Congratulations to Sally Strand, the latest recipient of the Hall of Fame award from The Pastel Society of America (PSA). She joins some rather distinguished company in the "hall": Flora Giffuni (1978), Daniel Greene (1983), Albert Handell (1987), Raymond Kinstler (1990), Burton Silverman (1991), Richard Pionk (1997), Foster Caddell (1998), Duane Wakeham (2000), Sigmund Abeles (2004), Claudio Bravo (2005) and Alan Flattmann (2006); just to name a few.

The celebrated artist is also a popular workshop instructor renowned for her attention to color and light. In the book Pure Color (F+W Publications 2006), Strand writes: "My interest in capturing the special effects of light causes me to concentrate on the value of a color first. If the color is correct in relation to the total composition, then color choice can be less arbitrary and more free. My earlier works in pastel were purer in color. Over the years, I became interested in the subtleties of color, with value continuing to be the most important thing. I learned to mix the grayed colors on the paper rather than relying on looking at my pastel set to find the exact match."

You can find The Pastel Journal's feature about Strand's work in the May/June 2001 issue.

Image: Warm Day (pastel) by Sally Strand