MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF PASTELS

In the 1980's, I decided it was time to have some fun, and visual, graphic arts always appealed to me and came naturally.  In Woodstock, New York, I experimented with oils, water color, charcoals, and finally with pastels.  Working in charcoal, I learned the power of color value - lightness and darkness as applied to a particular color.  In the case of charcoal, the "color" was grey.  I shied away from any attempt at employing other "real" color because I tended to stay within my comfort zone.  I stayed there for over twenty years!   Finally, I needed more and wading into color was still frightening, but not so much so as earlier.  I went on to oil painting and met some moderate satisfaction. Same with water colors and acrylics.  Then, an instructor at the Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, New York introduced me to the pure color of pastels.  Here I could work with pure pigment.  No need to mix solvents, water, or anything else. Nice.  As time went on, I found I had to find a way to make pure pigment meet my needs in a painting.  Mixing would not work, unless I wanted to make a work out of muddy colors - not something that appealed to me.  After years of experimenting, and studying the works of 19th and early 20th century masters, I recognized different styles and methods of achieving wonderful color effects  in pastel works - in limitless shades, temperatures and hues.  It now was my job to find my own way of using this new-found confidence.  That process was great fun which continues to this day.   I found that  some dexterity in draftsmanship came thru constantly drawing - drawing anything and everything.  And most recently, I've widened the subject matter of my works to include figure studies, portraits of people and animals, genre scenes, seascapes and sea-side subjects, and sometimes, I've even touched on abstraction. I'm not particularly fond of landscapes, even though I live in the birthplace of the Hudson River School of painting.  If I'm partial to anything, it's to portraits of people and animals.  Capturing a "personality" or "soul" of a subject is for me of equal importance to achieving a "likeness", if not more so.  All this borders on unsavory "art-speak", so I'll leave you to arrive at your own take on my work.  Enjoy your visit.  

If the CoVid19 debacle has had any impact on me and my work, it's having restricted the range of my activities outside of my "studio".  Being "forced" to do what I love doing so much is anything but a hardship.  Finding living, breathing human models in these days of social distancing does have its limitations. But, animal-lovers are everywhere, and now that affords me endless variations on a theme that brings me immense satisfaction.  And this is where I am now.   For how long?  I don't see an end in sight.  Return here often to see what might next catch my interest  -  and yours.

Are your customers raving about you on social media? Share their great stories to help turn potential customers into loyal ones.

Running a holiday sale or weekly special? Definitely promote it here to get customers excited about getting a sweet deal.

Have you opened a new location, redesigned your shop, or added a new product or service? Don't keep it to yourself, let folks know.

Customers have questions, you have answers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.