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 Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Sell Your Art in 2008
Posted by Sarah
 Assuming you don't have plans already for the second weekend in March of next year, you may want to consider applying to exhibit your work at the 38th Annual Scottsdale Arts Festival. The festival, which is consistently ranked in the top 10 arts festivals in the country by American Style Magazine, is taking applications online now through October 17 for a fee of $30. Next year's event is scheduled to take place March 7, 8 and 9, and is expected to attract tens of thousands to the grounds of the Civic Center Mall in Scottsdale. Approximately 900 applications are received for the show, organizers say, in a range of media including ceramic, furniture, glass, jewelry, mixed
media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles and
woodworking. This number is whittled down to 200 exhibitors by a juror of art professionals. When I scanned the list of participating artists in 2007, I counted 24 artists in the "painting" or "drawing/pastels" categories, including pastel artist Laurel Astor, of Colorado, and New Mexico artist Jennifer Cavan, who works in oil pastels. Into Quiet (oil pastel on board, 30 x 40) by Jennifer Cavan--Anne
Shows and Events
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 4:05:05 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) 
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Monday, July 16, 2007
Artist Website of the Week: Sandy Byers
Posted by jessica
 Sandy Byers, a Whidbey Island, Wash., artist, goes for vivacity in her works. “I want to paint those things which cause a sudden and constant lump in my throat, a thought that won't go away or an image that swirls around in my mind's eye until it can finally come to life on the easel,” she says on her website. It shows, too, in her pastels, oils and acrylics. Check out her painting that won an honorable mention in our eighth annual Pastel 100 Competition.
Art Inspiration
Monday, July 16, 2007 2:40:23 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Thursday, July 12, 2007
We (Paint) Jammin'
Posted by jessica
A friend directed me to this video this morning, and I then had to share it with the PJ team at the office. You might be familiar with "improvisational painting performer" Dan Dunn and his Paintjam events. Double-fisted with paintbrushes, Dunn spins his canvas and paints to music like a madman. Prepare to be dazzled by his lightning-speed artistry below.
Oh, and be sure to use sound. And watch it all the way until Dunn is done (sorry) for the finished painting.
Art Inspiration
Thursday, July 12, 2007 7:56:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Extra Extra
Posted by Sarah
 One way to get stunning paintings on the blog—and straight to you—is to recognize the recent achivements of some of our most treasured PJ contributors: Pastel artist Jimmy Wright, (a fond member of our Editorial Advisory Board), is exhibiting in tandem with Milwaukee painter Mark Mulhern at the Corbett vs. Dempsey gallery in Chicago. The show, which opens this Friday and runs through September 2, 2007, will feature paintings and monotypes from both artists. Wright's contributions to the show will include a selection from "the lost women," small watercolors that the artist painted in the late 60s. (The counterpoints to these paintings in oil were destroyed in a fire.) If you know Wright only for his pastel paintings of sunflowers, once memorably described by The New Yorker as "passionately unkempt," you may be in for a bit of a surprise. See Airport (1972; acrylic on canvas, 48x60) above.
Shows and Events
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 2:02:07 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, July 09, 2007
Harry Potter and the Link to Pastel
Posted by anne
 With the latest Harry Potter movie opening on Wednesday and the much-anticipated final book due for release on the 21st, you have no doubt been hearing and reading a lot lately about Harry hysteria. The Pastel Journal blog and magazine may have been one place where you didn't expect to see coverage on the topic. Well, you won't find me adding anything to the heated debate over whether or not Harry dies in the finale, but--in the middle of all the excitement--I couldn't keep from revealing that we're working right now on a feature about Mary Grandpre, the illustrator of the Harry Potter series, for our December issue. In addition to her work for Scholastic and many corporate clients, Grandpre has also illustrated a number of other children's books, including Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat, The Thread of Life: Twelve Old Italian Tales, Plum, Pockets and The Sea Chest. The artist told The Pastel Journal contributing-writer Deborah Secor that pastels have been her medium of choice from the start. “I actually started with big, soft sticks of charcoal," she says, "but I’ve done pastels since I was five years old and was given some as a gift. Even as a kid I liked the immediate contact I had, getting involved physically with the pastel. It’s an extension of my hand." The December issue ships to subscribers in early October and hits newsstands October 30.
Art Inspiration | Overheard
Monday, July 09, 2007 6:30:30 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, July 06, 2007
Frida Kahlo Centenary
Posted by jessica
 In honor of the Mexican artist’s 100th birthday, the home-turned-museum of Frida Kahlo and husband Diego Rivera unveils a collection of photos, drawings and other personal items today. Read yesterday’s Washington Post story here. Find more articles on Kahlo’s birthday celebration here, and here, and here. Since a portion of the items—found in a trunk and unused bathroom three years ago—includes puppets and a puppet theater, we found it fitting to share an image of Anne’s Frida doll that lives at her desk. And check out Anne and Sarah’s mesh tributes to the tortured artist, which they picked up in Albuquerque while attending the International Association of Pastel Societies convention in May.  “I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.” —Frida Kahlo
Art Inspiration
Friday, July 06, 2007 4:04:08 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Talking Books
Posted by Sarah
   When I have occasion to speak to artists, I often ask them about the contents of their bookshelves. I'm a bit of a fiend about this, I'll admit. I want to know which books are most important to their work and I want to know which books they go back to time and time again for guidance and I'm also interested in knowing what they read for pleasure. Many of them mention Richard Schmid's Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting (Stove Praire Press, 2004) and many of them mention Joseph Albers' Interaction of Color (Yale University Press, 2006), which was recently released in revised and expanded form. And many of them mention art books on artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne. It strikes me that you can find all three of these artists in Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), which has been published in various forms by various publishers for seventy years. (I have the paperback version issued in 1993 shown here.) It's a remarkable book. Though written by Stein, The Autobiography is told from the perspective of her lifelong companion Alice B. Toklas, and it describes their lives together in Paris during the early 1900s. You'll meet Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne as unknown artists—Stein and her brother Leo were among the first to collect their work—and other artistic greats-on-the-make such as Gris, Seurat, Rousseau and Braque. (T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway also make invigored appearances.) The cast of extraordinary individuals is seemingly endless—what a life!—and they all gather at Stein's salon on Saturdays. I'd recommend spending a little time in Stein's salon to anyone, if only for the palpable sense of possibility you'll find there. Every time I read the book, I come away feeling expansive—I want to write or paint or run or drive or simply become witness to something altogether new.
