Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, Orange, California
August 23 to November 29, 2025
www.pswc.ws
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
There will be an estimated $15,000 in awards, including cash awards for Best of Show, First, Second, and Third Place.
Judging for acceptance and awards will consider all entries together, regardless of painting style.
Judge of Awards: Colette Odya Smith
Jurors: Marla Baggetta
Michael Freeman
Sandra Burshell
IMPORTANT DATES
Opens for online submissions: Thursday, May 22, 2025
Closes for online submissions: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
The Artist’s Scarf, Laura Mocnik, pastel 2024 Best of Show
PSWC magazine
Table of Contents
FEATURES ABOUT ART REGULARS
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Out of Bounds! 2025 Winners & Accepted Entries Featured Artist Terri Ford
30
Meet the Members
Barbara Archer-Baldwin
Betty Efferson
Kathi Holzer
Inge Ivens
Erika Perloff
16
We Talk Art with Richard McKinley and Jen Evenhus Art School with Natasha Isenhour
8
49
Art Workshops
Desmond O’Hagan
Laura Pollak
Doug Dawson
Colette Odya Smith
Anne Strutz
72
78
Letter from the Editor Francesca Droll From the Desk of the PSWC President Pamela Comfort Regional Activities News from Our Regional Representatives
4
7
10
Cover art by Terri Ford, Summer Bloom, pastel
CONTRIBUTORS
Contributors
Pam Comfort, PSWC President
In addition to serving as President, Pam co-chairs the Out of Bounds! show and the Ways and Means position. Her background is in the field of education. She earned a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Management, and retired from her position as Deputy Superintendent of Schools for Contra Costa County in 2018. Having only dabbled in art and music throughout her life, she discovered after retiring that she loved the immediacy and tactile satisfaction of working with pastels. Pam loves to travel and aspires to create art that communicates a strong sense of nature, culture, and place. pamelacomfort.com
Kim Essex grew up in the Chicago-land area and raised her family in Denver. She has a journalism degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Kim is two years into her pastel journey, having started painting after retiring from a career in public relations and moving to Valencia, Spain, with her husband Sean and dog Trax. She says she hopes she has artistic genes; her mother, aunt, brother, niece and grandfather were all artists. She is a student of Marla Baggetta and is taking drawing classes in Valencia along with attending workshops. She believes everyone should surround themselves with original art as it reminds us of our shared humanity and the beauty within.
Natasha Isenhour expresses her emotional response to unpopulated spaces with an edgy lonesome starkness that defines the very essence of her work in oil and pastel. Isenhour exhibits throughout the southwest and teaches several sold out workshops each year, both plein air and studio. Highlights include an Award of Excellence in the 2022 OPA (Oil Painters of America) Regional Exhibition in Dallas and a 5-week solo museum exhibition at the Taos Museum and Fechin Studio in Taos, NM. In 2023, Terry Ludwig Pastels LLC released “Natasha Isenhour Essential Alchemy Set of 60 pastels.” Natasha has served two years as faculty for PACE, Plein Air Convention and Expo in Denver and she has won numerous awards and honorable mentions. natashaisenhour.com
WANT TO GET INVOLVED? Our Society runs on volunteer power. We’re always grateful to receive more help. Please contact us— we have a spot for you!
KEEP IN TOUCH FOLLOW US!
Desk of the PSWC President
Dear Friends,
In this issue of our magazine we share images of the accepted paintings and award winners from our inaugural Out of Bounds! National Exhibition, which took place at the Art Center Morro Bay. It was an exciting show, which featured innovative pieces juried and judged by none other than Tony Allain. During the awards reception, Tony described what he considers to be essential components of all forms of art: revelation, communication and celebration. He found those elements represented in the award winners that he selected.
I’ve found myself thinking about those three things in another context as I reflected on my activities over the last several weeks. A “revelation” is something that is unveiled, made known, or disclosed, often in a surprising or enlightening way. For every magazine issue, I have the pleasure of interviewing a fascinating artist for our feature article. Those interviews are always such a pleasure and so informative. The interview with Terri Ford for this month’s feature was certainly that, and also led to a fun and entertaining revelation!
Communication is the cornerstone of the work that all of your PSWC volunteers are doing, and the past couple of months were no different. In addition to making sure that all of our proverbial ducks were lined up for the Out of Bounds! show, the PSWC team continues to work on providing workshops, demonstrations, We Talk Art interviews, painting challenges, guest blogs, etc. There is a lot of behind the scenes work being done in preparation for our upcoming Pastels USA: 99 Voices show (watch for more information very soon), and even all of next year’s exhibitions.
Celebration has been center stage in the last few weeks! We celebrated learning during the 3-day Tony Allain workshop. We celebrated innovation and
accomplishment with the Out of Bounds! show and awards reception. We celebrated longtime achievement with the installment of our two new Pastel Laureates, Kim Lordier and Terri Ford—also at the awards reception. We are celebrating hard work, dedication and future potential with our Annual Scholarship Awards, which you can read about in this issue. I am celebrating the addition of two positions filled on our PSWC roster!!
Lynn Attig, who is our “Pastels USA: 99 Voices” Chair, has agreed to be our Vice President. She has plenty of experience as a board member with the Pastel Society of Southern California, and is a great addition to our Executive Board. And Kim Essex has signed on to take the role of Scholarship Chair, a role I am happy to relinquish after 6 years! Kim has already jumped in with both feet and will do a fantastic job.
Finally, I’m celebrating spring and my sweet pup Henry’s 4th birthday! It feels good to focus on whatever there is to celebrate these days…learning, achievement, spring, art, friendship, puppies—you name it! There are countless things to celebrate, including the fact that we have this wonderful pastel community which recognizes the positive impact that art has on individuals and the collective.
Thanks for being a part of it!
Stay inspired!
Pam
Pam Comfort
Bonnie Zahn Griffith chats with well-known artists in an informal virtual setting. A Zoom presentation for members of the PSWC.
When I had the idea of developing a Zoom-based series of interviews a few years ago I talked to then-President Sabrina Hill who concurred this would be a great way to offer another PSWC membership benefit.
So we conducted a “test” interview with Dug Waggoner. We decided this was something we wanted to do but it didn’t manifest into a scheduled program for another year or so. When the board decided we should take this live, I re-interviewed Dug on the first We Talk Art in January 2023.
Since then I have had the pleasure of visiting with so many wonderful guests! These WTA sessions are recorded and are available to watch on PSWC’s YouTube channel. You can find the list of archived interviews on the We Talk Art page of the PSWC website: pswc.ws/we-talk-art-2/
MAY
Our next We Talk Art is planned for Sunday, May 18, 2025 at noon Pacific Time, when I will visit with one of my favorite artists and wonderful human, Richard McKinley. Be sure to get this on your calendar!
Field Dance, 14 x 22 in., pastel
Sea Breeze, 9 x 12 in., pastel
REPRESENTATIVES REPORT
Regional Activities
PSWC ~ California Central Coast & San Luis Obispo County Region Activities
“We were at a lovely waterfront property, along the back bay, in Baywood/Los Osos, CA. It was a gorgeous day, nine painters were delighted with our incredible surroundings and everyone went away feeling rewarded for having shown up with their, sometimes cumbersome, gear—smile!”
—Bobbye West-Thompson
Location: Heronwoods Gardens Baywood/Los Osos, California
Mike Ishikawa presents the property owner with his pastel painting.
Bobbye West-Thompson’s painting on the easel.
The PSWC greatly appreciates our Regional Reps! These artists have stepped up to help the Society fulfill it’s commitment to promote art and art education in our communities and to have a little fun while doing it! They organize Paint-Outs, PaintIns and social events in their geographic areas. If you live in one of these areas, contact them through their websites to find out about upcoming events. Traveling near-by? Here’s a chance to find out about events that will turn your vacation into an art trip! Interested in becoming a regional rep? Please contact us!
REGIONAL ACTIVITIES
Correction to the following photos in the previous Spring 2025 PSWC Magazine—see corrected names below:
REGIONS COVERED
IDAHO, MONTANA, WYOMING
Bonnie Kenaley
SEBASTOPOL, NAPA, SONOMA
Clark Mitchell • clarkmitchellart.com
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, VENTURA COUNTY
Jean Vineyard Myers • jmyerspaintings.com
CALIFORNIA CENTRAL COAST, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY
Bobbye West-Thompson • bobbyewestthompson.com
SAN FRANCISCO AND PENINSULA
Jan Prisco • janprisco.com
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
Carol Talley • caroltalley.com
Kerry Heller
Cheryl Ziehl
Rosemary Bauer
Mike Ishikawa
CHALLENGES
PSWC MEMBER
Challenges 2025
Those who participate, know that our painting challenges can spur us to set aside procrastination and paint daily, which leads to improved skill, increased confidence, and in the case of a themed challenge, a low-stakes opportunity to explore. Our challenge participants take a photo of each day’s work and post it to the PSWC Facebook page, with the tag for the
February 1–10
COMPLETED
April 1–10
COMPLETED
July 1–10
October 1–21
day. At the end of the challenge, they post a photo of all ten (or 21 for October) paintings.
