Category: In The Artist's Studio, New Acquisitions

Alice Pritchard: Atmospheric Series

Where light falls…  The colors light makes…  Translucence…  

These visual considerations provide an exciting focus for me, especially in recent landscape work.

Unlike paints with colors mixed on a palette, pastels are mixed directly on the canvas. In my studio I have hundreds of pastels in little heaps, seperated according to color, density, and hue. By layering and blending a variety of colors over and over each other, I work to create an atmosphere of light and subtle color changes.  When a painting is completed I spray it at least nine times with my own fixative formula to keep the pastels fresh and permanently adhered to the canvas.

Each painting comes from sketches, photos and observation.  I live on top of a hill surrounded almost entirely by a nature conservancy.  Sunrise, sunset, big skies, light on woods and open fields – all this silent beauty in nature is part of my life. I hope the “Atmospheric Series” communicate a kind of calm or a sense of tranquility.

Like many native East Coast residents I spent all my childhood summers by, on or in the water! So an ongoing interest has been the effect of light on water and I frequently incorporate this in my landscape compositions. – Alice Pritchard

Shown: Pritchard Atmospheric Series, Pastel on Canvas: Color Moment I 36×48” • Color Moment II 48×36 • Yellow Fields 36×48″