Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i The Pastel Journal

One of the most cosmopolitan of American artists, William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) was born in rural southern Indiana. Chase knocked around a bit in his youth, joining the Navy and working for his father’s business, but his passion was for art. He showed enough aptitude for painting that a group of businessmen fronted him the funds to study in Europe. By the mid-1870s, he was a star pupil at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and, upon a triumphant return to the States, Chase settled in New York City. His lavishly appointed studio on West Tenth Street became a cultural mecca— an appropriate atelier for a flamboyant artist and charismatic teacher. In 1891, Chase was lured to Shinnecock Hills, Long Island, by residents who wished to establish a seasonal art…

WHILE MANY LANDSCAPE ARTISTS have favorite painting spots, Marz Doerflinger truly forms a committed attachment to a plein air location. “I’m a big fan of painting in one place for months or years at a time,” says the artist, who divides her time between Washington and Arizona. “This helps move me from simply trying to replicate a scene to finding a deep connection to the landscape—and reacting to what it wants to say on any given day, season after season.” Every year, Doerflinger chooses a subject she wants to focus on—marshes, forests, moving water, still water-and finds a location that allows her to study that element of the landscape, making it her primary painting spot for the year. “This approach changes the question from ‘What am I going to paint…

Olena Duchêne is experienced in reinventing herself. In 2012, she moved to France from her native Ukraine and settled in Melun, a small community of approximately 40,000 people, located not far from Paris. In 2013, after giving birth to her second child, she started spending much of her time at home, observing nature in her garden. There, throughout the seasons, she grows Japanese quince, roses, irises, tulips, peonies, dahlias and daffodils. Back in Ukraine, Duchêne had worked as a designer in an architecture studio. In France, as her life began unfolding on a more domestic scale, she started painting still lifes of flowers, using her light-filled home as her studio. “I was always an artist at heart,” she says, “but previously, painting was something I did outside of work. I…

Unlike the medium of watercolor, where the white of the paper is important to achieving luminosity, a pastel painting can shine brightly when created on colored paper or board, or a surface that has been primed with a color. A pastel artist who opts to paint on a white surface or block in subject matter with local color builds the piece through the application of multiple paint layers. Painting directly on a colored ground, on the other hand, involves the technique of negative painting. How color is placed next to another color becomes a primary consideration, because the goal is to let some of the background color peek through. There are several factors to take into account when choosing a color for your painting surface. If you aren’t sure where…

THE WORD “LYRICAL,” which can be applied to various art forms—from literature to film to fine art—generally indicates a quality that is particularly expressive and artistically beautiful. In painting, a piece with lyrical qualities might also be described as ethereal, poetic or full of emotion. In landscape painting, in particular, it’s often a way of describing work that goes beyond a depiction of scenic beauty into a realm of expression that communicates something “more.” When even defining the quality feels illusive and difficult to pin down, it’s not hard to see why effectively capturing a sense of the lyrical in our painting isn’t so easy. To help us get a better understanding of the creative and conceptual goals that inspire lyricism, and what to do to steer our work in…

For some artists, focusing exclusively on a single work from start to finish is the only way to create, while others thrive on the energy of juggling multiple pieces simultaneously. Here, four awardwinning artists share how they navigate their creative processes— and how their personal approach fuels their inspiration, problemsolving and artistic growth. One at a Time Jumping from project to project isn’t creatively constructive for Massachusetts artist Liz HaywoodSullivan (lizhaywoodsullivan.com). “I get so involved with the painting that I’m doing that if I move to something else, it’s as if I lose contact with it,” she says. She likens the experience to reading more than one book at a time. “Each painting has its own language, its own lexicon,” she says. “I get very involved with my paintings—no other…

Using pastels in ways that complement your artistic vision makes it more likely that your paintings will turn out the way you imagined. Pastels are incredibly versatile because there are so many ways to use them. While we all have our favorite techniques, sometimes trying a new approach can help you achieve the results you want. Keep in mind, however, that the way you paint and the reason behind it are deeply connected. Focusing only on technique without understanding your purpose can lead to artwork that feels soulless. Yet, trying to create deep, meaningful art without the necessary skills can make it hard to achieve your vision. It’s like giving a powerful speech—no matter how great the ideas are, the message won’t come across if the speaker mumbles, mispronounces words…

"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot,” Picasso once observed, “but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.” So it is with the pastels of British artist Richard Suckling. With an uncanny ability to simplify his motifs and secure the full sense of a scene with minimal information, Suckling seems to conjure up a whole world with impossible speed. His deft and spirited marks become leaves, trees, sea and sky. Meanwhile, the artist makes full use of the singing color that pastel makes possible, artfully orchestrating it throughout a painting to deliver a truly splendid sensation of light and air. “I wouldn’t say that my technique is particularly unusual, but there are certain things I like…

A lot has happened for artist Dawn Limbert since taking up a ballpoint pen and making a drawing of her cat a decade ago. Now, her work in pastel has been accepted for exhibition with The Pastel Society, in the United Kingdom. The London-based artist’s journey to pastel began with animal drawings and proceeded to portraits. “From there, I decided to try different media such as watercolor, acrylic and encaustic before finally discovering pastel,” says Limbert. “I was lucky that, in 2018, I took a weekend art course led by pastel artist Tony Allain at The Old School House, in Cambridge. He blew me away with his colorful landscapes and bold mark-making. For at least a few months afterward, I was producing poor copies of Tony’s art before gradually find-ing…