Often, the participants prepare for the challenge by setting aside paper in small sizes, a limited palette that fits the theme, and reference photos or materials they plan to use, such as still life set ups or a plein air set up. This way, they are ready to paint as soon as the challenge
Winter Painting Challenge: Make it High Key, Like Mary’s Cup of Tea With this challenge, we experiment with high key paintings by compressing values, using a limited palette, adding small dark accents, using tools to check values. Look for inspiration of high key examples such as those by Claude Monet, Childe Hassam and Mary Cassatt.
Spring Painting Challenge: Borrow Their Magic, But Add Your Own Spin! With this challenge, borrow inspiration from your favorite famous artists by replicating a specific artist’s technique, process or style in your own work. Use cubist forms like Picasso or imitate thick impasto like Van Gogh. You may incorporate similar themes as those associated with artists such as nature (Constable, Monet), identity (Kahlo, Klimt), the human form (da Vinci, Michelangelo), or social issues (Rivera, Goya) but add your own interpretations. Reimagine iconic works in your own style. For instance take inspiration from Monet’s water lilies or Warhol’s Campbell soup cans but inject your own cultural or emotional spin. Take advantage of this opportunity to create new pathways for your own artistic expression!
Summer
Painting Challenge: Tonalism: Sometimes It’s the Silence That Makes the Music Sing With this challenge, practice creating mood, atmosphere, and harmony by using a tonalist or monochromatic palette in a variety of ways by using a soft, muted color palette or using a monochromatic palette, focusing on light and shadow (chiaroscuro), using romantic or naturalistic themes, incorporating soft edges. For inspiration, check out the works of Whistler, Inness, Murphy, and Cullen.
Fall Painting Challenge: The BIG One! 21 Paintings in 21 Days
Use this opportunity to commit to nearly a full month of daily painting. Here are some ways to keep the momentum: prepare your paper ahead of time, focus on small works, limit your time to 30 minutes or so, plan to work in a “series” every few days or week, choose one subject and paint it using several different palettes, go to bed each night with the next day’s block-in or underpainting on your easel.
For rules, more complete descriptions, and to participate, please visit pswc.ws/painting-challenges/
CHALLENGES
starts. If you are planning to join a challenge, consider working small, and limiting yourself in terms of time. Whether it is a 20–30 minute “study” or a limited 2–3 hour finished painting, determine what you will realistically be able to commit to on a daily basis.
Our most recent Spring Challenge was titled, Borrow Their Magic, But Add Your Own Spin! Participants were encouraged to borrow inspiration from their favorite famous artists by:
• Studying and replicating a specific artist’s technique, process or distinctive style (such as Picasso’s cubist forms, or Van Gogh’s thick impasto) in their own work;
• Incorporating similar themes as those associated with famous artists (such as Constable’s or Monet’s themes of nature, or Kahlo’s or Klimt’s themes of
identity, or da Vinci’s or Michelangelo’s themes of the human form, or Rivera’s or Goya’s themes of social issues) but adding their own interpretations or modern twists;
• Reimagining iconic works in their own style (such as Monet’s water lilies or Warhol’s Campbell soup cans) but injecting their own cultural or emotional spin.
You can see that our members certainly rose to the occasion by these samples from the paintings posted. Our Challenge Cheerleader, Kelly Ann Hine kept things lively by posting encouragement and examples!
Imitating master artists offers significant value for learning techniques, exploring artistic approaches, and internalizing the genius of the masters. It can be a powerful tool for expanding technical repertoire and refining one’s own unique voice.
Barbara Archer-Baldwin
Natasha Kotenova
Bonnie Davis Kenaley
Karen Glancy
CHALLENGES
Prashanti Moses
Judy Miller
Dave LaPier
Norma Miller
Sandra Morrison
Sally Ladd
Village Light, pastel
FEATURED
ARTIST
Colorful and Unexpected: Terri Ford Continues to Surprise Us With Her Story and Her Art
by Pamela Comfort
The feature article process always begins with my sending the artist a set of questions to answer in writing. This serves as a starting point for a later conversation over Zoom, where I hope to get a little bit of elaboration and extended detail from my interviewee. Sometimes, the written responses are so complete and full of detail, that the follow-up conversation, though always very enjoyable, doesn’t necessarily add a whole lot to the story. When I received Terri’s responses, I thought, “Oh, gosh, I hope I can pull some conversation out of her!” They were, much like Terri, short and sweet. As It turns out, we could happily sit and talk with each other for hours on end, and I didn’t have anything to worry about…
Pam: Tell us about your childhood, upbringing, what led to your interest in art. Did you have a family member or mentor who encouraged your interest or inspired you?
Terri: I was born and raised in Santa Maria, California and have lived in California my entire life. My interest in art started at a young age. I won my first award in kindergarten for a clay sculpture of a family of turtles walking under a flower laden trellis…in a graham cracker box. Quality materials were always of great importance! In first grade my inner artist forced me to inform our teacher that the sky was not just a blue line at the top of the page and that it was visible all the way down. I then moved on to pencil drawing which I stuck with for many years. I focused primarily on young, hip
women in cool outfits that I designed. I was not inspired by anyone in my family at that point, but was always encouraged.
When I was born, my biological father picked my mom and I up from the hospital, took us to my grandmother’s house and left town. So I was not raised by him, but I met him when I was around 15 years old. He ended up painting in his later years, but I had already been painting since I was very little. He was kind of nomadic, collected art and other sorts of things and we eventually developed a relationship. Because of his collecting, he became good friends with Ovanes Berberian (1951– ), a Russian Armenian painter. My father hung around Ovanes and looked over his shoulder while he painted,
and then he took up painting himself, when he was much older. So, though he painted, my father did not influence my interest in art.
When I was still little, my mom got married again, and my brother was born, and along with my sister, we all lived with my grandmother. When I was 4, we moved to San Jose, where I’ve lived ever since. My aunt and uncle, who were more like my grandparents, because my grandmother died at a young age, built a beautiful ranch in Santa Maria in the 1920s. We would frequently drive there for holidays and summers, and always stop in Paso Robles for lunch so we didn’t arrive hungry.
After years and years of driving through that way, I only in recent years participated in a plein air event that led me to discover the rural back roads of that area, and it was so beautiful!
Pam: What has been the key to your growth as an artist?
Terri: After spending my formative years always enthused about art and receiving kudos along the way I started attending San Jose State College, and after about two weeks, showing my mom an ad for the Academy of Art in San Francisco, I said, “I don’t want to do this…I want to do this.” And she allowed me to drop out. I’m a college dropout, but it’s funny, because it was quite a process. They wouldn’t let you just quit. I had to write an essay and go through some hoops, you know, to make it official. So, I’d made the decision to attend the Academy of Art in San Francisco as an illustration major. I would take the train to classes, and I attended for three years. Instead of getting a liberal arts education and a diploma, I got a professional certificate.
Morning Moon, pastel
So, we did this crazy thing for about 6 months and we weren’t really making any money, so we pitched it to the owners of the old Carol Doda nightclub in San Francisco. They had another nightclub around the corner that was new. They were working on opening it up and offered us a contract there. They gave us a week to decide. I said, “No.” I thought that was getting too deep into an element that I didn’t want to be involved in. You know, ours was a much more…we were innocent, you know. I just thought that was going to take us down a road that I didn’t want to go down. So, they said they were just going to put their own together, based on our idea. So, that was the end of it for us.
It was just an interesting chapter that has nothing to do with my art, other than my being an art director and doing those designs.
Pam: I knew it, Terri Ford. It’s always the quiet ones!
Terri: No, you weren’t expecting to hear that. I don’t think about it that often, you know, it was a long time ago, and when I look back on it, I think, “Oh, wow! What a story, Terri!” And the thing is, my sister and I did that together. And Jamie is how I ended up going to Tel Aviv in 1982…
Pam: Right. In 1982 you went to Tel Aviv with Jamie.
Terri: He had been in the Dutch National ballet for years, and traveled the world. When he came back to the States, dancing gigs were very hard to come by so he ended up working with the dance company in Palo Alto, and through that he got this job in Tel Aviv. Of course, I met him when he answered the ad that my dad had placed looking for dancers for the male review.
So then Jamie said, I’ve got a ticket for you to come with me to Tel Aviv. And so off I went. Of course my parents were devastated that I went there, but it was fun and interesting. I got a job as a graphic designer in the Foreign Language division of the largest advertising agency there because they needed people who spoke English and could translate projects into English.
I got the best work there. They gave me illustration jobs and really good graphic design jobs and stuff. And you know, at that age it was my first big travel and I didn’t know much about packing. So I took my portfolio with me and that’s what got me work. I worked most of the time. My first job was a poster that was going to go traveling, about the three wise Samuels of the day and in history, and it was a play and it had to be folded. It was huge and folded into panels, and had to work in all three languages, Yiddish, Spanish and Portuguese. Luckily, I spoke Spanish. So that’s how I was able to inspect the type. I was gone for six months.
Pam: What led you to pastels?
Terri: One night in 1987, I was hanging out wanting to flex my art muscles and I got out the pastels that we had used in school. They were Alphacolor, a very old brand with a minimal palette. I spent the next several days doing three pastel paintings on Canson full size sheets on the smooth side.
One of them was from an album cover of Frank Zappa. He’s in a pink jacket in a doorway. One of them was a horse racer from a little magazine photo. I had no relationship to horse racing. And the third one
Dune Sunset, pastel
was of the Montreal Canadians. Again, it was a picture from a magazine that showed a guy just from behind, with his foot lifted that’s shooting off ice, and the only thing facing the viewer is the spectators behind the glass beyond him. So, in order to make it interesting to me, I made the spectators Madonna, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Sean Penn and Andy Warhol. They were like little mini-portraits of high profile people at the time.
