“Marks of Distinction,” a juried show at Fivesparks, is an “opportunity to see the best of pastel all in one place and to see how exciting the pastel medium is,” said Jane Robbins, an organizer of the show and the president of Central Mass. Pastel Society, when I met with her as the show was being hung. Robbins described the impact of an entire show of pastels as “amazing,” the word she says she hears most often from viewers at pastel exhibits.
“The Guardian” by Patricia Schappler. (Courtesy photos)
The 74 pieces of art by 62 artists have been selected from submissions from all over the country by jurors Liz Balkwill and Natasha Isenhour. During the reception on Sept. 10, between 4 and 6 p.m., Katie Hanson, associate curator of painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and an expert in impressionism, will present awards.
Keith Demanche, of the Central Mass. Pastel Society, hung the exhibition expertly and ingeniously, guiding the viewer through rooms of still lifes, portraits, and landscapes. All the works are representational, ranging from almost photographic realism to impressionistic.
So, while viewers may not be challenged by topic, style, or emotional content, they will find pleasure in color, composition, and recognizable concepts of beauty. But don’t let the show’s captivating images and virtuosic techniques dazzle you from engaging in conversations with the images, asking questions about beauty and technique, and examining the meaning and emotional responses these images have for you.
I think that’s the point of the show’s People’s Choice Award, which asks viewers of all ages and experience to select a favorite piece and submit their written choices into a small bin on a table located in the passageway by the stairwell. At first I didn’t take it seriously but when gently pressed by a gallery staff member, I discovered a small quiet landscape that was a revelation to me when I studied it more deeply. I wondered why I was attracted to it over all the others, why that pastel began to stand out to me, how I connected to its style and subject, and what it revealed about art’s meaning and purpose. To me, the artist has, in that little landscape, captured the essence of pastel, which is its ability to create an image most like the experience of seeing in real life.
Since at least the 16th century artists have appreciated pastel’s portability, immediacy, and pure color. I think viewers respond to a sense of being in the presence of the subject due to the medium’s ability to capture light and warmth, even on a snowy day.
Left: “Peonies in Turquoise Kettle” by Tatsiana Harbacheuskaya.
Right: “That Summertime Feel,” by Laurinda O’Connor.
Pastel is a medium of dry pigment usually formed with a binder into sticks of many colors, held in the hand as in the act of drawing but blended and layered directly on a rigid textured surface with enough “tooth” to hold the dusty particles of pigment. The challenge of pastel is to apply enough pigment before the “tooth” is buried and the particles lack a surface to cling to.
I wonder if its current popularity can be attributed to digital photography’s ability to instantaneously capture fleeting moments of light and action, before the eye and mind can process images. The digital image allows today’s pastel artists to choose dynamic scenes to work on in the studio, long after the light has changed and the action has ended. Even en plein air artists, and indeed, most likely all artists, take photos for later reference. But because pastel cannot be erased, scraped away, or endlessly painted over until the artist is satisfied with the image, a photographic reference enables the pastellist to capture an ocean wave, for instance, thus expanding the repertoire of modern subjects.
Pastel art is often referred to as painting. Personally, I don’t think pastel needs to compete with painting or be referred to in that way. Emphasizing the dry pigment’s nature to create images that are neither drawing nor painting, but distinctly pastel, most honors the medium’s unique qualities to do what art does so well—to help us see our world anew.
The show will be on view until Sept. 28. Viewing hours during the week follow Fivesparks’ normal schedule, Tuesday-Thursday noon to 6 p.m., and Friday noon to 3 p.m. Weekend hours are expanded especially for the duration of the show: all Saturdays in September, noon to 6 p.m., and all Sundays, noon to 4 p.m.
