Wild Lupine, pastel plein air painting by Gretha Lindwood.
Gretha Lindwood, a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, cherishes the unique landscapes honed by water and light and delights in capturing beauty in pastels. By painting in the traditional plein air style and by using an impressionistic touch, Lindwood’s landscapes invite the viewer into the scene. These landscapes can bring to mind the feel of soft mist from a foggy morning, or the taste of a salty ocean breeze.
For more information about the artist, please visit http://www.fairweatherhouseandgallery.com/ artists/ Gretha Lindwood.
Greta Lindwood appeared for the opening reception for Fairweather’s exhibit Rain or Shine, juxtaposing an array of new art, Seaside First Saturday Art Walk images and voices in a way that resonated with the spring season.
The affair reshaped boundaries between the reality a completed work of art and the creative process.
Gretha Lindwood offered a fascinating approach in distinctive pictorial language while painting LIVE for art patrons!
For more information about Seaside First Saturday Art Walk, go to http://www.facebook.com/SeasideFirstSaturdayArtWalk.
Cumulus Over Canola by Gretha Lindwood, pastel, 6″x12″
Painted en plein air.
Field Of Golden Dreams by Gretha Lindwood, pastel, 12″x12″
Painted en plein air.
Q: What is pastel painting, you ask?
A: The term pastel is a derivative of a French word for paste. A pastel is a color stick made from ground pigment with a small amount of gum binder address. Pastels should not be confused with colored chalk, a limestone substance impregnated with dyes. Pastels are pigment formed into dried sticks offering brilliant colors without the drying time of paint.
Because pastel has none of the liquid binder that may cause other media to darken, fade, yellow, crack or blister, it is the most permanent of all. Since the finished image looks much like a painting, work in pastel is referred to as painting. Pastels from the 16th century look as fresh now as the day there were painted.
Pastel is favored by many artists because it allows a spontaneous approach. The infinite variety of color in the pastel range from soft to hard and subtle to bold in their intensity. There is no drying time and no allowance can be made for change in color due to drying.
Impressionists including Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, James Whistler and most famously, Edgar Degas, painting in the medium both indoors and en plein air (a French term meaning to paint outdoors, capturing the natural light). Degas is frequently referred to as the “Father of Pastel”, for the bulk of pastel work he accomplished, still brilliant.
Today’s pastel painters enjoy a wide variety of color. Many great painters of the mid to late 20th century have worked in pastel. These include British painter David Hockney, American painters Andrew Wyeth, Georgia O’Keeffe, William de Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn and Wolfe Kahn.
Please visit Northwest Pastel Society/ NWPS.org for information.