I was hooked immediately on pastels starting with this small set we used in life drawing back at the Academy. I began adding to my arsenal with mostly Windsor Newton, Rembrandt and NuPastel which were about the only brands sold in stores. I worked on Canson full size, off and on throughout those graphic design years, doing pastel painting whenever I could.
I had a really nice studio, and pretty soon I had enough work to constitute having an exhibit, and people would come, and I’d serve refreshments and wine, and so I was good at giving my own little art exhibits.
And then I discovered open studios. In the early days I did open studios annually for at least 5, 6, 7 years, or something like that. This was the San Jose Silicon Valley Open Studios, or Santa Clara County. I think at that time it went up the bay, but they had it divided into sections. So the South Bay was on a certain weekend, and then on up. I would have it in my studio at wherever I was living at the time.
In 2000, I decided to leave the graphic business and pursue fine art in pastels full time. That took 5 years. Breaking up is hard to do. I somehow discovered the Pastel Journal followed by PSWC and I felt so rejuvenated about having a pastel world that I could be part of. Until then I didn’t know any other pastelists so this was huge. My first entry was to PSWC associate level and I won Best of Show! Ruth Hussey was the judge. That really lit my fire and I was off and running. Discovering Albert
Handel in the Pastel Journal was another eye opener. I soon took a workshop with him at Asilomar in Pacific Grove. I learned so much from him that stays with me to this day, and that I attribute to him when doing demos for a workshop or any presentation.
Pam: What has been the biggest challenge you have had to overcome to be a successful artist?
Terri: One of the hardest things about being a successful artist is the bar that you create for yourself that you so often seem to miss. Perhaps I overthink things too much. That can be inhibiting. Regardless of the number of awards or accolades I may have received I am doubtful that I am doing the best I could…or that I hadn’t really found my mojo. You know that Eminent Pastelist status happened because I had achieved Master Circle status with the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), and I still enjoyed entering shows. I was talking to Urania (Cristy Tarbet, Founder of IAPS), and she and I would talk on the phone for the longest time. I had to allow at least an hour, and we would just talk about things that would segue from one subject to another. I mentioned that I felt guilty entering the IAPS show, because I already had my Master status, and other people were still trying to get their Master, and she said, “No, Terri, don’t feel guilty because we want to see your
Reflections, pastel
work. Don’t let that bother you.” And so I kept entering, and then, soon after that they created the Master Circle Division. So that was good, and I didn’t feel guilty anymore and I just kept entering and I ended up getting the Eminent Pastelist status because I just kept on plugging away. I always felt that when a society helps put you on the map it’s a symbiotic relationship.
Pam: Can you describe a moment when you experienced a breakthrough with your technique, or a process?
Terri: Discovering an underpainting process, that only came to me when sanded papers evolved, was a breakthrough. For example, Kitty Wallis and then others, was a huge turning point for me. I look back now and realize I was actually creating underpainting even working on Canson by putting in dark pastel and rubbing and spreading it where I needed darks. Then I would spray fixative until I had good tooth back and I could proceed
with the light. The sanded paper with liquid washes to set the darks worked so well for me and that is something that opened doors in my works and I still use the same process today whether painting en plein air or the studio.
Pam: What part of your creative process do you find most fulfilling and why?
Terri: I love doing small paintings, because I just think that I can be looser. Also, because there’s a relativity to the size of the pastel, like the first of my paintings that won an award. My first award with PSWC was called Winery Near Arles, it was a 9 x 9 and I ended up trying to do a larger version of that, and I just gave it up. I realized that I needed bigger pastels in order to get the same kind of stroke. So now, if I do a piece that I like a lot and want to paint larger, I don’t refer to the previously done piece. I will look at it for something in particular, but I think to myself, “This is going to be a
Street With a View, pastel
completely different animal.” I don’t make that comparison which is stroke size and things like that. You just have to make it its own painting. When I make a small painting, it’s rarely a study for a larger painting. I don’t do thumbnails or pre-sketching. I just kind of dive in and draw and get started. Discovering the sanded papers with that underpainting technique was huge for me. I always throw tone on the paper. I don’t like white paper. Once I have the darks in, I begin to apply layers with a light touch or scumbling. I value up in small increments. Once the painting is in a happy place for me, it’s time to put the icing on the cake. The lights build up, the strokes become stronger and more calligraphic, and details start to develop. That’s when I can leave it to return to for final tweaks.
Pam: You have achieved great success and a widely respected reputation. What has been one of your most rewarding experiences as an artist so far?
Terri: Because art is such a subjective thing, receiving recognition is truly an honor. One of the greatest rewards for me is meeting such incredible people/artists, and if they are students, watching them go on to have such success of their own. I just got chills saying that. Another great reward is that the growth and inspiration just keep coming. We don’t retire…we just keep learning. As I mentioned above, the doubt I have had about not finding my mojo…well, that has been a great gift because I very recently had a breakthrough and feel elated about following up on it. I sent a photo to my mother of something I did on vacay in Mexico last month and said to her “this is where my future lies.” It was an exciting feeling as though I was closer to my mojo than I have ever felt.
Another very rewarding experience involved a very different kind of adventure with my sister. In June of 2005 and October 2006, my sis and I rented a houseboat on the Seine directly across from Île Saint-Louis and I hosted workshops on it. It was an old barge that had 3 bedrooms and a dining table that sat 12. It’s hard to describe how cool it was. The deck on top wasn’t that big but ample for my groups. I had a welcome soirée each time and we would plein air paint nearby. It was wonderful! I had a farewell soirée at the end, where we would do a final critique and of course we would have wines and cheeses and don’t forget the baguettes! Such special times.
Pam: Has your work evolved over time, and if so, how would you describe that transformation?
Terri: I want to be doing more contemporary looking work. I want to go bigger. And I’m kind of feeling like I don’t want to paint another tree, you know, or another building and be constricted to having to create those shapes. I want to work with color in a very loose way. I just want to have fun with color.
So that’s become my thing. And when I was working on the background of the piece that was in the Out of Bounds! show in Morro Bay, which is a sky, a nighttime
Sunlit Eucalyptus, pastel
sky, I photographed it. And that’s what I was talking about that I sent to my mom when I said, “My future lies here.” because I just loved working with the colors and nothing else, you know, no form other than what I did to represent clouds, just colors that were really exciting to me.
I want to work with just the color red and have it be different temperatures of red. And do that with various colors. I want to play with that a lot, because I love that in a regular painting. My skies are mostly a combination of two colors of the same value, but different temperature, like a more turquoise blue, combined with the plumier blue, but they’re the same value. I like that excitement of how colors play together when they’re the same value, but different temperatures. That’s the sort of thing I want to play around with, and just make big colorscapes.
Pam: How do you handle creative blocks and what helps you push through them?
Terri: Though I struggled with finding my mojo, I never felt what I would call a creative block. My underpainting technique has also floated my boat so just starting something was good for me…and by the way, my new thing still involves my underpainting step.
Pam: What is one piece of advice you would give to your 20-year-old self?
Terri: The old tried and true phrase “Don’t ever give up” comes to mind, and believe in yourself, always be open to learning, be flexible, expect frustration, but go, girl, go!
Pam: Your painting, Paris Lights was awarded Third Place in the Out of Bounds! Exhibition by judge Tony Allain. Tell us the story behind that piece.
Shady Oak, pastel
Terri: I really felt like I should enter that show. And because it was multimedia, I thought, “Oh, I’ve had these ideas in my head. Now, this is the perfect time to implement.” So I started something. But I could see that there was no way I was going to be able to finish it before we left for our annual trip to Mexico. So, I thought I’d do another while I was down there. I just packed for multimedia. So I took a lot of gear with me that I wouldn’t normally take, and I forgot some of the basics. I did not pack an easel. So, I ended up spending a whole day walking around this village in Mexico and going to every store that had anything to do with art trying to find an easel. And you know it’s just different down there, and there were no easels for sale anywhere, and I had even posted online on a neighborhood app, “In need of an easel—will pay to rent—temporary use—blah blah….” I didn’t get any action on that.
I finally got to the end of the last store I had on my list, and it was much farther than I thought, and I was bedraggled at this point. It’s hot and I’m sweating and there is a woman at the art store behind a counter. You can’t go in and look at things. You have to say what you want, and she goes and gets it. So I ask, and, no, she doesn’t sell any easels. I’m very distressed. I asked, “Do you know anywhere that might have one?” She starts to tell me about a couple of galleries that might have one to loan or something, and then all of a sudden, she turns around and she digs into a pile of stuff and pulls out this thing and sets it on the counter. It’s a wooden table easel. I said,“!Oh! ¿Qué pasó?” and “¿Se vende?” (Is it for sale?) And she said, “!Si!”
She said it was her easel and somebody made it. I’d never seen another one like it. It was as solid as a rock, and I bought it. But I needed to elevate it. After getting
Sunlit Cypress, pastel
back to our apartment, I went next door where they were doing some construction and I found a couple of pieces of wood. One of the workers, seeing what I am doing, waves at me, takes the wood piece, and he saws it in half, and then he gets out his sander and he sands every edge of these two pieces of wood, so that I wouldn’t get any splinters.
