Bonjour! I have just returned from an amazing trip to London and Paris and while in Gay Paree’ visited the Muse’ de Orsay musem and was thrilled to see several rooms filled with beautiful pastels done by the impressionists! Some of these were actually done pieces of cardboard, they were beautifully framed and matted.

I was able to purchase a lovely book, Le’Mystere et L’eclot (Mystery and Glitter) for 39 Euros. It is selling on Amazon.com for $559.00! This is a paragraph from this delightful book-

At once heavy and light, inherent to what it depicts and ready to crumble into powder at a moment’s notice, pastel stirs joy with its colours, and our empathy through its frailty. Gay and friable, it offers the eye this tingling freshness that a soret can leave on the tongue when it miraculously revives the citrus fruit it expresses-some pigments almost seem like fruit essences mixed with talc.

Here I am beside the Seine, and with Liz Capodonno, who bought my small, original pastel, “Lavender field in Provence”, at the luncheon and silent auction to benefit the Northet Alabama Community College Endowment Fund.

Alabama Pastel Society

www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html

The Harding Art Show

artshow.hardingacademy.org

In May, I was a participating artist in the Harding Art Show, an exhibit and sale of fine art held at the school, Harding Academy, Nashville, Tenn. The featured artist this year was my friend , Charlotte Terrell. This amazing art event has showcased artists from all over the country for over twenty years! I am very grateful to have been selected to participate in past years. Last year the show had swine flu issues, this year The Flood! My heart goes out to all the artists, businesses and families that suffered damages, especially my good friend, Lee Hamblen. Here are some pictures in front of my booth, from the show, my friends, Ron York, Leslee Bechtel and her sweet Mom, Nita Lewis, from Huntsville, Ala.

For 17 years the Sarah Carlisle Towery Art Colony, www.alartcolony.org has provided a retreat on the beautiful shores of Lake Martin for artists to develop their skills with professional instructors and respected artists. Following in the footsteps of Sarah Carlisle Towery, the Art Colony promotes the love of natural beauty and goodwill toward fellow man. This is evident in the surrounds of Children’s Harbor, a haven for seriously ill children and their families.

I attended the colony in the fall of 2009 and was impressed by the beauty! My painting “Deck the Halls!” was chosen to be featured on the cover of the Alabama Art Colony/Children’s Harbor Christmas Card for 2011!

Deck the Halls

The featured artist for this year is Qiang Huang, visit his web site, www.qhart.com

As an artist, color is the most important tool I have. I am passionate about color and pastel provides me with an incredible array of hues I can use to capture my motif with emotion and action. Pastels are the purest, most unadulterated form of color. I think of color as a gift from our creator. It invokes feelings of love and happiness and I am inspired to reproduce that beauty in the hope that others may feel the same positive emotions. Pastels are very durable and are not subject to yellowing, cracking , or color change, as oils are. Color grabs the viewers attention, it can tell a story or convey a feeling.

I use sanded paer for my pastel work, my favorite is Sennelier La Carte, a french company. I sketch loosely with a pastel pencil and begin laying on colors with hard pastel sticks, moving on to soft pastels as I finish. I spray the pastel painting with a fixative to secure the tiny flakes of chalk. Pastels are MESSY! the dust gets everywhere, I have to be VERY careful about my venelation. Sometimes, I wash the chalk dust off a former painting and use the abstracted underpainting to create a new one! These are my abstracted angels, every one is unique!

COLOR IN A PAINTING IS LIKE ENTHUSIASM IN LIFE!

Vincent Van Gogh

Hello World!  Celebrate Spring! Welcome to my art blog! Shane White has been very patient with me in getting this blog on line! I hope to use it as a way to introduce new art work, educate about art, and innovate you with my continuing art journey! I welcome your comments and support!

I have just finished a great show in Atlanta, www.spotlightonart.com and enjoyed a FULL  week of fabulous art events, as a participating artist, in the Huntsville Museum of Art Gala. I am working on many new pastels and oils for my next two upcoming show, www.thehardingshow.com in Nashville, April 29-May 1, 2010 and www.thedragonflygallery.com in Fayettville, Tenn, opening night, May 7, 2010!

I will be packing my bags soon for a spring trip with my hubby and close friends to London and Paris! I hope to do some plein-aire studies in Hidcote, a beautiful English garden in the Cotswolds!

EVERY ARTIST DIPS HIS BRUSH IN HIS OWN SOUL, AND PAINTS HIS OWN NATURE INTO HIS PICTURES!

Henry Ward Beecher