Bronze Medal Great Lakes Pastel Society 2014 National Exhibit

I am proud to announce my Bronze Medal Award at the Great Lakes Pastel Society 2014 National Exhibit. The piece that won the awards is a portrait of a young woman entitled “Vlk”.

“Vlk” is an alla prima (all at once) 16×20 soft pastel portrait that was done at a short 2.5 hour session and features a beautiful young woman named Allie Vlk. I used a slightly expanded palette for this piece which incorporated some interesting colors in the non dominant parts of the painting. There are blues and greens in the strands of her hair, and I used some interesting hues in the line work of Allie’s blouse. Adding fine lines in the last stages of my pastel work has been something that I have experimented with for quite sometime. It is an example of a method of working gradually from broad general shapes and completing a piece with finer details at the end. Another technique that was applied was the use of water and bristle brushes to move the pastels around on the board.