Featured Artist Heather Quay | Artsy Shark

Pastel artist Heather Quay beautifully captures easy light-filled times in daily lifetime. See more of her portfolio by traveling to her internet site.

“At the Cafe” pastel, 11″ x 8.25″

When I was in junior large, my French course experienced a unit on the Impressionists. I was hooked. I liked how, with just a couple brushstrokes, they were being able to seize a fleeting second so completely that I could step correct into the scene even a hundred years afterwards.

“Orleans Evening” pastel, 8.5″ x 8.75″

In unique, I was drawn to the way the Impressionists could portray the high-quality and temperature of the mild. Sunlight shining on a hardwood floor, hazy early morning light-weight filtering via the trees, or fading light at the finish of the day.

“Lacing Up” pastel, 9.5″ x 7″

As a pastel painter, I carry on to be drawn to scenes wherever gentle is the central character. I enjoy functioning on all varieties of subjects, from landscapes and cityscapes to figures, objects, animals, and portraits. I’m normally enthusiastic by how to use these sticks of pure pigment to render the light I see on to the surface of the portray in a way that persons can relate to viscerally.

“Beach Friends” pastel, 8.5″ x 11.5″

I also adore the procedure of painting. I are inclined to do the job from images, which I’m consistently getting. The 1st aspect of the journey is to choose 1 and to feel about it. How I need to crop it so that I can most effective emphasize or highlight a specific location of desire.

“Outside Chaco” pastel, 7.5″ x 9″

Occasionally the instant I acquire a picture, I know it will do the job as a painting. Then my fingers get started itching to get begun. Other situations, I occur back again to a picture I’ve forgotten in the previous and see one thing new.

“Friday Night Lights” pastel, 5″ x 9″

I often start out with an underpainting so I can sketch out the composition and start to operate on the values. It is a roadmap for when I get started to lay down the pastel. Generally, I use watercolor as an underpainting. Or I may perhaps use h2o soluble crayons or pastel washed down with liquor.

“Amish Afternoon” pastel, 11″ x 8.5″

I enjoy to experiment, striving out quite a few types of surfaces and diverse techniques. When my underpainting is completed, I start off layering on the pastel. I use a variety of models of pastels and make positive they are all available whilst I am operating. At situations I pick just one type or one more relying on the kind of mark I want to make.

“Belmont Afternoon Light” pastel, 11″ x 8.5″

Some pastels are softer, some are more difficult, some are extra intensely pigmented, and some give just a wash of shade. It is easy to reduce myself in the painting as I attempt distinctive methods to get the impact I want. I function to translate a a few-dimensional knowledge to a two-dimensional floor.

“Waiting” pastel, 8.5″ x 8.75″

Generally, I am chasing the light, striving to visually grasp a compact moment in time and to share it, to make it as actual to the viewer as it is to me.

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