Sunflowers and Stephanie Smith

Sunflower-12
23cm x 30cm
Pastel
Stephanie Smith

Sunflower-15
23cm x 30cm
Pastel
Stephanie Smith

Artist Stephanie Smith is bursting onto the scene with free-form florals that make most flower paintings pale in comparison. Perhaps they even work better than the real thing, in the visual sense. Open, loose, color-forward and engaging as only full throated pastel works can be.

Her blog, A Roker Artist, delivers her images and her process for your enjoyment. Stephanie is from Tyne & Wear, England.

I wanted to interview her about what she is thinking and feeling when she renders these florals.


The interview.

Pastelsblog: Tell us something about your Sunflower series.

The flowers I painted from were weeks old and well past their best, but I loved the curious shapes made by the live and dead petals around the solid centre.
These weird, asymmetrical arrangements of petals were what grabbed my attention.


PB: What is your common theme from one image to the next?

I was driven by the need to capture the last days fo these flowers; when they were in full bloom they were quite uniform and bland. But as they died the colours developed, like the oncoming of autumn and change in the foliage of trees and bushes.
The saucer shapes became contorted and oranges and reds appeared alongside the lemon yellows. There was such a variety which hadn't existed when they were newly bought. Each head was individual and changing almost from hour to hour, until all the petals were shed.


PB: What is the role of gesture in your Sunflowers?

I apply pastels in a number of ways, and I've used a range of techniques in this sunflower series; intial drawing in conte stick, smudging in the local colour, building up structure in thin layers similar to drybrushing so that the colour underneath shows through, then getting heavier with impasto pastel as I strengthten certain areas and details.

The excitement was in the contorted petals, so once I'd lain down the structure of each flower head, the pastel marks became freer and more expressive.


PB: What about color?

I was painting the sunflowers in gloomy corner, and I wanted to show the way the yellows shone out, as though emitting a light of their own.

Choosing a coloured paper gound which was very close to the sunflower centres was effective. It meant that the petals made an almost abstract arrangement on the paper, with the flower heart and leaves disappearing into the background. And I used a restricted colour palette throughout the series, as pastels, when laid over each other, start to meld and smear and create new shades. It's one of the characteristics of painting with pastels which I enjoy.


PB: Also, I notice the bones of drawings in these images. Tell us something about the role of drawing in your process.

I have always been a drawer and I've only recently learnt to paint I suppose. Pastels were one of the earliest mediums I worked with, and I've been trying to find new ways of working with them. So I'm not surprised that drawing is evident in these pieces. And pastels make such great marks, depending on how you hold them and how little or how much pressure you apply. I suppose I've drawn on top of the painting in these sunflowers.


PB: Give me the what, when and wheres of the venues where you are showing right now.

Some of the sunflower series are currently being shown in the Time For Tea, a little Cafe-Gallery in Poynton, Cheshire where one of my sister Melanie lives. Melanie also has some of her acrylic still lifes on show there too. The cafe owner is an artist herself and displays and sells her own work in the cafe.

Four more paintings from the series are being sold in Warm Earth Gifts on Park Lane, Poynton, Cheshire. UK.

Note: Melanie Rimmer blogs at Chickpea.

Plein Air On Purpose- Loriann Signori

Loriann Signori, at the Easel.

Artist and blogger Loriann Signori, of Silver Springs, Maryland, is committed to plein air practice in her painting. The one thing that strikes me first about her landscapes is the freshness of her vision. I asked her about her art direction and methods.

Daybreak at Hawksbill Peak
26" x 32"
Pastel and Oil on Marble Dust Board
Loriann Signori

Pastel: What is your motivation for plein air painting?

For me, plein air painting is a passion. There is no place that I feel better, more at home, than being outdoors. To live I need to be connected to the earth, air, and water to feel solid. I have been painting outdoors since I was in my teens… I’d say that is a long time. Like the enduring postman, I am outside in any weather, working. Happy.

Buttercups in May

Pastel
Loriann Signori

Pastel: Say a few words about the Towpath. What excites you artistically about this subject?

In my life I have found that I resonate to the idea of making a series of paintings. At many different points I have found a series to be pivotal. For the past 3 years it has been the river and nearby reservoir that is my muse. Long ago, when studying for my MFA it was mums. Then I painted only a pot of yellow mums every day for 2 years. Back when I was in my teens, it was a laundry basket full of multi-colored clothes. One might think it would get tiring. But no, in fact, for me, it is what sets me free.

