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 Friday, February 08, 2008
New Creative Spark Winner
Posted by jessica
 In the February issue of the magazine ("Creative Spark," in the Art Matters column, page 7), pastel artist Carole Katchen offered readers a Creative Spark challenge: generate visual energy by developing an entire painting with a certain type of stroke. We invited readers to e-mail us with their stroke-inspired creations. How surprised our team was by the increase in responses since the first challenge; our inbox was flooded with excellent work! Congratulations to Becky Way, of Yukon, Okla., for her winning piece, Two of a Kind (above). “ Two of a Kind is a small study, painted with the ‘chunk-chunk’ stroke with half-inch pieces of Ludwig pastels on Kitty Wallis paper, toned with a watercolor wash. It’s a quick push-and-pull stroke,” the artist writes. Way can look forward to some more Wallis paper—her prize is 16 (18x24) sheets of Wallis’ Belgian Mist and Museum paper. Many thanks to Kitty Wallis for her generosity! Other favorite submissions include Warm & Cool (below, left) by Lisa Fricker, of Lakeport, Calif., in which the artist “experimented with crosshatched strokes to move beyond filling contours, exploring the painting vs. drawing issue that is unique to pastel.” In Turning Point (below, right), by Barbara Newton, the artist “was thinking of wind and movement. The strokes I chose to portray that feeling are loose, open and random to give the feeling of rustling leaves and swaying grass.” More favorites (below, L-to-R): Le Petit Dejouner de Blu by Brenda Boylan, Sadie by Carol Murphy and Carbon by Maret Webb.    Thanks to everyone who participated in our challenge. Look for the next Creative Spark in the April issue of the magazine—coming soon (on sale on newsstands March 11). The winner of that challenge will receive $150 worth of PanPastels.
Art Inspiration | Tips and Techniques
2/8/2008 10:52:56 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Thursday, February 07, 2008
Come and See the Sites
Posted by anne
Our new website is now live, and I invite you—if you haven't already—to come for a visit. Before you do, take a moment to bookmark the new URL for The Pastel Journal homepage which is http://www.artistsnetwork.com/pasteljournal. While you're at it, bookmark the new URL for The Pastel Journal blog too, which is http://pastelblog.artistsnetwork.com.  The Pastel Journal homepage will be your easiest path to finding out what's new on the site for pastel artists, but you can also search articles by pastel under the drop-down list of media. Note too that each image in the visual slideshow is a live link to an article, gallery, current issue or video. When you look around, you'll soon discover that The Pastel Journal site is only one
neighborhood in a larger community for fine artists, because the new site combines our content with that of our sister magazines, Watercolor Artist and The Artist's Magazine,
and you're sure to find a lot to inspire and inform from these
publications as well. A few hints: Anytime you click the magazine logos at the
upper-left of a page, you'll
return to the main page for this larger Artist's Network with content from all three publications. But, any time you want to return to The Pastel Journal home page, click the magazine title in the very top right of any page on the site.
It may feel at first like you're driving through unfamiliar territory, but we hope you'll take the time to look around and get
acquainted. And then, ya'll come back now, ya hear?
Overheard
2/7/2008 10:29:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, February 04, 2008
Preparing for Launch
Posted by anne
Apparently, NASA has begun the
official countdown for a February 7 liftoff of the space shuttle Atlantis. With a little less hoopla, The Pastel Journal is also preparing a launch. We won't be heading to the International Space Station; we're just heading out onto the World Wide Web with a brand-new and much improved website! The new site combines the forces of our sister publications The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Artist with The Pastel Journal to create a rich and dynamic site for fine artists of all kinds. You can search articles by magazine title, by medium and by genre, so it should be very easy to get to what you want. We'd like to give you, our blog readers, a sneak preview. Click here to visit the site and then take our short survey to let us know what you think. We're expecting some bugs in the beginning, so use the survey to let us know what they are, and we'll let "Houston" know we've got a problem!
