Dust and Chaos (20x20)
by Arlene RichmanThe painting itself, though, was inspired by the color
orange. “Orange is a challenge,” says Richman. “It’s also
a color I like a lot. I wanted to simplify the composition
with a large central and dominant color block, breaking
it up and suggesting other shapes and spaces with linear
mark-making.”
Richman works mostly on BFK Rives paper, covered with
Golden Acrylic Ground for pastel. For Dust and Chaos, she
skipped her normal underpainting stage and went straight
to the orange pastel. She favors Mount Vision pastels
because of their “scratch,” but also uses Diane Townsend,
Terry Ludwig, Sennelier, Great American and other brands.
“You name them; I’ve used them,” she says. She’ll use the
broad side of a pastel for quick coverage of large spaces,
such as the orange block. For lines she uses the end of a
pastel stick, a pastel pencil, charcoal or a charcoal pencil.
Richman feels that her prize-winning painting, with its
prominent area of “unconventional” color, is a departure
from her larger body of work. Trying something different
felt gratifying. “If there’s one
thing I found in painting Dust
and Chaos,” says Richman, “it’s
that fearlessness feels good,”
she says. “Gotta try more of it!”FOURTH PLACE
Stan Bloomfield
Stan Bloomfield, of Flagstaff,
Ariz., is a lifelong watercolor
artist who considers himself
relatively new to pastel. “Each
painting is still an experiment
in mark-making, materials and
composition,” he says.
He begins with an abstract
idea and then “refines the
pattern,” he explains. “A rock
impression may become a rock,
or maybe not.” Mountain hikes
provided inspiration for Autumn
Impressions, but the piece doesn’t
depict a particular scene. Rather,
it’s an amalgam of experiences on
the trail—an impression, as the
title indicates. “I wanted to do an
autumn painting, so I began with
yellow and orange colors placed
at random,” says Bloomfield.
The artist typically works
on Crescent illustration board.a bit of planning in regard to color, selecting the first few
sticks to ensure harmony of hues and balance of tempera-
tures. She points out that although a work’s design may
not be preconceived, the principles of design still matter.
“Compositionally, it has to work just like any other style
of painting,” she says. “There’s relationship, balance and
design, and a method in my chaos.”THIRD PLACE
Arlene Richman
The title Dust and Chaos was suggested to Princeton, N.J.,
artist Arlene Richman (richmanpastels.com) by a friend. It
was just an idea for a name, with no particular painting in
mind. Richman realized the name was perfect for an hom-
age to another friend, who’d recently passed away. “Dust”
refers to the pastel medium; “chaos” to the deceased friend,
who’d been seminal to the development of chaos theory.84 Pastel Journal APRIL 2020