Pastel Portrait Drawings by Cynthia Hayes

Recently I received a new friend request on Facebook. Soon  after that my new friend shared a photo I had posted a few years ago with the comment "That's me, love it."  His compliment was really encouraging especially because it is often difficult to meet a portrait sitter's expectations. 

I hadn't immediately recognized my new Facebook friend Aaron, but certainly remembered the drawing session he had modeled for. Aaron posing with the work in progress is pictured below.

I've had extensive years of experience figure drawing, but this was the first "portrait" session I ever attended. I tried to capture the essence of a noble spirit with the upward, optimistic, determined gaze.

Aaron

30" x 22.5"

chalk pastel & oil paint on printmaking paper

An artist working at the local Utrecht's Art Supply Store had organized a series of portrait sessions. He'd ask interesting looking patrons of the store if they would be willing to pose. An exciting variety of people agreed to model. Our models ranged in age, ethnicity, gender, personality types, etc. 

Flame

30" x 22.5"

chalk pastel & oil paint on printmaking paper

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One of my favorite portrait models was this gentleman named "Flame". So much fun to study all of his long grey hair and beard with its loose spiraling curls. Flame held his faithful friend for the entire 3 hour sitting. Amazing how patient this little dog was!

In this photo, we see the setup. Temporary foam core walls were propped up to give a backdrop, and to block the art supply store shelves. The model was raised high on a tall stool so that everyone could get a good view. Gallon buckets of gesso were stacked to the right height to give a place for the feet to rest, and also to hold the chair in place. The ambient overhead florescent store lights were the default lighting situation which was not as dramatic as is often preferred by figurative artists.

Portrait of a Young Woman

30" x 22.5"

chalk pastel & oil paint on printmaking paper

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Bringing several sheets of painted paper to the session, I select one with colors that may work with the model's clothing, skin tone, or even mood. The underpainting greatly influences color choices as the  work progresses.  

I covered many sheets of printmaking paper with oil and enamel house paints years ago while living in the Caribbean. Nonobjective, brightly colored paintings were prepared to be used as under paintings. In this drawing much of this paint remains untouched. Shapes inspired by orange coconuts and green palm leaves mingle with a turquoise color paint ubiquitously used on island homes.

There was no color in the model's clothing or backdrop. Rather than filling in a black background, I utilized the vivid color, and created a blonde, beach wave hair style to match the imagined environment.



A few more examples of chalk pastel portraits on painted paper -

Karen

30"x22.5"

chalk pastel & oil paint on printmaking paper

The following images are of chalk pastel portraits done on 30"x22.5" white printmaking paper. 

For this final portrait, my friend Kristin posed outdoors on her patio one beautiful summer evening while the sunlight faded into sunset. The changing light made the process challenging, but added drama. Kristin's eyes appear closed because she was looking down at a book she was reading. I wish I had asked her to look up for a few minutes so I could get her eyes. 

Krisitn

30"x22.5"

chalk pastel on printmaking paper

I hope you enjoyed visiting my blog.

Some of the drawings pictured are for sale online at my Etsy Shop CynthiaHayesArt. Prices for the others are available upon request. If inquiring, please email me at Cynthia.S.Hayes (at) gmail (dot) com

Pastel Figure Drawings: Part II

In my last blog post, "Pastel Figure Drawings: Part I" I recounted many years of drawing from life on Friday nights.  The first three illustrations in this post are all of John, one of my favorite models who posed throughout the years at those Friday night drawing sessions. A yoga and meditation practitioner, John was able to hold dynamic and challenging, often contorted poses for much longer than any other model I've ever worked with.

The underpainting for this pastel drawing is muted and earthier in color when compared to the vibrant examples in my last post. The limited palette forces one to focus on color temperature. Cool turquoise highlights reflect off the warm skin tones illustrated with shades of rust, brown, maroon and plum.

John I

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

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This underpainting is applied leaving wider gaps between color blocks, allowing some white paper to be exposed. The painted marks have an open airy quality similar to that of the hatched chalk marks of subsequent layers.

John II

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

Monochromatic gestural paint marks underlie the third pastel drawing of John. These marks activate the space around the introspective figure.  

Blue substitutes for black in the very limited palette. The cooler hue to contrasts with the dominant warm sepias and burnt sienna browns.