I find I can easily become a victim of painting “things.” But when I am in a series I get beyond whatever is my subject matter. Instead it is about the feeling, the color and my passion for making art. Each day when I go outside to paint I search for a way to describe the intangible ideas of atmosphere, emotion and poetry. It is a search I will have my whole life.

Golden Wind
10" x 10"
Pastel and Watercolor
Loriann Signori

Pastel: Do you have a particular palette right now?

As for the more pragmatic – I must own a million pastels. The workhorses are Unisons and Girault. I also add selected sticks from Schminke, Terry Ludwig, Diane Townsend, Mount Vision and even a couple NuPastels. I make a yearly pilgrimage to Dakota Pastels in Washington to try and buy. It’s a great place for a pastel artist.

They have it all there to see and touch…like a kingdom of the gods. You are so lucky to live in driving distance. My watercolor palette contains the usual suspects: ultramarine, cobalt and peacock blues, lemon and cad yellow, alizarin crimson and opera (love this one – great grays and vibrant oranges can be made), Payne’s gray, all in Holbein and Windsor Newton. Oils are similar and made by Gamblin and Holbein.

Topaz Serenity
20" x 20"
Pastel and Watercolor
Loriann Signori

Pastel: Who are your inspirations?

For the last 3 years I have been studying and dreaming of the great masters of space: the Hudson River painters, Sanford Gifford, Frederic Church, George Inness (who later branched away from that school) and the Romantic landscape painter, J.M.W.Turner. As a discipline for learning I started my blog and have created one painting each day. I call them my vitamins. They help me to grow stronger each day.

The living artists I admire most are Richard McKinley (I can’t say enough good about him), Elizabeth Mowry, Mary Sipp Green, Joseph McGurl and Jane Bloodgood- Abrams. While I am a pastel painter I look to all mediums. It is the feeling that I seek no matter the vehicle. One reviewer has described me as a “poetic realist.” I like that description.

Winter Softness
@12" x 12"
Pastel and Watercolor
Loriann Signori

Pastel: What paper do you like to use?

For a surface I use two different ones, depending on the need. I have developed a love of Uart paper (400) and I make my own gator board /marble dust supports for work in the studio and sometimes on location.

Pastel: Anything more you'd like to tell us?

As to my “style,” my plein air goal is to use a paucity of marks. How few strokes can I make and say what I need to say? It helps that I use a watercolor underpainting which creates the underlying skeleton of color. I find it harder to have the same goal in the studio. There I get wrapped up in the richness of pigment, layered and vibrating.

On another note, I feel very fortunate to live where I do. Washington, DC (a few miles from my house) has a plethora of unbeatable, free museums. When I feel stuck, I head downtown to visit a friend (painting) for inspiration. And even though this is a metropolitan area we have (most importantly) the Potomac River and 185 miles of undeniable access through our wonderful towpath. It is such a gift to have such a treasure chest of painting sights right at my door. I feel I never have to go anywhere. Ever time I go it looks different.

Lorian Signori's Painting-a-Day
Loriannsignori.com

Preview: Loriann Signori

Loriann Signori
Silver Spring, Maryland

Coming soon: My interview with Loriann Signori. Loriann is a plein airist whose colorist work defines freedom.

Topaz Serenity
Loriann Signori

Astrid Volquardsen - Artistic Direction

Astrid Volquardsen:

Dear Casey, thanks for the opportunity to give me some of your space to tell about myself and my work. I just thought the other day, how great it is, to read all these different blogs. To have a look at what's going on somewhere else. For me, it was a great relief to find out that there is a whole bunch of people who favor the same kind of art. It makes it much easier to keep up your self-esteem, to be authentic in your work and persevere in your darkest hour. I think you know what I mean.

Astrid's interview continues...

Materials

After experimenting a lot with different kind of pastel grounds I now stick with Sennelier pastel card. Its sanded surface suits my needs very well. I do a lot of blending with my hands especially on the first layers, so I need soft pastels. There again it is Sennelier Pastels à l'écu . I love their luminosity and wide impressionistic orientated color range. Some artists criticize that they easily crumble. Well, in the end all pastels crumble and I just simply don't care, if they supply me with the colors I need. In addition I use Unisons and Girault for details.