Of course I had to let him do his thing because he had a sense of pride in what he was doing. He was not going to hand me a splintery piece of wood, and he does it to both of these pieces and I offer to pay, but naturally, he won’t take anything.
Next, I worked on a 12 x 16 oil painting of the Paris sky at night, using my new easel.
I had packed without bringing my knife or straight edge, so with the help of another woman, I found a little straight edge in a store but it was cheap and I was having a hard time breaking off the next blade. So I went down again to where the construction workers were and showed him my knife to ask for help. But they had a package of new blades and they gave them to me. So, I took the oil painting, and then I cut it off the canvas, and then cut it in strips, and then I mounted it. I didn’t have my usual cutting surface, but I had a piece of illustration board because we cook in a chili cook off when we are there, and I had previously made a sign about the cook off and held on to this one piece of illustration board. That became my cutting surface. So when I was cutting all the pieces of canvas, it was all being done on
Winery Near Arles, pastel
China Cove, pastel
High Noon, pastel
this piece of illustration board that became very useful. I super-glued the strips of the oil painting on the top, and once I knew they were all okay, I super-glued the bottom. What I didn’t expect was that the white from the canvas and some edges were rough. So, I had to clean every edge, around every cut. But then I also united or connected the space between the oil painting and the pastel in some spots that I thought would be effective. So, I played around with it. Then I put sequins on it because it’s a night scene—Paris at night on the river. It was so fun. But it basically took the whole village of Zihuatanejo to get it done!
I ended up taking them all brownies because they didn’t want any payment, but they had just stopped what they were doing to help me, you know.
Pam: Well, I’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child, but I’ve never heard of it taking a village to create a painting! Is this a place you visit often?
Terri: This was our 35th year. We had honeymooned there 35 years ago and we go every year.
We now have the best apartment and we’ve got it for 7 weeks next year. They treat us so nicely and they have barrels we can keep some of our things in that we don’t have to repack each year. So my new easel is now stored there.
Pam: What is it that you wish people knew about Terri Ford that they may not know?
Terri: That I’m still looking, and still enthused, and still feel excited and still feel like I’m learning.
I always want to be a learner. I always want to stay fluid, and by that I mean, I don’t want to be a rigid person. I want to always be open to ideas, you know, not related to art necessarily, but just in life. I don’t want to be closed. I don’t want any walls up. I’m fairly private, but, on the other hand, I’m also open. I want to remain an open person, open-minded and enthusiastic.
Terri Ford is an Eminent Pastelist with the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), Master Pastelist with The Pastel Society of America, “Distinguished Pastelist” with the Pastel Society of New Mexico, and an artist member of the California Art Club. She was the “Invitee de Honor” of the Art du Pastel France in 2017. Her work has earned her top awards in many exhibitions at such venues as The National Arts Club in New York, The Butler Fine Art Museum, The Triton Museum of Art, The Autry Museum, The Haggin Museum and many more. Ford’s pastels have been featured in American Art Collector, American Artist, Fine Art Connoisseur, Pratique des Arts and in several coffee table books, including Art Journal America, Plein Air New Mexico and the French art book “40 Maitres de Pasteles.” Terri’s pastel paintings have gained national and international recognition. She was recently named as a Pastel Laureate by the Pastel Society of the West Coast.
Terri Ford painting
Inaugural National Exhibition
The Pastel Show That Goes Beyond Tradition
OOBS 2025
The Pastel Society of the West Coast’s Out of Bounds! show represents some of the best nontraditional art in pastels. Thank you to all those members who entered the OOBS 2025
This inaugural show was well received at the Art Center Morro Bay by both fellow artists and art lovers! Special thanks to our esteemed judge and awards presenter, Tony Allain. Tony also provided a fabulous 3-day workshop, and a demonstration for attendees of the awards reception.
Appreciation also goes to Kathleen Heil, President of Morro Bay Art Association and her association volunteers, show co-chairs Bonnie Zahn Griffith and Pam Comfort, PSWC volunteers, and finally, Austin Hambly of ShowSubmit—all who helped make the show a resounding success!
SECOND PLACE
Veiled in Delight, Kim Lordier, Millbrae, CA
THIRD PLACE
Paris Lights, Terri Ford, San Jose, CA
OOBS 2025
HONORABLE MENTIONS
An Uproar of Color, Randye Dale Jensen, Corvallis, OR
Tangled, Erika Perloff, Santa Cruz, CA
Lake Sunset Avon Waters, Converse, IN
OOBS 2025
Green Goddess
Robin Diane Angelides, Santa Monica, CA
Out of the Sack
Barbara Archer-Baldwin, Tucson, AZ
Wash Day
Diane Sauble Breuer, Fresno, CA
The Art Critique
Diane Sauble Breuer, Fresno, CA
OOBS 2025
Golden Roost Francesca Droll, Bigfork, MT
Blue and Yellow
Betty Efferson, Baton Rouge, LA
Underwater
Betty Efferson, Baton Rouge, LA
Ancient Abode Louise DeMore, Los Osos, CA
Recess on the Last Day of School
Ellen Joan Craft, Seattle, WA
OOBS 2025
Just Passing Through Ellen Gust, Palo Alto, CA
Bottled Sunshine Tatsiana Harbacheuskaya, Las Vegas, NV
The Language of Flowers Tatsiana Harbacheuskaya, Las Vegas, NV
Treasure Trove
Ellen Gust, Palo Alto, CA
Wild Plums
Ellen Gust, Palo Alto, CA
OOBS 2025
Iridescent Plumage
Bonnie Lea Davis Kenaley, Boise, ID
Be Golden
Norma Miller, Eagle, ID
Salmon Eater
Ginny Lieberman, Studio City, CA
Stow Lake Twilight
Clark Mitchell Cotati, CA
Pelicans Migrating Home
Margie L. Murray, Camarillo, CA
OOBS 2025
Reflections
Jean Myers Newberry Park, CA
No Traffic
Brooklyn, NY
NY
Billy Moro-Wey
The Purple Heart
Billy Moro-Wey Brooklyn,
Coastal Fragments
Nancy Ness, Ogden, UT
Earthly Dreamscape
Nancy Ness, Ogden, UT
OOBS 2025
Locked in My Minds Eye
Tashia R. Peterman, Trabuco Canyon, CA
Masquerade
Carleen O’Connor Rivera, Munster, IN
Mother Nature’s Child
Tashia R. Peterman, Trabuco Canyon, CA
Net Loss
Peggy Davidson Post, Pebble Beach, CA
Tributaries
Peggy Davidson Post, Pebble Beach, CA
OOBS 2025
Storm with Sun Carol Strock Wasson, Union City, IN
Majestic Pillar Chantal Saperstein, Greenbrae, CA
Pure Fun Chantal Saperstein, Greenbrae, CA
Truly a Golden Sunset Carol Strock Wasson, Union City, IN
Fire in the Canyon Rachel Sylvers, Thousand Oaks, CA
OOBS 2025
JUDGE AND JUROR
Tony Allain
“I think art in all forms should include revelation, communication, and celebration. And that’s what I look for.”
Tony is a Scottish based artist. He is an award winning painter, instructor and author and has been painting for all of his life. A member of the Pastel Society London, a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists among others. A painter of color, light and movement with a complete understanding of his surroundings. Born and raised on Guernsey in the Channel Islands where he studied life drawing and painting from life. He moved to live and paint in Cornwall to capture the unique clarity of light on the peninsular of the West Country.
Tony has exhibited extensively over the years, his work can be found in many leading galleries as well as private and corporate collections worldwide, including the Maritime Museum, Guernsey and Queen Mary 2, Cunard Liner. He has exhibited with The Pastel Society of America in New York, the Royal Society of Marine Artists, London, The International Pastel Exhibition, Suzhou, China and the Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London.
A move to New Zealand in 2006 proved to be a turning point in Tony’s career with the acceptance as a Master of the Pastel Artists of New Zealand, a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, and being elected an Eminent Pastelist of the International Association of Pastel Societies. His work is regularly featured in The Artist Magazine, the Pastel Journal, and the Practique des Arts. Tony now lives and works in Scotland, though he travels extensively as a sought after workshop presenter and exhibition judge.
Watch Tony’s announcement of the Out of Bounds!” awards at the awards presentation recorded on April 19, 2025. Go to the PSWC website and scroll down on the home page for the link:
pswc.ws
PSWC VIDEO SERIES
Carol Strock Wasson Mary Aslin
Natasha Isenhour Barbara Jaenicke
MEET THE MEMBERS
In this issue, we feature a sampling of member artists who were juried into the Out of Bounds! exhibit that was showing at Art Center Morro Bay in Morro Bay, California, from April 3 to May 12, 2025. These interviews cover their art background and relay the process they used to create their works for the show.
It’s always interesting to see what has sparked an artist to engage their artist-soul and to see what inspired them to create. So, here is your invitation to get to know the five artists interviewed in the following pages and learn a few of their tricks.
Barbara Archer-Baldwin, MC-IAPS, PSWC, PSA, APAA has worked as a professional artist for over 55 years, taught both visual arts (drawing and acrylic and pastel painting) and various decorative arts including needlework, faux finishes, polymer clay sculpture and jewelry. She has also worked as an antique furniture restorer specializing in marquetry, and as a luthier of banjos for twelve years, doing the pearl inlay, and wood carving on the instruments.
