“I like to paint on dark surfaces,
particularly UART 400 black paper,”
Kossow continues, “and I was just
about to paint the daylight through
the window when it hit me that the
paper made the scene look like a
nightscape. I decided that a moonlit
evening would make the mood far
more mysterious and interesting.”
To create the scene, the artist used
Nupastel, Terry Ludwig, Girault and
Holbein pastels.
“This painting tells a story in
a powerful way,” Maimon says. “It
grabbed and took me into a differ-
ent time and space. The sheep are
brilliantly rendered in simple shapes,
and there’s just enough detail to
create convincing scenery.”FIFTH PLACE
John Plishka
While on a vacation to Rocky
Mountain National Park, John
Plishka (tyjart.com) noticed a nut-
hatch feeding on the bugs in a tree.
The colors and textural variations
in the scene captured his attention.
“The beautiful contrast of the bird’s
pure white head, along with the softblue and gray of its feathers against
the backdrop of the rough, red bark,
is what ultimately led me to paint
Bugging Old Tree Man,” he says. “My
goal was to tell a story and lead view-
ers around the painting—from the
bird peeling off the bark looking for
insects, to the angry look of the ‘man’
in the tree, which viewers can hope-
fully find by using their imagination.”
The Lindenhurst, Ill.-based artist,
who was in veterinary practice for
years before retiring to teach animal
biology, divided his reference photo
into quarters and roughly sketched
the outline and shapes of the piece
onto Clairefontaine Pastelmat.
“I worked one quadrant at a time,
from top to bottom, using Sennelier
and Unison pastels as a light under-
painting,” he says. “I added details
with CarbOthello pastel pencils.
“Finally, I went back to the pastel
sticks and added splashes of color
on the bark and the bird’s head,” he
continues. “I also repeated subtle
hints of the blues and purples seen
in the bird in the areas between the
bark, which contributes to the overall
harmony of the piece.”
Most of Plishka’s paintings are
quite meticulous. “For me, the
beauty is in the details,” he says.
“I’m interested in the fine features
of animals and their environments,
often choosing to paint them from
a close perspective. When viewed up
close, the most simple of subjects
becomes quite elaborate and strik-
ingly beautiful.”
Maimon agrees. “This is one of
those brilliant paintings in which
you can appreciate how the details
and smaller parts work in their own
right and as a whole,” she says. PJBeth Williams is senior editor of Pastel
Journal, as well as Artists Magazine and
Watercolor Artist.LEFT
Expectant Mothers (15x20)
by Cristine Kossow
BELOW
Bugging Old Tree Man (8x10)
by John PlishkaArtistsNetwork.com 79