Abends am Amrumtief
10 x 30.4 inch
Soft Pastel
© Astrid Volquardsen

While at the shore, I take pictures, do sketches and if there is time and the weather is O.K., I paint plein air. At the shore, this isn't always easy. Often I have to secure my easel or otherwise it will be blown away by the strong wind.

Most of my work is painted in my studio. Usually I work with a lot of layers and constant blending, adding a new layer and taking away parts of that layer. This method I use especially for the waves as you can see in the picture.

Detail of the wave of 'Abends am Amrumtief'

© Astrid Volquardsen

Artistic Direction

To capture light is the most important aspect for me. It's not so much about color, but always about light. In the last years my focus was on maritime landscapes and I love to paint in a small format.

Vor dem Regen
5.2 x 8.4 inch
Soft Pastel
© Astrid Volquardsen

To capture the wide open spaces at the seashore in miniature is something I really love to do, even though I do have larger formats as well. Right now I'm preparing a new exhibition in Mai on the Frisian Islands (Föhr) and have reached the point where all is in doubt. I love my seascapes, but I have the need and feeling to move on to something completely different. So in the future, I think, I will turn to more figurative work. Some sketches are already on my studio wall.

If you would like to have a look at my pastels on my website, on my homepage www.pastellbilder.de you have to click on “Werk-Reihen”, and then just click on the image.

Or you go to my blog, Pastell Blog, if you scroll down or look at the older posts you might get a further impression of my work.

Astrid Volquardsen

Astrid Volquardsen at the shore of Föhr

Pastellbilder-Pastell Blog

Astrid Volquardsen:

I live in the north of Germany in a small village called Bardowick, which is near Hamburg, where I grew up. Hamburg itself is a large city with a maritime touch and I recall many hours spent with my dad down at the harbor or taking trips to the North Sea with my family. So, it was a logical thing to focus on maritime landscapes, because that's where my heart lies and my soul is at peace.

State of pastel art in Germany

I started with pastels 20 years ago when I participated in a life drawing class. I just loved the way I could quickly fill in color. Immediately I fell in love with pastels and no other medium has had the same effect on me ever since.

For reasons I really don't know, pastels don't have a very high reputation in Germany. It's has not been considered to be "high art" by art colleges or galleries, but I didn't care and stuck to it anyway.

I think this has something to do with authenticity-about which you wrote in your blog, Casey. (You said) to listen to your inner-self and follow that path.

Back then I just knew this material was the perfect fit for myself, my art and what I would like to do and tried to not to listen too much to what my college teachers said about it. (College teachers still do not speak very nicely about pastels.)

To make it worse, realism might lead to a very lonely road, even though its getting better.

Pastels are still not widely known or as popular as watercolor or acrylic and there are only a few pastel artist in Germany. Gallery owners frequently told me: "I like your what?.... Pastels?...., but do you paint in oils?" After I heard that a couple of times, I started to educate the buying public and gallery owners, which actually is quite a lot of fun and a welcome change after lonely hours in my studio.

Two years ago I started to promote the pastels of Sennelier (I mostly paint with that brand). We have a widespread art supply store, which has branches all over Germany. There, I give speeches and do demonstrations of what is generally possible with pastels. I cover aspects like the different kind of pastel brands and grounds and how pastels can be applied. I show examples of American pastelists and people are really amazed at the possibilities. In addition, I point out to various websites and in the future I will highlight some blogs. Recently I started a blog and I have my own Website.

The funny thing about blogging is, that again, it's not that widely known and accepted in Germany as it is in America. I haven't hardly found any good blogs of German artist and they don't leave their comments as you guys do in America. Some artist have started to blog in German and English, but right now I don't know about that. I like to reach my German audience, so I try to figure out, how I can take away their shyness. But all these efforts have shown effects and I get emails from many people, who feel encouraged to use pastels. And I have found galleries who like my work and haven't asked me so far, if I paint in oils.

Sturmtag
11.6 x 30 inch
Soft Pastel
© Astrid Volquardsen

Casey Klahn:

I think Astrid's outlook is that of a pioneer for contemporary pastels in Germany. Her positive attitude is evident in the vast scope and beauty of her landscapes. She has that urge to create with her medium, with faith that the public will follow her vision. I know that the work being done in other countries to promote pastel will eventually create a sudden and rewarding market in Germany, and Astrid at the forefront.

Who are some artists that inspire you that use pastels?