Barbara’s pen and ink drawings have been published in several periodicals, she has illustrated two published books, and has artwork in many private collections. She has written and published a book Pastel Painting Lessons, and has developed a Signature set of 30 Fundamentals Pastels with the Terry Ludwig Pastels.
Barbara has been juried into the Salmagundi Club, New York City, the country’s oldest and most respected Art Club, achieved Signature status in the very prestigious Pastel Society of America, Signature in the Pastel Society of the West Coast, and since moving to Arizona, Signature in the Arizona Pastel Artists Association. In 2022, she achieved Master Circle in the International Association of Pastel Societies.
barbaraarcherbaldwin.com
Sunstruck, Barbara Archer-Baldwin
What inspired you to become an artist?
I was too young to remember what inspired me. I have been doing art in one form or another since I was a toddler! The first thing I remember, though, is that I made (female) paper dolls, (including whole glamorous wardrobes) and they were (naively) nude, but not pruriently anatomically correct, as I was, well, 10. This was fifth grade, and when the teacher found them I got in a lot of trouble!
You’ve been a professional, teaching artist for many years and have worked in multiple media. What initially motivated you to explore the use of other media with pastel?
I have been so enthralled with pastel since re-discovering it in 2007, then visiting Terry Ludwig in 2012 for the first time, that I was content to leave all other media behind. Then we brought Mike Beeman to Florida for a workshop in March of 2020, just before Covid hit. His technique of doing an underpainting with acrylics renewed my interest in them, so I played with that during Covid. I have been a huge fan of Mike and his work. I had found Dawn Emerson’s great book a year earlier, and was using it in class to show students other possibilities.
What have you found to be the benefits and challenges of creating mixed media pastel works?
The biggest benefit has been that it helps one lose the fear of change, or that which is “different.” Trying new techniques keeps boredom at bay, as well as adding an element of fun to one’s art time. You never know what discoveries await you unless you try!
What have you discovered that you didn’t expect?
I think when one realizes that all media can be used together, or even just two different ones together, the possibilities are suddenly endless! I feel my biggest weakness as an artist is originality, and when mixing media, one is immediately doing something no one else has tried. Yes, others have mixed those media together, but not with your brain!
What resources or other artists’ work particularly helped you in your exploration?
As mentioned, Mike Beeman and Dawn Emerson were inspirations. Also Tony Allain’s use of BIG black markers for the initial blocking in of the dark values is a favorite. Old Pastel Journals also provided several articles on people using mixed media, though I do not remember which, or when. I go back and read old Journals, stashing the info away back in my brain for future use.
Are there techniques or mediums you are excited to explore in the future?
I would like to continue to play with using stamps under and/or around my pastel still lifes. I have made some of my own, carving then out of the pink plastic stamping material I found at Michael’s (have no idea what it is called). I like the effect of that almost hidden pattern and texture. I have tins of pastel dust which I have mixed with clear gesso, which I can use as my stamping material, as well as stamp pads or rolled out acrylic.
What advice do you have for others who are curious about trying mixed media?
Simple: Leave your fear out of the studio and PLAY!! Let your imagination loose.
MEET THE MEMBERS
Two Onions, Barbara Archer-Baldwin
MEET THE MEMBERS
Out of the Sack, Barbara Archer-Baldwin
THE MEMBERS
Barbara Archer-Baldwin’s process for creating Out of the Sack
1. I had to find my acrylics after our marathon move from Florida to Arizona! I gathered the collage material I wanted to use, in this case, a mesh fruit bag and some textured rollers. I had conceived this idea of a multi- layered mesh texture, inspired by a bag or oranges.
2. I knew what colors might work, so I randomly brushed some acrylic onto the canvas, with no plan in mind. I wanted the piece to carry me along.
3. Next I added some patterns with the rollers. I also coated some mesh with acrylic and pressed it into the wet paint, hoping to transfer another color in that pattern. Not very successful, so I actually glued the mesh on. I also painted the tomatoes, rather thickly, with acrylic.
4. After this all dried, I brushed on a couple of coats of fine pumice gel, to accept the future pastel.
5. Time for pastel. Those reds are actually pretty thick, though it doesn’t show. I used both Terry Ludwig Firecracker Reds and some Henri Roches. I also added more colored dots in pastel, to those in acrylic that the textured roller had made.
6. Glue the actual fruit bag, which is plastic mesh, onto the canvas, creating another layer.
7. Add multiple coats of Spectrafix’s Final Fix spray fixative, to make it smear-proof.
An accomplished realistic and impressionistic artist, Betty Efferson has been recognized with many national and international awards. She has been juried into shows from New York to New Mexico, and is a Pastel Society of America Signature Member and Degas Pastel Society Member. Her works have placed in Pastel Journal’s Annual Pastel 100 four different times, and she earned her IAPS Master Circle Award in 2022.
Betty began painting later in life, and found that she had a hard time “staying within the lines.” It turned out that her ‘outside the lines’ style led to what one instructor called “gutsy and high energy” paintings that have appealed to a wide audience.
You came to art later in life. Were you always itching to become an artist?
I was the child in math class who considered doodling was more fun. My family was not interested in the arts and I was always discouraged. I took tole painting classes as an adult. I could never stay within the line of the patterns that we had to copy. Later, I took a plein air workshop, finding that the freedom of painting what I was really seeing was inspiring.
You work in a variety of media and your subject matter is quite varied, what brought you to pastel?
I took a workshop with Alan Flattmann, not really knowing anything about pastels, however I was very curious about trying a new media. The box of pastels with the vibrant colors blew me away. The warms, cools, light, darks—my mind was exploding with the thoughts of what I could do with these chalks. The pure pigments were the answer to my need for more colors.
Underwater, Betty Efferson
What have you found to be the benefits and challenges of creating mixed media pastel works?
I work in so many different media, it was nice to be able to put them together. Being an intuitive painter, I always ask the question “What if?”
I don’t like working on a clean substrate, it needs to have some history to make me happy. I paint over so many of my works. If it sits for any length of time, it is going to be something else. Oil, acrylic, cold wax, ink whatever— it will be covered with pastels and vice versa.
It was so exciting when a different organization offered the pastels in mixed media. I have used inks as the undercoat for a long time, probably because I never like a clean paper. Pastels are so versatile they should be used in many ways. I do like the traditional style of painting also, but sometimes it is fun to play.
What resources (if any) do you explore for ideas and inspiration? Do you read art books, visit museums, or study other artists Whose work has particularly inspired you in your exploration?
I am very intuitive emotionally as an artist and to be honest I have no idea where my art inspiration comes from. I don’t have a plan, I just want to paint. It is a form of my expression.
Are there techniques or mediums you are excited to explore in the future?
Not really as long as we can stay away from AI and paint honestly using our heart.
What advice or recommendations do you have for others who are curious about trying mixed media?
It‘s only paper and paint, have fun with no judgement. Life is too short to worry!
Art was not your first career. What inspired you to become an artist?
After retiring from teaching physical education for 30+ years in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and moving to Boise, Idaho to be closer to kids and grandkids, I felt like I finally had the time and freedom to explore my creativity, especially since sports, not art, were my thing for most of my life! Over the years, I collected experiences, emotions, and stories that I now express through my art. It wasn’t about following trends or making a career—it was about fulfilling a deep, personal need to create. Art became a way to reconnect with myself, to experiment without fear, and to prove that it’s never too late and you are never too old to start something new.
Your preferred medium is acrylic, though you also work in encaustic and pastel. What motivated you to explore the use of mixed media with pastel?
My dear friend and mentor, Bonnie Zahn Griffith, showed me the benefits of working
with pastels, however, I was truly experimenting at the beginning and also loved the opportunities acrylic mediums provided. I am not a trained artist so learning on my own has been a huge part of my journey and when I found out that these two mediums could be mixed together and perhaps hung without glass, I was sold.
Wild Mustang, Kathi Holzer
Were there resources or other artists whose work particularly helped you in your exploration?
As I mentioned earlier, Bonnie Zahn Griffith was my very first mentor and inspiration, however, I also love works by Dawn Emerson as well and have taken several online workshops of hers as well as watching her youtube videos! Her book Pastel Innovations is another great resource!
Are there techniques or mediums you are excited to explore in the future?
I am particularly drawn to collage at this point and can picture this technique blending with acrylic and pastel quite well. I love creating pieces with texture and will continue to explore the multitude of possibilities these mediums all provide.
What advice or recommendations do you have for others who are curious about trying mixed media?
If you’re curious about trying mixed media, my biggest advice is to embrace experimentation and not worry about “rules.” Being a self-taught artist I have never known the rules—that can be a help or a hindrance of course! Here are some tips to get you started:
1. Start with What You Have
You don’t need fancy supplies — combine pastels with acrylics, ink, collage, or even household materials like fabric or sand for texture.
Try layering dry media (pastels, charcoal) over wet media (acrylics, inks) to see how they interact.
2. Use the Right Surface
Heavier paper, canvas, or wood panels work well since mixed media can be rough on delicate surfaces.
If using pastels over acrylic, a matte surface or gesso base helps pastels adhere better.
3. Layer Wisely
Acrylics dry permanently, so use them as a foundation before adding pastels or other dry media on top.
If layering oil pastels, do it toward the end, as they resist other layers.
