February 22, 2012

Pastel Journal - 1st Place Winner

Dibs on the Red Chair (12 x 24 dry pastel) sold

Well, it took a few years but it was worth the wait. With the magazine now hitting mailboxes, I am humbled and honored to announce that the painting above of our two clown kitty cats (Biscuit and Gravy) won First Place in the animal/wildlife category of The Pastel Journal Pastel 100 competition!

Under all that fur are layers of luscious colors. One of the ways I enjoy building up a pastel painting is to build layer upon layer of color. It is similar to the process of glazing that is used in oil painting. A photo (shown below) taken during the early stages of the painting reveals some of the glazed colors:

click to enlarge

and this shows the same section of the painting, in a completed state

click to enlarge

Here, you can see the colors from the glaze layers showing through in the final painting. It is more obvious when viewing the original painting but I hope you will get the idea from these photos of how powerful glazes can be in pastel painting. 

Cheers all and thank you, as always, for stopping by my blog. 

21 comments:

  1. First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!! of course, it's not a surprise to me...your paintings are all winners..Honestly, this is perfectly painted.. When I paint a portrait, I try to build up layers of pastels to get smooth skin tones as well.. I will be waiting for my mailman for my issue of Pastel Journal!!!! Again, Sandy, I'm so excited for you!!!

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  2. Hi Hilda,
    Gosh, thank you for the congrats and for such a generous compliment! It was very sweet of you to stop by.

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  3. Oh, I say Congratulations are definetly in order. Your pastels are outstanding. Not a medium I work with ( tried) but you are a winner for sure !! BJ

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  4. Congratulations, Sandy! A wonderful depiction of our beloved feline companions and their amusing interactions. I will look forward to picking up the new issue of PJ at our local newsstand now!

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  5. Yay! I can see why you won! Your animal paintings and ocean paintings are awesome in my opinion! Thanks for showing the under layer. That was a treat to see all the work that goes into making that fur look soooo real and sooo soft! Congratulations!

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  6. OMG Sandy, I'm so excited for you!! That is just awesome! I love Miss Biscuit, as always, but Gravy and his shadow are just perfect. Really well done. I can't wait to get my issue in the mail. A big CONGRATULATIONS!

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  7. Hi Barbra, Gosh thank you so much for your kind comment!

    Hi Sonya, Thanks for poppin' by! I hope you will enjoy the PJ - there will be some other great art in this issue.

    Thanks so much, Carolyn - I'm glad you enjoyed the little demo piece.

    Hi Kari :) Thank you so much for stopping by and for the HUGE congrats!

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  8. Congratulations!! I love Miss Biscuit and Gravy!

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  9. Thanks so much Gail! I love them, too :))

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  10. Congratulations, well deserved honour for such a brilliant piece of artwork.

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  11. Congratulations!! Your work is outstanding and the award well deserved.

    All the best to you,
    Sandy

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  12. Awesome, Sandy! I love your treatment of the fur on the present occupant of the couch. :)

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  13. I am SO pleased for you! Congratulations - it is SO well deserved because your art is astounding! And I am so pleased that you showed the under-layers. This sort of thing is incredibly enlightening. I just LOVE watching how other Artists work :0)

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  14. Congratulations! It's just a beautiful pastel in every way.
    I also have two cats; one with markings very like your tuxedo one. Of course, I find the subject enthralling. But the artistry is wonderful no matter what the subject!

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  15. So wonderful to see you work in the PJ---Congrats!! I also love the one of Bisciet on the floor with the feflections that they printed on the last page of the journal---I cut them out for my scrapebook. Your art is a joy to see!!

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  16. This is truly amazing! What a skill....congrats on the First place, absolutely fully deserved!

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  17. Thank you all for the amazing feedback on my award. I am truly humbled and honored. I apologize for my delayed thanks. I'll be back soon with a new post and hope to catch up with everyone!

    Until then...paint it out!

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  18. I just discovered your blog - my gosh! Your work is absolutely beautiful. I'll definitely be following your blog.

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  19. Sue, how sweet of you. Thank you so much!

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  20. Congratulations! How wonderful, and what a beautiful painting! I haven't been keeping up a lot with all my blog reading lately so was very excited to reconnect with you.

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