Astrid Volquardsen:

I can't say that there is just one pastel artist, who inspires me. When I was in England 15 years ago, (there was no Amazon.com so far :-), I run across a pastel instruction book. The pictures of Sally Strand left a great impression on me. This impression was so big, I still can recall the look of this tiny book shop. My remaining time in London I didn't spend with sightseeing, but in search of bookshops with painting instruction books or anything that had to do with pastels. The customs officer at Heathrow must have thought that I had gone mad, when he saw my suitcase, packed with books!Realism in art hasn't had a very high prestige and there in this book shop, I saw what I always wanted to do and paint. Realistic looking pastel pictures.

I love Sally Strand for the way she paints light and keeps to the values. It always amazes me.

Another painter I highly admire is the French pastelist Claude Texier. Again, all her paintings are about light and luminosity.

Then there is Daniel Greene and Gwenneth Barth. How can someone possibly paint these portraits and capture the likeness and even one's personality? I had the pleasure to watch Gwenneth Barth during a demonstration in Paris last year. It was very interesting for me to see, how she builds up the layers of pastel. Like Daniel Greene she blends only with the pastel sticks. That's something I would like to add to my work.

In Margaret Dyers work I love the way she uses the colors and her loose pastel strokes. From Wolf Kahn and your pictures Casey, I feel inspired by the way you both use color and are finding color combinations that seem to be so easily found.

So from all these artist, I take bits and pieces and all this flows into my work now or maybe in the future.

Interview to be continued in the next post.

Interview with Astrid

Astrid Volquardsen at the shore of Föhr, Germany.

On Monday I will post my exclusive interview with German marine artist, Astrid Volquardsen.

The Pastel Colorist - Casey Klahn

Giselle Borzov's Art Now has published an interview with me. Pour a cup of Joe and take a break while you read a little bit about my background and how I arrived at my Colorist Art signature.

Similar Stories

Untitled: Red, Gray, Blue
8" x 5"
Original Pastel
July 1st, 2007
Casey Klahn

Similar stories always pique my interest. Julene Baker, PSA, began her artist's life at about the Kindergarten age, and is self-taught. She works exclusively in pastel. Those are parallels to my own story.

I found Baker's interesting interview at an online art monthly entitled Practical Painting.

While you're at PP, you may enjoy this link to pastel tips.

Sheila M. Evans - Interview

Coral Reef No 2
Pastel
Sheila M. Evans

Duet No 3
Pastel
Sheila M. Evans

Twining
Pastel
Sheila M. Evans

Sheila M. Evans, PSA, NPS

It gives me great pleasure to bring Sheila M. Evans' botanical pastels to your attention. If you are a pastel artist yourself, you may have already seen her work gracing the cover of Dakota Art's catalog, or in the October issue of The Pastel Journal.

Sheila provides the following in answer to my questions.

"First, thanks for doing this interview for the blog: Pastel. Is there anything you'd like to add to The Pastel Journal article featuring you from two issues ago?" (Casey Klahn)

I'd like to clarify that the Ambient series is my newest and most current series. Not that this matters to anyone besides myself.

"What camera are you using for those macro photos you take for reference?"

It's a Sony Cybershot 3.3 Megapixel camera. I'm using the lens that came with it. I usually end up using very small portions of the photos I take, so we are talking about some seriously low-res reference photos. But I like it that way. I think it keeps me from getting too bogged down in details. Once I took some really great reference photos--super sharp, nicely composed, usable just as they were. They resulted in some terrible paintings! Well, not terrible, maybe, but definitely too futzy and detailed for my taste.

"You were listed as liking Mucha and Monet? Give me another artist, without an 'M', from history whom you follow."

I've always been blown away by John Singer Sargent.

"Now give me a contemporary artist whom you admire."

Albert Handell--I'm amazed at the depth he achieves in his paintings and how little he seems to have to do to accomplish it.

"What first brought you to the pastel medium? Did your classes at Gonzaga introduce you to them?"

Sort of. Gonzaga didn't offer classes in pastel, but there were these great figure-drawing classes taught by Bob Gilmore. He still teaches them, actually. It was more like an open studio than anything, and there were a few adult students auditing the classes who worked in pastel, which was interesting. But what really got me started was the gift of a box of pastels from my parents. I took those into the drawing classes and started timidly experimenting with color in my drawings. It was still just line work for the most part. A few years after I graduated I picked the pastels back up again, but this time I applied more of what I'd learned in my oil painting classes, and worked from dried flowers rather than live models. That's when things really started to take off.

