The Pastel Journal Blog - Meet the Staff

Richard McKinley Video Shoot

Jessica — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:38:20 GMT

As I type, pastel artist and popular workshop instructor Richard McKinley is at our company's photo studio filming a workshop for the ArtistNetwork.tv series. Our staff sat in for a bit on this morning's session to soak up as much of Richard's pastel savvy as we could.

I was reminded, as he demonstrated on the power of color relationships, of the importance of simultaneous contrast. For some artists, grasping that concept has meant the difference between mediocre work and prizewinning pastels—at least that's what one of our grand prize winners in the 11th annual Pastel 100 competition, whose name will be revealed in the April 2010 issue, attests.

(For more on simultaneous contrast, read this Pastel Pointers Blog post from a few years back.)

Thanks for coming, Richard!

Top: Richard works on his watercolor underpainting
Above (L-to-R): Richard and myself; Richard and Anne

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Office Sweet Office

Jessica — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:03:08 GMT

We’ve managed to create some semblance of organization here at the office, after an insane week involving a server crash and moving our work spaces down one floor. Our relocation means that most of F+W Media’s fine art publications and online communities—The Pastel Journal, The Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Artist, ArtistsNetwork.tv, North Light Books, IMPACT Books and WetCanvas!—are now situated in one spot, which is nice (Southwest Art and The Collector's Guide are based out of Colorado and New Mexico, respectively).

Here we are (L-to-R) taking a break from unpacking boxes: Cindy, art director; Kelly, editor of Watercolor Artist; Anne, The Pastel Journal editor; and me, managing editor.

And here’s Sarah, our features editor, from her home office (in Houston).

Welcome from The Pastel Journal editorial team

Anne — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:38:10 GMT

We are excited to introduce The Pastel Journal blog. Here we can share art-related news items that are taking place right now even though the next issue of the magazine is weeks away. And all the little tidbits we have to cut from artist interviews in order to turn a two-hour conversation into a 6-page print article--now we can pick them up off the cutting room floor! We'll also be bringing you news about products, materials, conferences and shows, and perhaps some rantings about the blessings and bloopers of life on a magazine. You'll be hearing from all of us here on the editorial team, so we thought for starters, you might like to meet us:

Anne Hevener, the Editor of The Pastel Journal, has worked on a variety of art titles since 1991. Anne has enjoyed art-making since the third grade when she was sought out by classmates to decorate handmade, brown-bag book covers with her drawings (Tweety Bird was a specialty). Now she enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for art with her two daughters, ages 9 and 6--both promising young pastelists, of course.

Sarah A. Strickley, Managing Editor of The Pastel Journal, comes to the magazine with a background in the literary and academic world. Sarah has served on the editorial staffs of a variety of arts magazines and publications, and her interest in fostering arts communities has led to work in several grassroots not-for-profit organizations. A relative beginner in the pastel medium, she has yet to discover a good way of keeping her Italian greyhound, Balou, out of the pastel dust.

Jessica Canterbury, our Associate Editor, has never been to Canterbury, England, but--as an English major--spent plenty of time analyzing Chaucer in many a lit class. Jessica’s childhood dream to become an artist received this admonition from her dad: Artists don’t wear undergarments. Nevertheless, she currently combines her love of writing and visual art on The Pastel Journal.

Cindy Rider is the Art Director of The Pastel Journal. Cindy knows her way around InDesign and PhotoShop, but she launched her graphic art career in the days of arc lamps, type spec, paste-up and ruling pens. "I love what I do today as much as I did in the beginning," she says. Cindy and her husband Mike have three grown children and three “beautiful, intelligent, kind and fun-to-be-with grandkids.” Hard to detect any partiality on the part of this grandma!