"Cousins" won Best of Show at APS

 "Cousins" (pastel, 32x32 inches) $14,000

I'm beyond thrilled to announce that my weeks of labor on this, my newest large figurative painting, has paid off big time with a Best of Show win at the Austin Pastel Society Annual Juried Member Exhibition 2021 Celebrating Pastels! A huge thank you to show judge and juror Karen Margulis for her inspired decisions. She has curated a beautiful show. Congratulations to all of the winners and all of the accepted entrants. I love the Austin Pastel Society. It hold a dear place in my heart as the first pastel society I ever joined and the sheer talent of the members keeps getting better and better!

The exhibit is showing at the Austin Fine Art Gallery, 2805 Bee Cave Rd, Suite 430, Austin, TX. Feb 6 - March 31, 2021. You can also view the show online on the APS Flickr page HERE (the "2021 AJME Juried Set") A new album will soon be uploaded for the award winners.

This painting for me is about the blurred lines between past, present and future. The focus is on the lovely young girl with an aura of Vermeer in her unselfconsciously classic pose. The past is echoed again in the curve of the antique sofa. But the clothing (not to mention the Nintendo 3DS) declare this scene undeniably modern. The future is in the gaze of this girl who is now (along with her cousin and brother) already a young adult.

I couldn't find a way to fit all of that into one title, so it's just "Cousins." The girl with the gaze is Samantha, my husband's niece. The other girl is our daughter Audrey, next to Adam, Samantha's brother. The reference was composed from several photos taken on a Christmas visit a few years ago.

Their dog, Chico, was added for balance. ;)

Here are some closer views:

Here is an 8 minute slide show of the many progress shots and some short video clips of the process of painting Cousins:

For a $10 pledge you can watch an hour of live underpainting progress HERE, full of conversation and descriptions of my photo editing and much of my thought process behind the composition, along with a little history of my underpainting method.