Not only are there two shows just around the corner starring artists featured in The Pastel Journal, they’re both from right here in Cincinnati.

Ray Hassard: Fun & Games features the 9th Annual Pastel 100 First Place Landscape & Interior Category winner’s pastels that focus on leisure time activities: museums, carnivals, mini golf and the like. Opens 6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, for Columbus, Ohio’s Short North Gallery Hop at the Sharon Weiss Gallery.

You’ll remember Brian Mathas Burt from our October issue cover (pictured here) and the excellent artist’s profile written by Anne Hevener. Burt will be exhibiting at the Hyde Park Art Show in Cincinnati 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5.

If you're in Ohio, check them out!

Congratulations to the August issue Creative Spark entries that took honorable mentions. The challenge was to put a neglected color to work. Here’s how the artists did so:


“Color is my passion, which is why I love pastels, and why I’ve used almost every color somewhere in my paintings. I often use turquoise, but the use is usually limited to a few minor strokes as a an accent or as a means of balancing out the greens in a landscape. However, making turquoise the dominate color in my painting is something I’ve definitely wanted to try. For several months I’ve been creating a series of Philadelphia scenes, mostly of landmarks and historic buildings—and, of course, a few Philly skylines.

“Since I was painting a hot and hazy afternoon scene of Philadelphia, I chose bright orange to exhibit very warm—but strong—light. I used different values of turquoise as the sky and water, sort of an envelope, which balanced out the orange. Then I softly glazed the whole painting with again with turquoise. Fun experiment!”




“Pink is a color I rarely use except for highlights in skies or around the rim of an object, rarely as the predominant color. I was very taken by a spray of very subtle pink grass behind three dark purple flowers. It was the pink background that caught my eye and presented the challenge of making it look soft, but not too sweet. Subtle hints of pink were added to the green background and in the foreground flowers to make the painting work.”




“I’ve been especially fascinated with the exotic pastels, which include metallic, iridescent, pearlescent and fluorescent colors. I tend to favor blues and purples, which is reflected in my home decor, my clothes and, of course, my painting. The one untouched color, pristine in its paper wrapping, was fluorescent lime green.

“I decided to paint an unusual perspective, an extreme close-up, of a common fruit, the kiwi. Once an exotic winter import from Australia, most kiwis are now grown in my home state of California. The crowning creative inspiration came from adding a few strokes of that virgin fluorescent lime green to the rear kiwi slice, which made the fruit just pop. This pastel became the main color focus for the front kiwi; the juicy fruit pulp glows with the fluorescent lime green. Adding this color to my palette truly unleashed creative sparks.”

Sometimes I just love browsing through press releases. It's like combing the beach for nice shells. Here's one that caught my eye--and imagination--today:

Language of the Birds, a permanent site-specific sculpture by Brian Goggin with Dorka Keehn, will be installed mid-October, 2008 and unveiled at the beginning of November in San Francisco. It will be the first permanent solar-powered public art piece in the United States. The sculpture is a flock of 23 illuminated books, which appear to have just taken flight from the plaza. Appearing as though they're in motion, the books have flown open creating various wing positions with the pages and bindings.

Each unique book is fabricated in frosted white translucent polycarbonate. These sculptural elements will be suspended from a geometric web of stainless steel aircraft cables. At night, LED lights encrusted in the books will create an array of unexpected visual patterns. Goggin and Keehn teamed up with scientist David Shearer and Lawrence Ferlengetti’s City Lights Books to power Language of the Birds with solar panels mounted on top of the iconic bookstore.

Congratulations to Janet Sullivan of Missoula, Montana, for her winning pastel, Midsummer Storm (10x8), in Carole Katchen’s August Creative Spark challenge. The artist won a 75-piece workshop set of Mount Vision Pastels (thanks for your generosity!). The challenge was to put a neglected color to work. Here’s how Sullivan did so:

“Working primarily as a landscape/plein-air painter here in Montana, my dominant color palette consists of blues, greens and the many other grayed down hues available. In fact, the Mount Vision storm set is centrally located in my collection.

“During one winter here in Missoula, I looked out my window day after day to see a white fog hovering over the ground covered with snow. Even the bare tree branches had thick layers of hoarfrost. After days of this dreary gray and white scene, I decided to pull out those neglected colors that pile up and get shoved aside.

“I live on a hill over looking the valley and watch the storms roll in and out of town. Using the sky, trees and river below as a subject, I went to work harmonizing bright colors that work well together.”