Wednesday, April 9, 2008

French Post

NASA vieimage



Just in time for my visits around Europe, and later the world at large, is the update of the website at Art du Pastel en France. Now, their web sight offers a pathway to view a number of important French pastelists.

Also, see the Society of Pastelists in France. Société des Pastellistes de France.
Founded in 1885, the society boasts the past memberships of Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt. If only the walls could talk!

We're concerned with the current artists, now. The link page is here: Liens.

Recommended pastellistes:

Camille Leblond
Le Coloriste!
Gwenneth Barth
Classic Realism
Thierry Citron
Plein Air Landscapes (exquisite technique)

The nation of France boasts archaeological evidence of the earliest known art, and is the home of one of the greatest art cultures on the planet. The 19th. and early 20th. centuries burned brightly for French commitment to fine art, and the continued place of art in her culture is strong.

Many pastel products hail from France, including pastels and paper from Sennelier, and pastels from Pastels Girault, and, widely considered the world's finest pastels, Henri Roche.

5 comments:

vivien said...

Hi Casey - I've visited 3 caves with paintings in the Dordogne in France - Rouffignac, Font de Gaume and Lascaux II - the first 2 originals and the last such a good repro that you forget it isn't the orginal.

The talent in the drawings was incredible, the movement and character and subtle colour changes - at Font de Gaume they had used the swell of the rock to form the hips and back leg of a bison and the front leg was a stalactite, separated from the wall by a few inches - the way they'd combined these with the drawing was utterly brilliant.

They had found a palette on which colours had been mixed there.

Colours were chalked as we do with pastels, blown on as dust (often using their hands as a mask, leaving the shape surrounded by colour) or mixed with water and painted on with sticks.

Beautiful and awe inspiring :>) and quite positively art

vivien said...

and wow! I love the work of Thierry Citron - full of life and movement and beautiful colours

Casey Klahn said...

Interesting discussion, much I didn't know re: the cave art. There are some Petroglyphs around my area, but I don't know the dates considered for them.

Citron's website is nice, too, eh?

vivien said...

gorgeous!

Rhonda Hurwitz said...

I checked out the work of Thierry Citron based on your mention...wow, I was blown away. fantastic.