Overheard
2/4/2008 5:39:41 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Sarah Jessica Parker Shops Art Reality Show
Posted by jessica
 Rumor has it that Sarah Jessica Parker is pitching a reality show involving visual artists a la Bravo’s Project Runway. The scoop, according to NY Daily News, is that the program—a collaborative effort by Pretty Matches (Parker’s production company) and Magical Elves ( Project Runway, Top Chef)—will include creative challenges between artists across different media and feature a panel of prominent critics. To be fair, I am a fan of Runway, although I never got to see the 2006 series Artstar—which, from what I’ve read, sounds similar. Did anyone catch it? What are your thoughts on reality TV reaching the art world?
Overheard
2/4/2008 4:57:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Pastel Painting Bumps the Competition
Posted by Sarah
 PaintAmerica, a national, non-profit organization to support artists and promote the visual arts, has announced the winners of the 2007 PaintAmerica Top100 National Artists’ Competition. We're pleased to announce that a pastel painting took one of the top prizes: Ray Hassard's Bump (pictured here) took the Director’s Choice Award (Mini). The competition for all painting media was judged by a panel of nationally recognized artists including Paul Jackson and Sallie K. Smith. Winning paintings were chosen from hundreds of entries submitted nationwide. It looks like PaintAmerica hasn't updated its website yet, but you should be able to see images of the winners and find out when you can see them in person (the winning paintings go on tour) very soon here.
Shows and Events
1/30/2008 9:25:53 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 25, 2008
See Your Work On Our Blog!
Posted by jessica
 In the February issue Creative Spark column, Carole Katchen prompts you to generate visual energy by developing an entire painting with a certain type of stroke. For example, in A Puppy’s Work Is Never Done (pictured here), Katchen chose scribbled pastel strokes to mimic the wild hair of the terrier. Send us an example of your stroke-inspired pastel painting. E-mail us a JPG image (at 72 dpi and an image size of about 4x5) by Friday, Feb. 1 and you'll be eligible to win eight sheets of 18x24 Belgian Mist Kitty Wallis paper and eight sheets of 18x24 Kitty Wallis Museum Paper. (Be sure to include "creative spark" in the subject line.) Our editorial team will select one winner (but runners-up may appear on our blog). Include your name, e-mail and mailing address in the message, along with a brief explanation of your design. (Unfortunately, you must be a U.S. resident to participate.) Get creative this weekend!
Art Inspiration
1/25/2008 10:14:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
More Pastel Society News
Posted by jessica
 Congratulations to William A. Schneider, one of our featured artists in the February issue. His painting, Third Floor Studio (at right), recently earned the Jack Richeson & Co./Pastel Society of America/The Pastel Journal Award at the Pastel Society of New Mexico’s 16th annual national exhibition. The jurors were Alan Flattmann, Paula Lawson and Maggie Muchmore, and Duane Wakeham served as judge. Schneider says the painting was created during an open studio session at the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts. "I was intrigued by the model's contemplative mood and the dramatic backlighting,” he says. “What was she thinking about?"
Overheard
1/24/2008 1:32:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A Pastel Journal Exclusive: On the Scene at MoMA
Posted by Sarah
 If you haven't already seen it, there's still plenty of time to catch Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings at MoMA. The show runs through March 10, 2008 and promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Freud, grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is known as one of the foremost figurative artists working today. Visitors to the exhibition will be treated to a rare sampling of the artist's etchings, which play an important role in his artistic life.
Visit an exceptional online version of the exhibition here. And read a first-hand account of the show from our own artist-on-the-scene, Group Publisher, David Pyle: The Lucian Freud show is a stunner. One of those rare shows that leaves you with an altered and shifted sense of self. I felt like I’d been given some kind of ‘hyper-clarity’ drug after being immersed in Freud’s portraits, and was, somehow, seeing other people in the museum, not as faceless passersby (which we all do in an people-packed environment), but as fascinating subjects of portraits themselves. I found myself staring at everyone, feeling as if I could unravel their pasts through their faces. Extraordinary and more that a little overwhelming - it’s quite challenge trying to grasp the stories of every visitor to a major museum on a Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. Not to mention irritating for all those that were subjected to my stare as they passed within my hyper-clarity sphere!
