HowToPastel Archives

Showing Results for: Featured Artists – In their own words

Clarence Porter, "The Reaching-No5," 2019, CarbOthello pastel pencils, NuPastels, Rembrandt, Sennelier and Terry Ludwig pastels on Kitty Wallis Museum Grade Archival Sanded Paper, 33 ¼ x 46 ¾ in.

Clarence Porter – A Colourful Outlook On Life

You all know how much I love colour! I love using it, I love seeing it, I love the feeling it gives! And I think this month’s guest, Clarence Porter, loves colour as much as I do 🙂 I encountered Clarence’s work for the first time at the ICAN conference and exhibition in Aurora, Ontario,

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Heather Laws, "Benji," 2016, Pastel on LaCarte, 24 x 16 1/2 inches. Commissioned portrait.

Heather Laws – The Commissioned Animal Portrait

Animal portraits. Every now and again I get a request for information on how to paint animal portraits. In these cases, it’s best to go to the experts…like Heather Laws. A few years ago, I was taken by one of her cat portraits and featured it in one of my monthly round-ups. You can see

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Jeri Greenberg, "Tipped," 2019, Richeson/Nupastels, 9x14 in. Available

Jeri Greenberg – On Loving Still Life

Hey! It’s time for another guest post. Whoo hoo! And I was thinking it was time to move to the still life as subject. With this thought came berries in glass and unmade beds….namely the work of this month’s guest, Jeri Greenberg! I’ve featured Jeri’s work three times in my monthly roundups. The first was

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Corey Pitkin, "Hodgepodge," 2019, Great American pastels on UART dark 400, 18x24in

Corey Pitkin – Portraiture In The Time Of COVID

I love figurative work! And one figurative artist whose work I admire is Corey Pitkin. I’ve featured his work twice in my monthly roundups. The first time was with Summer Solstice in September 2016 and the second was with The Golden Apple in February 2019. One of the things I love about Pitkin’s work is

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Gareth Jones, A Ray of Hope, 2020, Unison Colour and Mount Vision pastels on Sennelier La Carte Pastelcard, 60x80 cm. Sold. A second consecutive Bold Brush top 15% entry

Gareth Jones – Unlocking Potential Through Pastels

Gareth Jones was one of those artists whose pastels snuck up on me – one day I noticed that they were there! Little did I know that he hadn’t been using pastels for all that long. Certainly, you can’t tell this from his work which feels as if it’s produced by someone comfortable with using

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Alan Flattmann, Paris Café by the Seine, 2020, pastel, 24 x 30 in. Available.

Alan Flattmann – A Sense of Place

Alan Flattmann is one of those pastel artists whose work I’ve known since the days I really started to get into soft pastels. I included one of his evocative New Orleans paintings in one of my early roundup blogs. He always appeared to be a humble and unassuming artist despite being a highly accomplished one.

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Debora Stewart, "Daylily Garden," 2019, pastel on Rives BFK paper with ground, 22x30 inches. I worked from a previously completed drawing of daylilies from my yard.

Debora Stewart – Floral Abstractions

Have you ever yearned to move your realistic work towards a more abstracted, looser look? Well, this month’s guest is going to show you a surefire way to get there! Debora Stewart shares her story about how she moved towards creating more abstract florals and in doing so, shows you how you can do the

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Christine Swann, Threads, pastel, 40 x 30 in, IAPS 'Prix de Pastel' 2015

Christine Swann – Getting The ‘Right’ Skintone

I’ve followed this artist since I first saw her work quite a few years ago. I wrote about one of her pieces in a very early blog post. Since then I’ve admired her work, applauding her awards, received one after another. Happily she agreed to a wee interview when I was IAPS. The artist? Christine

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Desmond O'Hagan, "Night Walk, NYC," pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes, 9 x 12 in.

Desmond O’Hagan – Figuring It Out

I remember many many years ago, seeing a fabulous painting of a Caribbean scene reproduced in a magazine (I think it was an airline magazine…?). I was blown away by its colour, the confident application of pastel, the feeling, and how my senses were awakened by it. The artist was Desmond O’Hagan and since that

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Barbara Jaenicke, September Aspens, 2019, UART Premium Board 320, 16 x 20 in.

Barbara Jaenicke – The Abstract Underpainting

I am deeeelighted to bring to you an artist whose landscape work I have long admired. She has been featured in my round-up. You’ll see that Barbara Jaenicke is a master of subtle shifts in colour intensity and temperature as well as edge yet paints very clearly designed paintings with a strength that belies the

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