Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2025 i The Pastel Journal

For his essay collection, The Book of Delights, poet Ross Gay committed to a practice of daily writing and put down words each day about a sight, experience, observation or gesture that he perceived as a delight. The idea was to take notice—to see joy in small moments that might be easily overlooked: the presence of birds winging about inside the Detroit airport, for example, or the pleasure of writing by hand with a brand-new pen. I bring up Gay's book because he notes that a big part of the delight comes not just in noticing these little joys or in writing about them, but in sharing them. And that, I think, is the magic of any sort of art. You can make a painting as a response to something…

All of us are traveling on our own personal artistic journey. Whether you're just starting out or are an established pastelist, consider the following a “hop-on/hop-off” excursion on which you can explore different concepts and techniques at your own pace. This seven-stop tour features some of my favorite paintings and the stops I took along the way to ensure their success. STOP 1: VISION Before beginning any trip, we have to ask ourselves where we want to go. In my art practice, I search for the vision or emotion that entices me to paint a piece. Whether it's simply the sunshine casting shadows or the memory of something that inspired me to approach the easel, I always try to keep my inspiration and destination in mind. In A Drop of…

“I'M INTERESTED IN EXPLORING THE unique stories and rich inner worlds that are revealed by the human figure,” says Jinghan Wu, winner of the Pastel Journal Award of Excellence for the portrait, The Girl Holding the Tin Toy. “I like that a person's expression can communicate their most authentic inner world.” GETTING EMOTIONAL The artist's interest in portraying a person's internal experience is evident in this award-winning work and his other portrait and figurative paintings. Wu's pastels frequently feature a young woman, alone or isolated among others, lost in her thoughts. While the white gown and delicate skin tones of the university student model depicted in The Girl Holding the Tin Toy glow against a black background, other works place women in romantic—yet, at times, slightly threatening—landscapes. The fragility and…

LIGHT POKES THROUGH A HOLE IN the canopy and bounces off a lake before bounding straight for the viewer. It's no surprise that Loriann Signori, of Silver Spring, Md., considers this jubilant light her true subject in Green Thoughts Have Wings. The limited palette and simple composition work as supports in the award-winning pastel. “To allow the light to reign as the subject, the shapes needed to be simple,” says the artist. As such, the painting is divided into two halves by a strong horizon: the top half sliced diagonally into two large triangles, the bottom half into three. A meandering beam of light guides the eye through it all, creating a sense of tranquility and connectedness. A PLEIN AIR CHALLENGE Signori has painted this particular location—the corner of this…

FIRST PLACE SILJA SALMISTU For Silja Salmistu (siljasalmistu.art), an Estonian artist living in Denmark, flowers are a subject matter that never gets old. “I'm drawn to lilacs, because their heady, sweet fragrance takes me back to the summers of my childhood,” she says. “There were so many lilac bushes near where I grew up, and we kids would search every shrub hoping to find ‘lilac luck’— a flower with more than the usual four petals. The greater the number of petals, the greater your fortune. To this day, I still can't pass a lilac bush without looking for lilac luck.” Salmistu painted her prizewinning pastel, Lilacs, on Lux Archival paper. “I wanted a warm background, so I started with a wash of chili red, sunset orange and pink alcohol inks,”…

EVERY YEAR, WE'RE DELIGHTED TO invite five distinguished pastel artists to serve as category jurors in the annual Pastel 100 Competition. Each brings their own experience and expertise to the task, as well as their own set of creative criteria. While the artists doing the jurying may change from year to year, there's one aspect of the experience that's common to all. Every year, our jurors tell us how challenging it is to select only five pastels in their category for awards. So, how did these five artist-jurors approach the challenge? And are there lessons to be found in their choices that might provide some helpful takeaways for those eager to catch a juror's eye? Read on for specific insights and advice. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Our Pastel 100 jurors considered a…

The original Waldorf Astoria, depicted here by Joseph Pennell (American, 1857-1926), was the result of a merger between two adjacent luxury hotels in midtown Manhattan. The Waldorf Hotel opened on Fifth Avenue and 33rd Street in 1893, and the Astoria Hotel opened four years later on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Both palatial structures were built by feuding members of the Astor family, who eventually reconciled and joined the hotels with a nearly 1,000-foot corridor called Peacock Alley. The Waldorf Astoria— the largest hotel of its time—was notable for its opulent interior, fine dining and prominent clientele. After the hotel's popularity flagged, the Astors sold the property to developers in 1929. The structure was promptly razed, and the Empire State Building was erected in its place. The…

OREGON-BASED ARTIST Barbara Jaenicke's paintings are never really about landscape subjects such as rocks, trees or streams. Instead, they're about the light effects on those objects. It's these ephemeral, fleeting qualities that inspire the artist, driving her pursuit to embody an idea through keen perception and design dynamics. In her prizewinning Grassy Bank (opposite), Jaenicke masterfully communicates that concept. Brenda Boylan, Landscape & Interior category juror, says of the painting, “When I first saw the piece, my heart quietly sang. The subtle, harmonious warm and cool colors play together to tell of a quiet place worth notice. I also applaud the confidence and handling of the medium; the sensitive and emotional handling of mark-making told me this artist has mastery over the medium.” INSPIRATION & PREPARATION The location that inspired…

FOR A PERIOD OF TIME, STEPH Mouw's subjects of choice were fruit and vegetable still-life setups she arranged in her studio. Eventually, though, her husband grew tired of eating all the excess produce before it spoiled. When he presented Mouw with a bouquet to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, the artist decided to shift her focus to florals— and she hasn't looked back. The artist's award-winning floral work, Rose of Sharon (opposite), also originated as a gift. “I like to begin with a heart connection to my subject,” Mouw says. “This particular arrangement came from my friend and painting buddy, Warren Jacobson, from his Althea shrub [also known as Rose of Sharon]. Interestingly, it's of the ‘Red Heart’ variety, and its fleeting blooms last for just one day. This is…

FIRST PLACE YANG ZHAO Happiness Perspective, by China-based artist Yang Zhao, is a heartfelt painting that celebrates the joy and warmth of family life. Inspired by the arrival of a new baby, the work captures the balance of bliss and disruption that accompanies such a momentous change. Based on a reference photo, the piece serves as a timeless way for Zhao to preserve the fleeting moments of joy—a concept he refers to as “the aftertaste of happiness.” The title of the painting reflects that Zhao's view of life is focused on love, family and creativity, which he describes as “the source of my life.” The painting draws deeply from the artist's personal experiences and emotions, resulting in a feeling of authenticity. Zhao used Rembrandt and Sennelier pastels to achieve the…

The painting Surfacing was a huge leap forward for me stylistically. Many of the traits that characterize my work now—a muted palette, delicate handling of edges and dramatic lighting—sprung from this piece. It marks a truly pivotal moment in my artistic development, which is ironic given the painting's narrow escape from the trash bin. The piece began as a sketch with my local life-drawing group. The model struck a beautiful, exaggerated contrapposto pose. As sometimes happens, the pose became uncomfortable for her to hold throughout the three-hour session, so I had to invent a fair amount of it from memory. Fortunately, I managed to capture the grace of her initial pose quickly and, by the end of the evening, had the body more or less as you see it here,…