An exhibition of top-quality pastel images at Dunedin Fine Art Center shows the delicate look and texture possible with this popular medium.
By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published March 26, 2004
CLEARWATER - At the end of a beautiful Minnesota day, Frederick Somers walked the outskirts of his farm with his dog Blue when he looked toward the west.
There, in the sky, the retired art teacher saw an orange glow like a dying fire blanketing naked treetops. Above him, ashy clouds hung in a purple sky, the kind of formation that could last just a few minutes before the wind blew it away, leaving him wondering if he was the only one in the world to see this magnificent sight.
Before it could disappear, Somers got his camera out and began to take photos. Later, he painted the images in his 100-year-old studio using pastels. The result is a work called Breakthrough, a 341/2- by 291/2-inch pastel now on display at the Dunedin Fine Art Center.
The work is part of the Pastel Society of America Juried Invitational Exhibition that began last weekend at the center, and will continue through April 25.
Founded in New York City in 1972 to further the understanding of pastel as a fine art medium, the society is the oldest organization of its kind within the United States.
Thirty-eight members from New Mexico, Colorado, Chile, France and other states and countries have been invited to show some of their finest pastels, all of them priced from about $250 to $12,000.
"These are people who have committed most or all of their lives to this," said David Shankweiler, curator of exhibits at the Dunedin Fine Art Center.
Complimenting the national show is a local exhibit called In Praise of Pastel, featuring works by Dunedin artist Brooke Allison and her students.
Allison, a Dunedin Fine Art Center faculty member of 20 years, selected 18 students ranging in age from 50 to 80 to participate, including Mary Louise Pollock, Barbara Whitehurst and Joan Walker. Many of the works were drawn by artists who worked from locations of photos.
"We draw freehand," Allison said. "It gives a lot of personality to the work."
According to World Book Encyclopedia, pastel is the painting technique most closely associated with drawing with a pencil or a stick of charcoal. Artists use colored chalk pastel sticks, holding the instrument like a pen and working to create wide swaths of color or thin lines.
The sticks they use are made of pigment held together by a fragile, nonliquid adhesive binder such as gum tragacanth and are available in soft, medium, or hard varieties. Unfortunately, the powder-like images the artists create can rub off easily. To protect them, a fixative can be sprayed over the finished work.
Allison said pastel is an exciting medium in which to work, and that artists tend to get better at it as they get older.
"With pastels it allows you to layer color," said Allison, who is a noted artist in her own right with a dozen works in the show. "The biggest challenge for me is not to take it too far. There is a point in which a pastel looks dusty."
