Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2025 i The Pastel Journal

On my first trip to Washington, D.C., years ago, as a teenager, I remember visiting the National Gallery of Art. At the time, I was mostly acquainted with the famous artists whose work showed up regularly in wall calendars. So, I went in excited to see masterworks by Degas and Cassatt, Van Gogh and Cézanne, and the museum didn't let me down in that regard. What I didn't expect, however, was the powerful allure of some of the drawings on display. Although I don't recall the specific works, I remember being surprised by the lively energy and an intimacy that made me feel as though I was looking directly into the mind of the artist. It makes sense, then, that I would become such a fan of pastel—which so fabulously…

Judy Drew's surname couldn't be more appropriate, as her fascination with drawing began at an early age. “Like most young girls, I was obsessed with horses and spent my early years filling pages with drawings,” the artist recalls. “I copied hundreds of photos of them, scrutinizing their every detail—bone structure, muscles and tendons—as accurately as possible. I learned to make sense of the shadows and highlights that indicated the structure underneath.” The constant act of drawing temporarily satisfied Drew's longing for her own horse—which was finally fulfilled at the age of 40—and was preparation for life drawing later on. “I learned to observe closely, to measure with the eye, to record detail and to draw from memory,” she says. CAPTURING A VISION IN DETAIL Drew's 1950s upbringing gave her a…

More than 60 Canadian pastel artists gathered this summer at the Neilson Park Creative Centre, in Etobicoke, Ontario, to attend the Pastel Artists of Canada's fourth biennial conference, ICAN 2025. Featuring nearly 30 unique sessions by 17 different artists, the five-day conference was a remarkable opportunity for pastel painters—ranging in experience from raw beginner to very advanced—to meet and learn from one another. Pastel Artists Canada (PAC) is the only national pastel organization in the country, so bringing Canadian artists together from coast to coast is a major event. The event also attracted participants from the United States and as far away as the South Pacific. After researching many international options, Phoebe Hillard, a young artist from Australia, says she chose to spend her study grant money on a trip…

This fall, discover how to capture the radiant color and beauty of florals using the expressive mark-making potential of pastel in a new Artists Classroom @Home series with award-winning pastelist Anne Kindl. Over the course of four, live virtual sessions, Kindl will show how to elevate expression in your floral paintings by adding luminosity with glowing underpainting techniques; creating color harmony with visually engaging color palettes; embracing intuitive mark-making to generate energy and movement; and using the power of journaling to deepen your connections with nature. Join any or all four of these painting sessions to expand your knowledge and enhance your pastel skills. Live virtual classes will take place from 1 to 3:00 p.m. ET on the fourth Saturday of the month, September through December. Recordings will be available…

In the late ‘70s, I received my first pastel set as a gift from a friend who had noticed my frustration with the limitations of oils. I was immediately enamored with the spontaneity and vibrancy of the medium, and I've never looked back. Even in those early days when I was first getting acquainted with pastel, my end goal was to paint large—really large. There's something about working life size; it's as if you're in the painting. For many years, I worked on toothless paper and matboard before discovering sanded paper, which comes in sheets as large as 27x40. In 2023, a collector asked if I'd be interested in creating a 4x6-foot painting of his birthing cow, Mercedes, and her calf. After meeting Mercedes and her newborn, without hesitation or…

Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso has been telling stories all her life. As a child growing up in New York City, she was constantly drawing stories from her imagination. One notable early effort, created when she was 14, depicts a witch—complete with an exaggerated nose, craggy hands and pointy fingernails—bending over a forest pond to peer at a mermaid-like creature. The pen-and-ink drawing was included in Dellosso's recent 30-year retrospective exhibition, which debuted at the Museum of Art–DeLand, in DeLand, Fla., and then traveled to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, in Fort Wayne, Ind. Dellosso also recalls a meaningful encounter from her childhood in Florida, where her family lived for a few years before returning to New York. She saw an artist at a shopping mall who was making drawings of…

Judith Kadzym Leeds loves people—and has always loved drawing them. She began as a child by drawing her parents and grandparents. Today, she's still inspired to create portraits of meaningful people in her life, as well as those strangers on the street whose appearance or countenance capture her eye. “I love people's individuality,” says the New Jersey-based pastelist. “I look at their faces, and I see their uniqueness like a snowflake. I love pulling out their personalities.” You can feel Leeds’ excitement when she describes the story behind a painting. Take Seize the Day (page 42), a work of a confident-looking older woman, seated in a wheelchair, waiting at a bus stop. It was inspired by a model who brought a wheelchair to a photo session. “She's still out there…

A vignette is a partial painting that only covers part of the board or paper. Vignettes work so well that many artists stick with them and don't explore other types of compositions. A vignette could incorporate any one of the three types of backgrounds. More often than not, however, it's just the solid color of the painting surface. Shapes that aren't part of the model or the model's clothing could also be considered as part of the background. If the vignette has a background apart from the color of the paper, it's typically an abstraction invented by the artist, as seen in Reflections (pastel on paper, 20x20).…

Wolf Kahn (GermanAmerican, 1927–2020) is an artist whose work I return to often for inspiration. It appears deceptively simple, much like a haiku. Often sketchy looking, the colors, shapes and scribbles imply details without overdescription. Colors appear to move in and out of one another magically, and I'm hard-pressed to see where one object begins and another ends. At first glance, the viewer doesn't take in the nuances of Kahn's color gradations or the modulation of edges at which horizontal and vertical planes meet. The longer one looks, though, the more that's seen. It's all about the color, not the light and shadow. The editing, the elimination of details, the layering of color—that luminous quality of space and light speaks volumes. I've come to the conclusion that what I learn…

Leeds created more than 3,000 book covers—novels, murder mysteries, science fiction and nonfiction titles—during her career as an art director for G. P. Putnam's Sons and Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, and as a freelancer for other major publishers. “People thought that I had two or three other artists in my studio because I did such a range,” she says. Her clients trusted her so implicitly that they rarely gave her any direction and generally accepted her first concept. “I always read the books, and I wanted the cover design to reflect what was in the book, just the way I want to reflect in my paintings what's inside the person,” says Leeds. “I just let my imagination go.” Prior to the advent of computer software, Leeds drew, painted and lettered…

One of the most pivotal pieces of my career was this 2013 painting of my son. I'd taken a 2-year hiatus from painting to care for my mom, who was fighting cancer, and I was looking for something to jump-start my painting. That's when I saw that the deadline for the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) juried exhibition was two weeks away. I had never entered the show before, but I figured I didn't have anything to lose, and the goal to finish a piece in time was just the kick-start I needed. As I considered a subject, I decided—as I was in the trenches of motherhood at the time—to paint what I knew. I have two girls and, when they were young, bath time was full of drama…