When I was in art school, I was introduced to the use of
pastels for landscape and figurative drawing. The simplicity of its
composition: (finely ground pigments, filler and a binder) allow for the direct
application of pure color onto the surface. I learned to optically “mix” the
colors on paper so the viewer saw a vibrant mix of colors. The medium surfaced
in Renaissance Europe and has continued to this day. While the polished images have
the look of oil painting, it is the rough images that allow of the vivid hues,
the artist’s movements and freshness of unfinished areas.
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| Marsden Hartley |
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| Mary Cassatt |
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Maynard Dixon
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Marsden Hartley
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| Joan Mitchell |