"Tell us about your palette."

I have several hundred pastels and about 30 I use regularly. Most of them live in the boxes they came in and my workhorses sit in semi-sorted chaos in a Dakota box by my easel. I have three sections of pastels which are divided into red/oranges, green/turquoises and purples. The black and my vine charcoal sit in the grooves between the mesh trays of the box. It's mostly Unison, but I have plenty of Schminkes and Senneliers, and a few Diane Townsends and others in the mix.

"Tell us what the Sheila M. Evans box of 12 pastels would be like - some of it's colors and the brand."

Well, ideally I'd start with Rowney's intense black, but since they've reformulated their line I haven't seen them available in open stock, so I've had to do without. So let's see. A black (I've been using Art Spectrum's). Also from Art Spectrum, the darkest shade of Flinders Blue Violet. From Schminke, the pure shade of caput mortuum hell (I can't think of the English name but the German one amuses me so I remember it.) Also the Schminke pure quinacridone violet. The rest would be Unison, dark brownish reds, ochre greens, blue greens and purples.

"If the Unison factory burned down tomorrow (God forbid), what would your favorite pastel brand be, and give us a couple of reasons."

Yikes! That's a scary thought. Well, I suppose it could happen, even in rainy England, so I guess my next choice would be Schminke. They have some great subtle, and not-so-subtle, colors, and a very consistent texture which is great. Sometimes they are too soft in certain situations, but you always know what you are getting. And it doesn't hurt that my local art store has them in open stock, either.

"You once divulged your repair method for Senellier La Carte paper to me. Could you give us that here?

I have a couple of tricks with the LaCarte. One I learned from another artist or maybe an early issue of Pastel journal. That was if the surface got hit with a drop of water and came off, leaving the shiny white underlayer. In that case I would hit the spot with a bit of fixative and let that dry, then touch up with pastel. It allows the pastel to stick to the surface again.

My other LaCarte trick is for when the texture is too rough. When I first started using LaCarte, it had this great, consistently velvety texture. Then, I started getting batches that were a bit rougher and less uniform. The rougher texture was harder to work with and when it came time to frame the pieces, I found it didn't grip the pastel as well. I had a lot of trouble with dust drifting. At first I just ordered different colors but eventually all the paper I got had this new texture. Out of frustration one day I took a piece of sandpaper and went over the whole sheet of LaCarte. It worked perfectly: I had my old LaCarte back!

"What is your favorite, or preferred La Carte color?"

Sienna. It's warm but neutral and a good middle value.

"What's on your easel right now?"

Would you believe, an oil painting?

Sheila is a Signature Member of the prestigious Pastel Society of America, and of the Northwest Pastel Society.

Evans has had two consecutive and recent honorable mentions in The Pastel Journal 100 competition. She won the Dakota Art Pastels catalog cover competition and that's why every time I see my favorite catalog I say, "I know that artist!" October's issue of The Pastel Journal has a feature article about her beautiful botanical works and the process she uses to compose them.

Sheila adds Spokane ArtFest, Bellevue ArtsFair, Sausalito and Sun Valley to her art fairs, and carried home a banner from the latter for Best in Drawing. Gallery exhibits in Seattle, Portland and Spokane featured her work recently, and she currently has a hanging of large pieces at the Kress Gallery in Spokane's Riverpark Square.

On a personal note, I met Sheila at a Spokane pastel workshop (taught by Jennifer Evenhus) and it was evident to myself and all the class that she was an artist of powers. Her figure work is wonderful, and I hope that becomes part of her ouvre in the future. Now, Sheila and I show up in the same art fairs throughout the West and in that way I get to see what she's painting on a frequent basis. On the art fair circuit, the pastelists tend to stick together since we are a peculiar bunch.


Link:
Anisotrope Studio, Sheila's Web Pages.


Administrative Note:
The template of this blog has changed to a Lefty Stretch model. It does some harm to the uniformity between this blog and The Colorist, however for some reason the right column of the former template was crowding the main text at this blog, but not at my other one. Additionally, the default size of the font was inexplicably small. The stretch version may either solve that, or somehow make it more tolerable when I forget to change the font sizes manually.

Interview Program

We will be interviewing pastel artists beginning with the award-winning Sheila Evans in the next few days.