Art Inspiration
Tuesday, July 03, 2007 4:57:41 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, July 02, 2007
Great Tips for Getting Started in Pastel
Posted by anne
I added a post last week about the Wet Canvas! online artist community; today I want to point out why this is such a valuable resource. The mission of this community is to be a place where artists of all types and skill levels can share knowledge, experiences and opinions. So, you'll find a great many posts that simply ask for feedback on works-in-progress. You'll also find a lot of problems and solutions, questions about product, business matters, and in one thread--started last month by our own contributing writer Deborah Secor--you'll find pages of helpful advice aimed at beginners to pastel: tips about materials, dealing with dust, testing colors, framing options, and much much more. What a wonderful opportunity to learn from others' experiments, mistakes and successes--and then put the knowledge to work in your own painting. Check it out; chances are--even if you've been at this awhile--you'll learn something. And hopefully you'll be inspired to share some of your own lessons-learned as well.
Tips and Techniques | Tools and Materials
Monday, July 02, 2007 6:51:03 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, June 29, 2007
In Memoriam: Richard Cletus Pionk
Posted by jessica
Acclaimed pastel artist Richard Cletus Pionk, 71, died of cancer June 5 in New York City. Among Pionk’s more than 100 awards were a master pastelist  designation from the Pastel Society of America and induction into the society’s Pastel Hall of Fame. The artist also taught at the Art Students League and at the Pastel School at the National Arts Club, and was serving as president of the esteemed Salmagundi Club at the time of his death. “All I ever wanted to do was be an artist,” Pionk said in an interview with Elizabeth Wilson in the February 2004 issue of The Pastel Journal. Pionk, who served as a still life juror in the 2005 Pastel 100 competition, was drawn to the classical style of the 18th- and 19th-century French still life painters. His work is admired by so many in this community, and The Pastel Journal offers our sincere sympathy to his family and loved ones. Donations for the Richard C. Pionk Memorial Fund at the Salmagundi Club can be sent to 47 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10003. A formal memorial service is being planned there for September. Click here for the Salmagundi Club press release; click here for The New York Times obituary.
Overheard
Friday, June 29, 2007 3:10:36 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Unasked Frequently Asked Blog Questions
Posted by Sarah
While it's true that our editorial inbox hasn't exactly been flooded with technical questions regarding our blog--which is probably a good sign, right?--we do receive a question or two from time to time. In answer to those questions and in expectation of future questions that might eventually cross your minds someday, we've compiled a list of answers to (mainly) unasked frequently asked questions. UFAQ's
Q: How do I arrange to receive notice when something new has been posted to the blog?A: Good question! You'll find a handy little box in the top left corner of the blog for free e-mail updates. Simply enter your e-mail address and click GO. You can also subscribe to receive blog updates on your web-based newsreader. To do so, click on the orange RSS feed icon (at the left). Q: What's the difference between subscribing to the RSS feed/e-mail updates and subscribing to The Pastel Journal newsletter?
A: Interesting thought. The RSS feed/e-mail updates only bring you updates from the blog as new items are posted. The newsletter is a special bi-weekly message we've created especially for pastel artists. You can subscribe to the newsletter by entering your e-mail address in the top left corner of our website. Q: Do I have to enter my e-mail address when I comment on the blog?A: Brilliant! While you may enter your e-mail address in our comment portal (it will be loaded with an anti-spamming device when it appears on the blog) you need not necessarily do so. The choice is yours. Q: I know I saw a post about [fill in intriguing item here] on the blog, but now I can't find it. What do I do?!?A: First, calm down. Don't panic. All of our previous posts are available in our blog archives. Scroll through them by clicking on the yellow boxes on the calendar (to the left) or search for particular items using our search window (also to the left). Q: I have a question about my subscription to the magazine. Can I ask you about it here?A: Hmm. Fortunately, The Pastel Journal is supported by a fine subscription services staff. They're the experts on issues like these. Reach them by calling 877/860-9141, or by visiting our website or write us at pjedit@fwpubs.com and we'll ferry your concern to them. Q: Will any of my favorite artists from the magazine be blogging soon?
A: The rumors are already flying, eh? The answer is YES. We're pinning down plans to incorporate companion blogs very soon. Stay tuned for more news as it happens. To submit a FAQ to the list, comment to this post or e-mail us at pjedit@fwpubs.com
Tips and Techniques
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 7:40:46 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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