4. Experiment with Textures
Try scratching through layers, using stencils, or adding gels and pastes for dimension. Play with different tools — sponges, palette knives, even your fingers!
5. Protect Your Work
Mixed media can be delicate, so use fixatives sparingly for pastels and a final varnish if needed (just test it first to avoid dulling colors).
Most importantly, have fun and trust the process— mixed media is all about discovery!
Kathi Holzer’s process for creating Women of the Land, Keepers of the Future
1. I started with a small 6“x 6” canvas 1.5” in depth to make sure my idea would work. I love using fabric in my art and used a very thick cotton canvas that I ripped instead of cutting. I then put it in water and dried it in the dryer so the edges would fray.
2. Once I saw this small canvas worked, I began the process for a 16” x 20” x 1.5” canvas. I washed the cotton canvas again and then tore it so it was slightly smaller than my substrate. If I feel like it needs more fraying I just keep pulling off the edges until I’m happy with the look.
3. I used a matte medium to “glue” the fabric to the substrate. After the medium dried I layered more medium on top.
4. Next I loosely sketched in my ladies with charcoal and pastel, rubbing it in to the material. Krylon Workable Fixatif is my favorite medium to “set” the pastels!
5. After this step I continue to layer with pastel and fixative until I’m satisfied with the painting. I do use gloves for all of this because it gets quite dusty!
6. Once the painting gets to a point where I feel like it is finished I rub on a light coat of acrylic paint to the background to give it a more cohesive look. Almost like an acrylic wash.
7. Lastly, I finish the painting with a matte medium and make sure no pastel can be rubbed off!
Inge Ivens obtained a Ph.D. in neuroscience and later a board certification as a toxicologist. She attended art classes when time allowed during her full-time work as a scientist, and explored pottery, oil painting, charcoal drawing, soft pastel and tiffany glass making. Inge started painting in pastel after retiring from her career, when she rediscovered her old Sennelier pastel sticks from a painting class and realized that painting was what she had always missed in her life.
Inge serves as a member if the Board of Directors of the Sierra Streams Institute, a local non-profit watershed monitoring, research and restoration group. She lives in Nevada City, California with her husband and labrador on Deer Creek, adjacent to the Tahoe National Forest.
Erika Perloff’s education, career and life experiences have kept her almost continuously out of doors, where she has focused her attention and sketchbook on the California landscape. Her background in biology and natural history and work as outdoor educator, park ranger, naturalist, garden educator, and science teacher have given her a unique perspective as a plein air painter.
erikaperlofff.com
After a rich career in science education, Erika embarked on her own art education by taking intensive workshops with artists she admired, such as Kim Lordier, Randy Sexton, Terri Ford, Bill Cone, Jim McVicker, and Skip Whitcomb. She has worked in many different mediums but is most passionate about soft pastels. Her work hangs in many private collections and public spaces and her paintings are shown in group and solo shows. She has been honored with residences in places like Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. Erika is a signature member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast. She is an Artist Member of the California Art Club and serves as Co-chair of the Monterey Chapter.
Have you always thought of yourself as an artist?
I have been a person who makes things for as long as I can remember. I was always drawing and painting as a child, and was lucky to have many artistic influences at a young age and parents who encouraged me and let me do things like paint murals in the bathroom. I used to get out of doing traditional assignments in school by doing art: a project on experimental ceramic glazes in my chemistry class, illustrated manuscripts in history and things like that. But I had a whole other career in science education before I really started thinking of art as the work I do.
You have worked in a variety of media and remained mostly focused on California landscapes, what brought you to pastel?
I was working primarily in watercolor and oil and loved both of those mediums. Then my dad found a new, complete set of Sennelier pastels at a flea market and gave them to me. I had no idea what to do with them! After doing some research I started seeing work in pastel
Emergence, Erika Perloff
that really excited me. The glimmering effects of layers of color vibrating felt fresh. I was attracted to the directness of pastel and being able to hold the stick while feeling the painting surface in my hand; the hand/ brain/eye connection seemed stronger than with other media. I appreciated being able to draw and paint with them, and the building up of layers was good for my impulsive nature. And I am such a sucker for color; you can’t look at a box of pastels and not want them all!
What are the benefits and challenges of creating mixed media pastel works?
Most of my mixed media efforts have involved using old paintings and experimenting with them with either monotype or adding layers of tooth and wet media then pastel. In this way I tend to “let go” of any expectations for the finished work, which causes me to stay very present in the moment and connect with my intuition as an artist. If you mess up you can usually wipe it off and start again. Often the “mistakes” stimulate new ideas to try. In doing pastel monotypes I can do endless iterations of the same image, or keep working back into one piece by adding more tooth. It’s a great way to upcycle old paintings that haven’t worked for whatever reason.
My first efforts in monotype from a pastel using the Evolon paper resulted in almost the whole original pastel coming off because the paper was too wet. Oops! But that encouraged me to go back into the original pastel using the ghost image. This turned out to be an improvement on the original and made me realize the importance of not being too attached.
When I have gone back and worked in a more traditional way after these types of experiments, I find myself much freer: more likely to let go of parts of the image or abstract areas of the painting. In my plein air work I am more likely to change the landscape I see to make the painting work, instead of being so literal.
In my day-to-day pastel work I like to mix things up, using different types of surfaces, surface colors, pastels, types of underpainting and techniques. I enjoy not knowing quite where a painting is headed and being surprised by how the pastel reacts with the surface. Using mixed media has taught me to be open to these surprises and use them to my advantage.
What resources did you explore for ideas and inspiration to work with pastel and other media? Have you read art books, visited museums, or studied artists whose work has particularly inspired you in your exploration?
The artist Judith Klausentock was a family friend and a role model for me when I was a child. She used to tear up her pastel and charcoal paintings and collage them together creating a 3D effect, mostly with portraits. She was fearless!
A while back I took a class on pastel monotype with Robynn Smith which got me started mixing it up. I also really enjoyed the PSWC demo by Carol Strock Wasson on pastel monotypes and pastel over monotype.
Having taught art to children for many years, I learned to be resourceful. We made art with everything we could get our hands on, and experimenting with mixing media—like glue, watercolor and pastel—taught the students (and me) so much. I think the most important lesson was not to be afraid to try something and keep asking the question “what if?”
Are there techniques or mediums you are excited to explore in the future?
I’d love to play around with using iridescent spray paint or other iridescent media under pastels. And I’ve been doing some work with oil pastels which are fun for travel.
Yesterday’s Snow, Erika Perloff
MEET THE MEMBERS
Lately I have been working on wall mosaics made from cast-off ceramics. The process is similar to using pastel except my “marks” are shards of colored ceramic. I spend a lot of time thinking about negative space, color, value and the scale of the marks in relation to the surface. And my favorite part is that the material I find usually inspires the art. A broken orange teapot becomes a persimmon in my mind and then a whole tree.
What advice do you have for others who are curious about trying mixed media?
Let yourself play! Messing around in the studio without a strong intent uses a very different part of our brains than when we are trying to use a specific technique or render something. Much you do will end up being nothing more than experiments, but the ideas you generate will inform your work. Something as simple as doing a watercolor underpainting will make you realize that you can amplify the effects of your pastels in limitless ways.
Here is what the project looked like before I removed the plants to see how they had stenciled the paper.
Erika Perloff’s process for creating Tangled
Tangled had its roots during the pandemic. I was desperate to go to an art store and try something new. When our local store finally reopened I decided to buy some nontoxic, water-based spray paint (made by Montana Colors). I wanted to try using plants as stencils.
1. With 3 colors of paint (orange, black and blue), I layered plants from my garden on Reeves BFK paper. Then I sprayed a color, added or removed plants, sprayed another color, etc. The result was some prettily patterned sheets of paper which I stuck in a drawer.
When the Out of Bounds! show came up, I started pulling things out of my flat files to use as a base for pastels.
2. I toned the stenciled paper with watercolor to knock back some of the bright color, then covered it with clear gesso, making some texture and giving it some tooth.
3. Using pastel, I covered up a lot of the stenciled images, but then let the plants inspire new pastel marks and drawing/painting. I also used a brush to paint over shapes with watercolor.
4. By pushing and pulling between the negative and positive shapes and playing with mark making, it began to resolve into its current state.The final image was all about responding with pastel to the colors and shapes created by nature.
Tangled, Erika Perloff
Tangled, Erika Perloff
Cowgirl Up! Art from the Other Half of the West
by Francesca Droll
Cowgirl Up! opening festivities were held on March 28–30, 2025 and I was fortunate to attend the 3-day extravaganza. The art show focuses on art from the “other half of the West” which showcases the brightest contemporary female artists who are painting in the spirit of the West and its lifestyle. In the male-dominated world of Western Art, Cowgirl Up! turned the spotlight squarely on women’s voices and perspectives, serving up a new, deeper understanding of the American West.
Hosted by the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona, the annual Cowgirl Up! is celebrating its 20th year. The event featured a miniatures show and a gallery of full-sized art. The 60 artists each presented at least 3 miniatures and 3 large gallery paintings or sculptures. Buying a ticket for the 3-day weekend includes entrance to all the shows along with a reception and silent auction for the miniatures on Friday evening, a sit down dinner on Saturday night after the main gallery’s silent auction, and a breakfast on Sunday morning while a quick draw was happening nearby.