The strong pyramidal composition of this piece lends stability. The model's downward gaze directs the viewer to follow the longest diagonal line.

John III

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

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The following pastels are also drawn on monochromatic painted grounds done with gestural marks which allow white paper to remain exposed. Dusty rose or mauve colors give impressions of the warmth of the live bodies. Immediately the figures seem more alive than if they were drawn directly on a white background. The middle value of the mauve provides the opportunity to work with highlights as well as shadows, working out from the center value in both directions. 

Nancy

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

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Seated Female Model

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

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Maria

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

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Maria II

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

22.5" x 30.5"

Pastel Figure Drawings: Part I

For long I've been devoted to the practice of figure drawing. As a young art student I fell in love with the pursuit of capturing the energy, vitality and beauty of a living model. Soon it became my goal to teach courses in Life Drawing and Anatomy so that I could share my passion for the subject with others.

Female Nude Reclining

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

30.5" x 22.5"

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In 1983 I began attending figure drawing sessions every Friday night to get extra practice. The group, which is open to the public, has been meeting weekly for nearly 50 years, and still meets to this day.

It is hard for me to believe, but I've been teaching in the art department at that same university for 19 years now!

All of my pastel drawings in this post were done at Friday Night Open Figure Drawing sessions and were created during 3 hour long poses. 

Each is 30.5" x 22.5"

Female Nude with Parasol and Fan

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

30.5" x 22.5"

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These drawings are on thick printmaking paper that were prepared with abstract color blocks using oil paint. The colors of the underpainting influence my color choices as I work.

Female Nude Model with Fan

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

30.5"x22.5"

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I prefer the color and texture of Rembrandt brand pastels. Often a sepia conte crayon is used for the preliminary line work.

In the beginning the delicate drawn image is very difficult to see against the vibrant bold shapes.

Female Reclining Nude

chalk pastel and oil paint on printmaking paper

30.5" x 22.5"

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I am very excited about the interaction of color as the background affects the way the thin colored lines are perceived.

A great variety of people modeling keeps the experience fresh and challenging.

Some of the original pastel drawings pictured here are available for purchase online. Check it out by clicking the link below -

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More figure drawings will be featured in future posts!

Visiting Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata

Birla Academy of Art & Culture has played an important role in forming modern and contemporary Indian aesthetics. Currently Birla Academy is planning 50th year golden jubilee celebrations. 

The academy fills a large, modern building with classrooms, lecture halls, and galleries housing permanent art collections and traditional arts as well as galleries dedicated to showcasing emerging art trends in well curated exhibits. 

Birla Academy of Art and Culture

109, Southern Avenue, Kolkata

West Bengal, India

Today we will visit two contemporary exhibitions at the BAAC in Kolkata. The 49th Annual Exhibition and LoC - Line of Control  are on view. (January, 2016)

The 49th Annual Exhibition is in the Basant Kumar Birla Gallery - a huge space divided into many smaller rooms. I am including photos of some of the rooms to give a sense of the museum-like scale.  The show highlights the work of 200 artists selected from 420 submissions from all over India.

An incredible array works in all media fill the vast space. 

Installations like the one above, along with colorful figurative sculptures, are among the three dimensional arts represented.

It is a difficult job to organize so much diverse art, but in this exhibit the artworks are arranged and placed thoughtfully. The whimsical character of the life-sized ceramic baby (pictured below) fit well with the mood of the paintings surrounding it - like that of a grinning figure with an iguana on his head.

We need to pause to admire this fabulous marble floor!

Much of the work in this year's annual exhibition is figurative - and very colorful. Even the figurative sculpture is boldly colored.

Paltu Ghosh 

Siliguri

Resting on the Lap of Letter

acrylic on handmade paper

38 x 57 cm

Bhakti Bhusan De, New Delhi

Changing of Life

water colour & ink

55 x 45 cm

The painting pictured above and the bronze seen below were created by the same artist, Bhakti Bhusan De from New Delhi. How wonderful to see an artist so skilled in diverse media!

Bhakti Bhusan De, New Delhi

Destruction of Nature

Bronze, steel, brass and copper

90 x 45 cm

A tapestry depicting a woman was formed by weaving pages torn from magazines.

