Kitty Wallis

Kitty Wallis
Leslie in Hot tub, 40"x26"
Pastel on Sandpaper


I came across her beautiful pastel work while reading a book called Pastel School by Hazel Harrison. She isn't extraordinarily famous, so it's pretty hard to find a lot of images of her work on the internet, but she actually has a blog that she doesn't really update: http://kittywallis.blogspot.com/

Recently I discovered that she actually makes pastel paper, and is actually pretty well known for it. You can find it on several websites including a more popular one right here: http://www.dickblick.com/products/wallis-sanded-pastel-paper/

Her pastel portraits and studies involving the human figure and water are stunning and really should be enjoyed by pretty much everyone in the world (in my opinion at least)
In any case I hope someone reads this and takes the time to check out her work and maybe even buy some of her paper; I'm actually buying some as I type this out.


Kitty Waliis
James, 22"x 17"
pastels with pure pigment underpainting, on her sandpaper.

Chuck Close

Chuck Close, Mark (1978-1979) Acrylic on Canvas

close of of Mark


Chuck Close
I fell in love with Chuck Close's photorealistic paintings the minute I saw them my junior year of high school. Being the first artist I was heavily exposed to, he quickly became (and still is) one of my favorite painters. Above are two photos of his famous painting Mark which resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Not too long ago I had the privilege of seeing it in person, and it was absolutely awe inspiring.

For anyone who may be interested, Chuck Close will actually be speaking at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA on October 1 (about 10 blocks away from VCU). He currently has an exhibit there as well called Chuck Close: People Who Matter To Me. I actually saw some of this exhibit yesterday and plan to closely view the rest of it as soon as I get the chance. I would HIGHLY recommend visiting this exhibit or going to the museum to watch him speak; the price for members is $12 and non members is $15, but it will be worth every penny.

for those of you who would like to learn more about Chuck Close visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

Wikipedia isn't the best source, but if he really interests you enough then watch his biographical film: Chuck Close: A Portrait In Progress

His exhibit at the VMFA includes:

Chuck Close, Lyle

Entroducing.....

Hey, i'm Dilan and i'm creating this blog for the purpose of exploring new artists and posting a decent bit of my own art as I create it throughout my fall semester at VCU's school of the arts. This blog is an assignment for my surface research course (exploration of 2D media and such), but I plan on continuing it throughout college. In addition to the work I create in surface research and the artists that I share with you, i'll also post art that I create in my free time, or projects in other classes. In addition to all this I will also be sharing various sources of inspiration for me.