The 90-minute Quick Draw event on Sunday morning
had about 25 participants as it is not a requirement of the artists to participate. The completed paintings are a donation to the Museum and are auctioned off afterwards to the attendees. The morning was well attended and the spectators filtered through the artists, commenting with appreciation. This is always a fun event to watch as the paintings materialize under the talented hands of the artists.
I was thrilled to meet superstar, Joni Falk, on Saturday evening in the relatively quiet miniatures room as most people were gathered in the main gallery. Joni is celebrated as a preeminent western artist during a time when few women were recognized in the genre. She is known for her Taos adobes in oil, and the light she achieves on the buildings is just stunning.
It was a joy to see two pastelists among the artists showing their work. Marcia Blakeman from North Carolina/ Montana and Lisa Gleim from Georgia/Montana. These ladies are accomplished artists working in both pastel and oil, although Lisa says her work is 99% pastel these days. Both artists provided 11 paintings to the Museum, six for the miniatures and five for the main gallery. Three paintings for each gallery were hung and the additional pieces held aside to replace the ones that sold.
Speaking to the artists about the application process provided some interesting revelations. Most artists apply through the Museum’s
On Top of Her World, Barbara Meikle, Bronze
website following their requirements however, Marcia told me that she was put up for consideration from someone within. Lisa applied in 2023 for the 2024 event and was not selected however, she received an acceptance from the organizers for the year 2025 without reapplying.
Lisa spoke about the shipping process. She finds that going with a private shipping company gets better results. The paintings are handled with care and are picked up directly from the artist and delivered to the venue. Shipping from Atlanta, Georgia, Lisa said it averaged about $100 per painting to ship the 11 paintings to Wickenburg one-way.
Marcia went a different route. She drove her paintings down from her home in Colorado as she wanted to get a feeling for the venue. She then returned for the opening weekend.
As for tips for other pastelists applying, Lisa mentioned
that the subject matter should be strictly western in landscapes and animals. Lisa looks for unusual subject matter that will generate interest both for the curator and the collectors. It helps to view what has been shown in the past to get an idea of the appropriate themes. The pastels will need to be framed with plexiglass or museum acrylic.
The application deadline has already passed for participation in 2026. The deadline for applying is in April of the preceding year. Lisa indicated that she received her acceptance letter in the fall before the show.
The quality of art in the show is stellar and the artists come from all over the U.S. If you have an opportunity to attend, don’t hesitate. The staff of the Museum are kind, funny, and very helpful. I’m planning to return next year to enjoy the incredible art and festivities once again. You can view the art at westernmuseum.org.
Above clockwise: Marcia Blakeman, Marcia at the Quick Draw event, Early Harvest, 8 x 10 in., pastel
Lisa Gleim, The Burro of Labor, 16.5 x 23 in., pastel on topo map
Trees Singing, 12 x 12 in., oil
This oil painting was rejected from four shows. Even after four rejections, I believed in it so much I decided I’d enter it into what I consider to be the hardest show to get in, let alone win. It won one of only 3 honorable mentions in an Oil Painters of America show.
become a blend of the objective and subjective. It is human nature.
I have seen jurors/judges whose top picks are paintings that closely resemble the style or subject that they themselves paint, and I have seen them completely look over work that is in a category related to their own interests. In either case it makes me curious as to how they arrived at their decision.
The other elephant in the room is the quality of the image on the juror’s monitor compared to how it looked on yours. This is a big issue too. Judging a picture on the screen is absolutely no comparison to judging the same painting on the wall. And sometimes when an artist does too much with Photoshop to attempt to get a closer representation, this can read entirely differently on another computer making it “look” Photoshopped. So use a tripod and a camera with high resolution capabilities or get them professionally photographed.
The other interesting phenomenon, is when you have multiple jurors, you may have tastes/preferences or
opinions that differ wildly from one another. If there are three jurors and your painting received high marks of a 9 and an 8 from two of them, but only scored a 2 from the third, that gives your painting a score of 6.3. Two of those judges had your work in the top and the third just dropped your painting to average. Eye opening.
What have I learned over time?
1. A Juror can only judge the image on the screen, not the actual artwork. So make it the best possible representation.
2. The artist’s work is judged, in the case of online jurying, by a computer image that has been shared a minimum of three times by the time it’s received by the juror. Images degrade as they are shared across platforms and not all computer screens are going to portray the image the way you saw it on yours.
3. Submit ONLY your best work and explore how it looks as a thumbnail. Does it have rack-smack even then?
4. Don’t base your subject matter on the juror, submit your best work and let the chips fall where they may.
5. If you don’t enter, you cannot get in BUT…
6. If you don’t get in it doesn’t mean you lost, you simply did not get in.
I have been tossed out of far more shows than I’ve been accepted into over the years. I have always kept a list and the X’s far outnumbered the checks. Even today, paintings I feel are my best are rejected over and over, until they aren’t and then, they sometimes place! But what I DON’T do is intentionally use a painting that has gotten into a show and enter it into everything else because it’s a “winner.” I’ve got too much pride for that. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-hit-wonder. I challenge myself to do that again with another. My career has been built on raising the bar for myself and teaching other artists to do the same.
There are far too many variables to ever think you can figure shows out. The key to getting into them is to simply keep showing up and focus on making great work. Keep entering the shows you really want to get in. There are a lot of amazing artists out there and with shows online now, the competition is overwhelming. Much has changed since having to get professional
slides together to mail off entries. The expense used to limit the shows you could apply to and there were fewer shows then as well! Now that all it takes is pushing a button, the competition is fierce.
If you are seeking validity from a show acceptance, I would argue you are wasting your time or worse, you are allowing your confidence to be kneecapped and you’re questioning your own skill. Allow those rejections to strengthen your determination to stand up to that easel and make better work! I believe you should enter shows you deem important consistently and focus on the bigger shows that your artistic heroes get into. When you get into one of those, you then realize you are standing with your peers. THOSE are the ones that will help you see your progress and validity. Big fish in little ponds are just exactly that.
Most importantly paint what you love, and paint from your heart! Those are the paintings that will separate you from the pack! There is a place for you and your work. Recognition will come!
Just paint. Creativity defies absolutes and failure becomes experience.
Good Neighbors, 12 x 24 in., pastel
This pastel painting was rejected from 4 shows. It was then chosen to be shown in a collaborative exhibit during convention and also chosen to be in the wonderful IAPS publication “Pastel: A Celebration.” The painting ultimately sold to an Architectural Historian in Chicago! Far better than getting into any show.
2025 Scholarship Winners Have Promising Futures
by Kim Essex
From 30 applications and five finalists, the PSWC Executive Committee has selected two recipients of our 2025 scholarships. Each winners’ college of choice will receive $2,000 to be applied to their tuition.
This year, for the first time, we also will be awarding honorable mentions without monetary scholarships to the other three finalists.
The Art Scholarship Program fulfills the part of our mission to promote education in the arts. To solicit applications, the scholarship program is promoted on our website and social platforms as well as to high school and college art department chairs, teachers, counselors and administrators.
The students who applied this year were from all over the country, from Puerto Rico to California, and included both high school and college students. Their original artwork, applications, art statement and letters of recommendations were all reviewed to make the final selection.
Students interested in submitting applications for the scholarship may do so between January 1 and April 15, for the upcoming academic year. Applications and details are available online at pswc.ws/art-scholarships/
Honorable Mentions
The 2025 applicants receiving an Honorable Mention:
Faith Ogenyi Liberty Township, Ohio
Theron Brown, II Glen Heights, Texas
Rayana Moore Pembroke Pines, Florida
SCHOLARSHIPS
2025 Winner ~ Anna Hernández
Eighteen-year-old Anna attends the Escuela Especializada Central de Artes Visuales in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She plans to attend Iowa State University to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
She started painting at age six when she felt “images could capture what words sometimes fail to express.”
One of her early art memories was “sitting with my father on our balcony with a sketchbook in hand, observing a flamboyán tree showering its pink petals on the sidewalk below. That moment of carefully painting each leaf, capturing every petal as it fell, was my first real observation exercise.” That painting still hangs in her family’s living room today.
She has an inspiring career vision that includes becoming a certified professional makeup artist and opening an art studio where she would sell her works alongside other emerging Latino artists and provide internships to art students.
It is clear Anna will be a civic-minded artist, contributing to her community and helping other artists grow and succeed. As a partner of the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, she has shared her art talent as a volunteer for the museum’s “Art, Ecology and Sustainability Project” among several other volunteer activities.
One of her professors wrote, “Her social commitment has been demonstrated through multiple hours of community service for different non-profit organizations. These have been very enriching experiences for her.”
2025 Winner ~ Alana Murray
Twenty-year-old Alana attends Florida State College at Jacksonville and will be applying her scholarship to further her art study at the University of Central Florida. In addition to exceptional technical ability, Alana demonstrated in her artist statement she has an artist’s heart.
“Art has always appealed to me as a way to bring bright moments of happiness and connection to people,” she wrote. “One of my greatest influences, even outside of art but especially within it, is the sheer vibrancy of the life of everyday things. I genuinely squeal when I see a cobblestone bridge, or when I am taking a walk and the trees glow with sunlight.”
Alana has collected an impressive number of art recognitions from local associations and juried shows in addition to being recognized as an honors student in high school and college.
The teachers who wrote letters of recommendation for Anna consistently reference her commitment to learning and growing as an artist.
