Pastel Art of Mary Aslin
Working in a centuries old classical style producing pastel art, Mary Aslin creates still life, figurative, and landscape paintings - artwork so luminous and lifelike, the viewer is treated to a rich visual experience where the play of light on the subject engages all of the senses.
Mary considers herself a traditional, representational painter. She spends long hours observing the beauty and light of nature, and then returns to her studio to "orchestrate works that are composites of design and emotion, most often painting directly from life."
She adds, "The visual elements of lines and shapes, values and colors, textures and edges, with light as the conductor, are combined to tell stories of rhythm and movement as in the graceful drape of a flower stem or the pose of the body. Or the pastel art tells a story of harmony and unity as with a cluster of objects composed like music, or with patterns of shadow and light setting the stage to emphasize the drama of a narrative style painting. Composing can take minutes or days." Yet she doesn't begin a painting until her heart or emotions tell her to do so.
Mary most often works with soft pastels, paints that come as rolled sticks of pure powdered pigment that have a high amount of pigment and less binder than most paints and are available in a broad range of bright colors. Working with these is like drawing and painting at the same time. The result is pastel art works that have brilliant colors and precise details. Pastels are also the most enduring of all art media, resulting in paintings that can last for centuries.
She explains, "Beauty takes the stage and my excitement grows as I 'sculpt' and 'pull' the painting to life, with recognizable forms, shapes, and colors emerging from the harmonious abstract." She stays true to her emotional response to a subject, while paying attention to the way light reveals the inherent integrity of the design. "My goal," she adds, "is a work that goes beyond the 'sum of its parts' with the final painting strokes becoming truly exclamation points, pointing to the beauty that was there all along and simply presented itself for my applause."
Curator/writer/teacher Roberta Carasso, PhD describes her process as, "Beautifully rendered, realistic pastel still lifes," and, "Her technique, vision and use of colored pigments appear to not belong to a particular era, but transcend time," adding that, "her work is classic rather than contemporary."
Mary Aslin, who has studied with several noteworthy artists, is largely self-taught and has received numerous awards for her pastel art paintings. If you are in California this summer, check out her work at the Festival of Arts and at the Joseph Wise Gallery, Laguna Beach and at Chemers Gallery, Tustin.
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