This detail from another hanging scroll sensitively captures an intimate moment.

Koushek Konar

Bankura

Hum-Tum (detail)

tempera

122 x 61 cm

Parameswara Samal, Orissa

Time, Memory Fantasy - II

acrylic on canvas

90 x 60 cm

We say farewell to a fanciful beast as we depart the annual exhibit to explore more of the Birla Academy.

The stair landings feature assembled murals utilizing primary colors made during the 2015 workshop Transforming Borders conducted by Chhatrapati Dutta. Dutta, one of the artists represented in the LoC show, exhibits internationally his multi-media works that include sound, video, and installation.

Walking through this beautifully designed hallway, we enter another gallery where the Line of Control  exhibition is displayed.

LoC - Line of Control is an exhibition of contemporary Indian art that was organized by the curator, Johny ML in response to an act of socio-religious censorship at an exhibition in Pune. 
A few pieces from the exhibition are highlighted here.


Debanjan Roy, a sculptor from Kolkata, created a satirical piece about the India/Pakistan relationship.

Debanjan Roy
Gandhiji and Jinnah Taking Selfie
Painted Fibre Glass
68"x48"x34"

The installation pictured below is by the group Po10tial - a team of ten artists from different parts of India. Members include Akhilesh Kumar, Annaray S. Hangargi, Bhuwal Prasad, Kuldip Karegaonkar, Mallikarjun Katke, Maushmi Ganguly, Nkanhaiya, Santosh Rathod, Shabari S.Guha Nath, and Srinivas Mahtre.  The Po10tial group's stated "The moment we hear the words Line of Control / LoC, we straight away tend to view a line between the national borders, spaces of conflicts with our neighboring countries and ...at a level it restricts our behavior and control. Then we gradually start to fine tune the LoC from the division of nations to states to districts to town or village to neighbourhood to lane to division to house numbers to room divisions and finally to the individuals having their own limitations in his or her inner self in the thought process.
We the ten different artists together forming the Po10tial team came to the conclusion that it is we who limit or unlimited ourselves, and these lines of control further proliferate through us. Our installation was arrived at unanimously and as we all believed that we draw our own Lines of control, the installation began taking shape accordingly. The base depicts Nature which has its own lines of control, the transparent pole is a reflection of our inner selves, and each work, shaped like an inward pointing arrow painting portrays our mission to look within ourselves at our own Lines of Control."

Po10tial
Looking Through
Acrylic cylinder, wood, canvas, acrylic, metal wire

Gujarati artist Shilpa Nikam, who now resides in Mumbai, expresses her emotions in mixed media on canvas and paper. The framed pieces on the wall (seen included in the installation below) address the physical borders of India and her neighboring countries. Barbed wire coils are installed below the framed artwork to represent the barbed iron fences that according to  Nikam "demarcate the human race itself. It acts as a sharp piercing thorn in the idyllic landscape of the mountainous regions of the borders. In my installation work,  Dehleez (threshold), I move from the political realm to the personal as I believe every dissent or argument begins at a personal level of one's ego. Ego causes the discord and disconnect between two people or two nations. Lines of control are drawn in the form of social norms and psychological and physical to segregate humanity as a whole. Women in my opinion are victims of this segregation and my installation works portrays a brave woman taking her first steps against a social norm, courageously."

Shilpa Nikam

Dehleez
Mixed Media on paper

The brightly colored acrylic canvas (seen on the left side below) is by Akhlaq Ahmed, an artist from Uttar Pradesh. His piece titled Line of Control is an evocation of the M.F. Husain incident. Husain, a  Muslim, was driven out of India because he had painted the Hindu Goddesses in his hallmark style which merged his self portrait with the goddesses'.

Delhi artist Deepa Jayaraman's large acrylics on paper (above on right) are inspired by folk tales. In this narrative work Guns and Rosy she "delineates a scenario where ruthless murders and encroachments come to be seen as normal only because people just do not know where to draw a line between need and greed, pride and passion, and emotion and blind action. While 'gun' exemplifies all these dualities of existence, 'rosy' stands for the artist who is rendered helpless and confused by this ongoing madness."

Included in the Line of Control were many other interesting artworks by a large group of strong contemporary artists. We have only sampled a few inner brief visit to the impressive Birla Academy of Art and Culture.