we saw among the 100 winners, artists from the United Kingdom, France, China, Belgium, Malaysia, Italy, Taiwan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the Philippines and Australia—in addition to the United States and Canada. The extent of international participation enlarges the competition, I believe, in…

By the mid-18th century, pastels had reached an unprecedented peak of popularity and acclaim. The dry, satiny pigments, manufactured in sticks of every hue, were not only portable but promoted swift execution—allowing artists to essentially “draw” a painting. The medium’s portability allowed many portrait painters to travel far and wide in search of commissions. The artists and sitters represented in a recent Getty Museum exhibition, “Eighteenth-Century Pastels,” hailed from Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands—a testament to the Pan-European nature of the pastel phenomenon at the time. The exhibition, which closed February 26th, highlighted works from the museum’s collection by such artists as Jean-Étienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702-89) and John Russell (English, 1745-1806), among others. Also included were recently acquired paintings by Pietro Antonio Rotari (Italian, 1707-62), as…

“Establishing accurate values early on will provide you with more freedom when making color choices later.” Some artists’ approach to color may be mostly intuitive, but I rely on concrete principles of color to guide my painting process. One of the comments I frequently hear from my students is, “I never would have thought to use those colors for that subject.” Although my landscape painting color choices are grounded in a representational depiction of my subject, they’re not entirely dependent on a precise match of the actual local color. Instead, they’re based on capturing the visual effects occurring in the landscape. Usually, those visual effects are more exciting than the actual colors of the landscape elements and, often, they relate to the color temperatures associated with light and shadow. To…

Many creatives have, on occasion, wrestled with the uncomfortable fear that there’s a finite number of ideas in the un iverse, and that perhaps we’ve arrived at the end of them. Every year, however, the Pastel 100 comes along and offers evidence to the contrary. In this 24th year of the competition, were delighted to share the five top winners, 25 category winners and 70 honorable mentions that make up the latest Pastel 100. Whether it’s an entirely fresh take on a traditional subject or imagery that’s astonishing in its originality, these works of art provide all the necessary reassurance that, indeed, creativity knows no bounds.…

THIS YEAR'S PASTEL 100 ENTRANTS didn’t make the job easy for Corey Pitkin, Jeanne Rosier Smith, Lisa Gleim, Michael Freeman and Cory Goulet—the five artists who served as the category jurors. The unanimous verdict was that judging this competition was inspiring, but challenging—the unavoidable consequence of an exceptional pool of entries. “It took me numerous passes and multiple pieces of paper to narrow down my selections because there were so many great paintings and not enough awards to go around,” said Gleim. Similarly, Freeman said the judging involved “several days and lots of position changes, until eventually the final order was established.” How, then, did the jurors determine which paintings would make the final cut? The evaluation involves a number of artistic criteria, of course, but the final choices usually…

DAUD AKHRIEV AND HIS ARTIST WIFE, MELISSA HEFFERLIN, have been making an annual trip from their home in Tennessee to the town of Frenchboro, on Long Island, in Maine, for many years. It was there that Akhriev first discovered a wellspring of inspiration that continues to fuel a series of nautical-themed paintings. It was in Morocco, however, at a lively seaport in Essaouira, where the artist encountered the boat-builder who would inspire his prizewinning pastel painting, Shipwright. On that morning, the fishermen were toiling, readying their brightly colored boats for the day’s work ahead. Seagulls flitted among brightly painted buoys. Akhriev picked up his supplies and went to work himself. After completing several paintings, he decided—on a whim—to walk to another area of the port where the boats were built.…