Photo courtesy of David Pyle
Overheard | Shows and Events
1/23/2008 12:03:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 21, 2008
Call for Entries
Posted by anne
 Hmmm, how would you like to see one of your pastel paintings hanging in a major museum of art? If you like the sound of that, take note: The International Association of Pastel Societies' (IAPS) 11th juried exhibition will go on display in June at the Flora B. Giffuni Gallery at the Butler Institute of American Art—the first museum of American art—in Youngstown, Ohio. The exhibition, which is open to any member of an IAPS society, has a deadline of March 19. Artist Urania Christy Tarbet, founder and president of IAPS, and award-winning pastel artist Duane Wakeham will be the jurors. The fee structure is $25 for the first slide and $10 for each additional slide (up to a total of five). For more information about IAPS membership and the competition recquirements, and to acquire an entry form, visit the IAPS website.
Shows and Events
1/21/2008 11:41:33 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, January 18, 2008
Happy Birthday, Cezanne!
Posted by jessica
In honor of the French Post-Impressionist painter’s birthday (Jan. 19, 1839), we thought it might be nice to post a slideshow of some of his works. Perhaps they’ll inspire some of your own projects this weekend, as they did for a certain well-known writer: “I was learning something from the painting of Cézanne that made writing simple true sentences far from enough to make the stories have the dimensions that I was trying to put in them.” —Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast Enjoy!
Art Inspiration
1/18/2008 10:07:42 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
A Pastel Demo for You
Posted by Sarah
 Evening Light (11x14) by Maggie LathamIf you're in the mood for a little arts education, we recommend that you check out this fine pastel demonstration by a pastel artist we are quite pleased to know: Maggie Latham has posted a "Talk on Pastels" at WetCanvas! In it, she discusses techniques, materials and her own personal approach to painting. She also shares photos of her process from board prep to finished product.
You don't need to be a member of WetCanvas! to visit the demo, but you do need to be a member to participate in the discussion. If you were on the fence about joining before, now might be a good time to come on over. Latham has invited you to jump in with questions, comments or input.
I also hasten to mention that you can download a free PDF of a guide Latham wrote for our sister publication, Watercolor Artist, on using technology in the studio to produce your own giclée prints. (That's right--Latham also paints in watercolor.)
Art Inspiration | Overheard | Tips and Techniques | Tools and Materials
1/16/2008 4:03:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, January 14, 2008
It's Not Chalk
Posted by anne
 Rosemary Simpson of Pastel Artists.Ca (PAC) informs me that the PAC spring symposium “Its Not Chalk!” will take place in April (11-13) at the Burlington Art Centre in Burlington, Ontario. Starting things off is a pre-symposium workshop conducted by landscape artist and Pastel Journal contributing writer Michael Chesley Johnson, April 7 through 10 (see his plein air pastel here) . According to Simpson, events will include full- and half-day workshops; seminars on critique, portfolio building, composition, color and design; a mini tradeshow, showcasing the latest in pastel supplies; and a luncheon featuring Berni Ward, representative for PanPastel artists' pastels. The PAC Members show will also be held the same weekend in the main public gallery of the center.
Pastel Artists.Ca, previously known as Pastel Artists Canada, is part of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS). It was founded in 1989 by a small group of
artists in the Golden Horseshoe area of southern Ontario, but its membership of
approximately 200 artists extends beyond Ontario's borders to include Canadian pastel artists from coast to coast. To find out more about PAC or the "It's Not Chalk" symposium, visit their website.
Head Harbour Light Rock (above; pastel, 9x12) by Michael Chesley Johnson
Shows and Events
1/14/2008 10:03:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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