The Figure Pastels

The Figure Pastels

 I owe these works to Ania. She is an Artist who has been living in the US for thirty years. I met her at a party in Lexington, Kentucky and invited her to come to open figure drawing sessions at the University of Kentucky. She grew up in Poland during the Russain occupation and in order to escape the harsh political environment her Mother would take her to the countryside to paint Plein Air with other Polish Artists. She was accomplished and every time we went to the studio we experienced the joy of sharing this intense creative experience together.We were always late and struggled to get there. We both worked and it was really hard to get up early and get to the studio by 9:00am on  Saturday. Ania introduced me to pastels. We were late as usual and by chance she had grabbed pastels and threw them into her art box. We were flustered and were trying to get set up and I couldn't find my charcoal and she just handed me the pastels and said, "Here, we can use these". I had never worked with pastels, never thought about pastels or knew how to use them. The timer went off and they emerged. These works are 4ft by 3ft and the use of color was instinctive. I miss being in the studio with her and sharing the amazing creative experience we shared.