“Alana invested many hours of work in the studio,” wrote her painting professor who she credits for helping her become confident in her pursuit of a career in art. “She is at a point in her life where she’s taking her education very seriously as a pathway toward personal improvement,” the professor added.
PSWC applauds all the applicants and celebrates Alana and Anna as the winners of this year’s scholarships!
WORKSHOP
DESMOND O’HAGAN
Capturing Light: Interpreting Values & Shapes
MAY 30 – JUNE 1, 2025
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EACH DAY
In-person workshop through PSWC www.pswc.ws/workshops
$430 for 3-day workshop
Art on Center 3182 Center Street Placerville, CA 95667
About the Artist
Desmond O'Hagan was born in Germany and raised in the U.S. He has been painting for 35 years and lives in Denver, CO, where he devotes his time to his art in oils and pastels, and traveling throughout the world.
He has long been considered one of the leading urbanscape artists in the world. Desmond has achieved “Eminent Pastelist” status with the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) and is a member of their “Masters Circle.” He is also a Master Pastelist with the Pastel Society of America and is listed in Who’s Who in American Art. O’Hagan has won several awards in national and international exhibits including IAPS convention exhibit’s Prix’d Pastel Award and Southwest Art Magazine’s Award of Excellence (2x) at the “Windows to the Divine” Exhibitions in Denver, CO. He has also won the George Innes, Jr. Memorial Award from the Salmagundi Club in New York City. Desmond’s paintings have been in feature articles in national and international magazines, and his art is in collections in the U.S. Europe, Canada and China. desmondohagan.com
About the Workshop
This workshop explores experimenting outside your comfort zone and achieving the next level in your pastel painting. The main focus is to delve into the art of “Interpreting Light.” This approach can be used in both landscapes and urbanscapes as well as a variety of other subject matter. I have a very hands-on approach to teaching; working individually with each student.
Throughout the three days there will be a combination of lectures, an exercise, individual work with each student and demonstrations. Lectures will include topics on composition, color, developing technique through a more painterly approach, “infusing light” and conveying energy, the importance of values and contrasts, materials, working outside your comfort zone, framing, critiquing, and art marketing/business. An information sheet about framing will be supplied.
WORKSHOP
DOUG DAWSON
In-Studio Landscape Workshop
OCTOBER 10 – 12, 2025
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EACH DAY
In-person workshop through PSWC www.pswc.ws/workshops
$475 for 3-day workshop
Art on Center 3182 Center Street Placerville, CA 95667
About the Artist
Doug Dawson's art has been honored nationally and internationally. He has been given the title of Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America and awarded the title of Master Circle by the International Association of Pastel Societies. He was entered in the Pastel Society of America Hall of Fame in 2008. His most recent instruction was given in “Pastel Live” Global 2022 Virtual Arts Conference. (22 countries)
He has taught art for Colorado Institute of Art, Colorado Christian University, and The Art Students League of Denver. He is a founding board member for The Art Students League of Denver where he teaches classes in figure painting and landscape painting. Doug's works range from expressive portraits to urban night scenes to emotive landscapes. All of them capturing the light and mood of the moment-in-time.
www.dougdawsonstudio.com
About the Workshop
This workshop is open to pastel and oil artists. In the three days of the workshop, much material will be covered. After a painting demonstration by Doug, students will work on their own paintings.
The second and third days each begin with short illustrations of painting principles by Doug. Students will continue to work on their own paintings and Doug will provide individual help.
Topics covered during the workshop include:
• Black and white and color thumbnail sketches,
• Three types of designs that characterize compelling paintings,
• The principles that are used to create the illusion of depth in a landscape,
• The principle of the common color and the underlying concept of color harmony,
• How to solve color problems as you paint,
• Different approaches to underpainting,
• Other topics about which participants have questions may be covered.
At the end of each day there will be a critique of work done that day. Students are invited to bring in additional work for the critique if they wish.
Marsh Tree, 20 x 26 in, pastel
COLETTE ODYA SMITH
Composition is the Key: Abstract Realism in Contemporary Landscape
AUGUST 27 – 29, 2025 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EACH DAY
In-person workshop through PSWC www.pswc.ws/workshops
$395 for 3-day workshop
Hilbert Museum of California Art Chapman University 167 N. Atchison Street Orange, CA 92866
About the Workshop
Join Colette as she explores how intentional control of a painting’s composition sets the stage for the effectiveness of what you want your landscape to say and how you want it to feel. Beginning with a brief examination of the historical and cultural power of compositional conventions, follow along as Colette shares her best practices for moving her treatment of the landscape beyond mere representationalism. Gather ideas of how to work from your photos—even poor ones—to emphasize the abstract and emotional qualities inherent within realistic images. Emphasis is placed on working in a supportive environment to develop skills, practice techniques, and attend to your personal artistic development.
Each day will include direct instruction, and examples, with individual work time and feedback. Colette will demonstrate her process, offering insights into her decision-making and responses to the work in progress. One-on-one guidance and encouragement are provided during generous working time. A collaborative atmosphere provides plenty of growth opportunities.
About the Artist
Colette’s paintings have been featured in several books and art publications and exhibited widely in the United States, France, Germany, and China. They have received over 70 regional, national, and international awards. Ms. Smith has written articles and juried for the Pastel Journal and The Artists Magazine. She has judged the international exhibitions of the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS). She has been honored as a Maître Pastelliste by the Societe des Pastellistes de France, Master Pastelist and Advisory Board Member by PSA, Eminent Pastelist and Masters’ Circle member by IAPS, and Distinguished Pastelist by the Pastel Society of New Mexico. Her work hangs in public, corporate and private collections, including the Ming Gallery Museum of Pastel in Suzhou, China. She offers her work in the spirit of service. www.coletteodyasmith.com
Pooling Resources, 30 x 30 in, Pastel/watercolor on 4-ply museum board coated with Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastel
WORKSHOP
ANNE STRUTZ
Marks in Motion: Creating Expressive Paintings
NOVEMBER 13 – 15, 2025
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM EACH DAY
In-person workshop through PSWC
www.pswc.ws/workshops
$350 for 3-day workshop
Riviera United Methodist Church
375 Palos Verdes Blvd
Redondo Beach CA 90277
About the Artist
Anne Strutz graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and her career started in Fashion Design in New York City. While raising her family, she developed art curriculum and taught in Philadelphia and Chicago. After moving to North Carolina, Anne began building her fine art career working in pastels and became an award-winning pastel artist, recognized as an "Artist to watch" by the Pastel Journal Magazine.
Anne is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and holds Master Circle Status in the International Association of Pastel Societies. Anne has authored multiple articles for Pastel Journal, Artist Magazine and the Pastel Society of the West Coast Magazine. She has been featured in the French magazine Pratique de Arts. Anne began working with oil and multi-medium in 2023 to expand her artistic expression.
www.annestrutzfineart.com
About the Workshop
In this three-day workshop students will learn how to infuse their paintings with energy and motion, be it fast, slow, loud, quiet. We will combine underpainting techniques, mark making and the process of additive and subtractive painting. An emphasis of experimentation through presented exercises will be used to push yourself to create more expressive works. To not be bound by what the reference looks like, but to paint what the reference makes you feel. The first two days will be a series of exercises working from provided photo references. The last day students will work from their own references to implement some of the techniques they have learned.
My approach is one that is filled with experimentation, and openness to create in an atmosphere without fear. I try hard to have students push out of their comfort zones to help them start to achieve the goals they have for themselves. I am focusing on the art fundamentals in a playful, yet serious manner. We will be starting each day with a warmup journal that I provide of mini exercises. This has been very well received at my workshops.
NAME
New PSWC Members March & April 2025
Leslie Autery Los Gatos CA leslieauteryart.com
Mary Ann Davis Indianapolis IN madavisart.com
Kerry DiSanto Santa Fe NM
Kristina King Northampton MA
Anne Laddon Paso Robles CA anneladdon.com
Marcia Ludden Albuquerque NM
Maureen McHale Long Beach CA
Ginny Murtaugh Templeton CA etsy.com/shop/ scenesofsplendor
Nooshin Paidar Westlake Village CA
Renee Rashid Los Altos CA
Jan Arlene Sogge Lacey WA
Chris Toeppen Atherton CA
Tamami Tokutake Reno NV blupastels.com
Barbara Brasfield Wade Fresno CA
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PRESIDENT REGIONAL REPS OUT OF BOUNDS CO-CHAIR
Pamela Comfort
VICE PRESIDENT PASTELS USA: 99 VOICES CHAIR Lynn Attig
SECRETARY WE TALK ART HOST OUT OF BOUNDS CO-CHAIR
Bonnie Zahn Griffith
TREASURER
501(c)3 COORDINATOR Deborah Pepin
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER Sabrina Hill
BOARD APPOINTEES
MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR Open
MEMBERSHIP SHOW (MOOS) CHAIR SA Kushinka
WAYS & MEANS COORDINATOR Open
WORKSHOP COORDINATOR Jean Vineyard Myers
MAGAZINE EDITOR MARKETING Francesca Droll
WEBSITE MANAGER SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Delcee Comfort Fields
MEMBERSHIP STATUS Jan Miller
SCHOLARSHIP CHAIR Kim Essex
Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston, Desmond O’Hagan, pastel
Artist Melissa Lovett-Adair ~ Photo by Bobbye West-Thompson
