explicitly expressed through the beautiful use of light and
shadow, but they don’t. The artist’s mastery blends the
two into a pairing that produces a perfect complement.”
FIFTH PLACE
Barbara Jaenicke
Barbara Jaenicke (barbarajaenicke.com) lives in Bend,
Ore., and enjoys painting both majestic places and
quieter nooks. Bright Ending features a parcel of land
near her neighborhood. “This work inspires us to remem-
ber why a winter walk lifts our soul,” Hosner says. “It
demonstrates a wonderful use of accuracy and economy,
which can best be expressed as a poem without words.”
Jaenicke began the studio painting soon after taking
the reference photo. A thumbnail sketch helped her
pin down the placement, proportions and contours of
shapes and also established a value structure. Working on
buff UART 320 Premium Mounted Board, she used four
Nupastels—ranging from dark to mid-value—to block in
a simplified arrangement of five shapes.
Interestingly, the painting started as a square. Deciding
she was unhappy with the composition, Jaenicke opted to
crop the 20x20-inch board to 10x20. “By cropping off the
bottom half, and with a few minor tweaks, the diagonal
stream of light becomes even more powerful within the
surrounding elements of the composition,” she says. PJ
Michael Chesley Johnson (mchesleyjohnson.com) is an artist and
a frequent contributor to Pastel Journal and Artists Magazine.
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