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This morning, I had a long conversation with a former classmate who fifteen years ago gave up working full time in the successful design firm she and her husband had built, and turned her full attention to what she wanted to do before being persuaded to go to college to learn a "marketable profession". With her husband's unconditional support, she quit design and focused on the passionate pursuit of painting landscapes with pastels. Today, her award winning work hangs in many private and corporate collections and she is represented by prestigious galleries in Boston and Bozeman. She's been published in books and magazines and gives seminars to other artists. It didn't happen overnight, but the growing recognition that she earned as her confidence and reputation grew served not primarily to stoke her ego, but to validate to her that she'd made the right choice. For those who are interested in seeing her outstanding work, the link is: http://www.lizhaywoodsullivan.com

I'd contacted Liz to get some advice about materials and technique, and she gave that freely, but I found myself more interested in hearing about her journey as an artist. While I'm not planning to do exactly as she did, I decided as I listened that I would follow her suggestions to subscribe to some good artists' journals, try some new techniques, and look into joining at least one good organization. The one I'm most interested in requires submission of a few pieces of pastel work. Given that I've done precious little of it since my teenage years, I had to dig into my flat file archive to come up with enough work that I felt good about showing to a jury.

I found this one, near the bottom of a jumble of old work, and seeing it brought a vivid remembrance of a hot afternoon in the summer of 1998, when my very young children were out for an hour or so with their mom. I carried a small pine kitchen worktable out into the side yard thinking that I would do a delicately detailed piece, but soon I began to slash away savagely with my long neglected soft pastels, unleashing a torrent of emotion that left me breathless. Whether I include it in my submission to the artists' society or not, it was good to bring it out into the light of day.

pastel done outdoors in 1998, 19" x 22" on Rives BFK paper

Comments

[Candace York]

I remember Liz's work well in college. She was and is a talented artist.
I love the painting you did too. It is good to see people pursuing their love and expressing it so others can appreciate it.

[Scott A. Stultz]

I am especially captivated by her painting, "Winter Blow", in the Northeast Landscapes grouping. Those insane smears of bloody brownish purple in that cold, violent sky.