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“Roses and Teacup” © Deborah Bays |
Name: Deborah Bays
Bio: I cannot understand why I have neglected to post on this major pastel artist before now. I have long known and admired her work. She is certainly among my top ten pastel artists (a list that is close to being fully subscribed…)
Deborah Bays was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1951.
and spent her early years in the formal study of music, playing both violin and viola. Deborah earned a Bachelor of Arts in Costume Design for the Theatre at the University of Texas at Austin, then went on to complete a Master of Arts in Scenography at Purdue University. She then worked for 25 years designing costumes and sets for the theatre and television. She went on to study drawing and painting at the Art Students League of Denver, Colorado and began showing with a Colorado gallery. This led to her first one woman show in 2000.
Deborah’s maternal grandfather, Clarence Armour, was a self-taught landscape painter. Her first set of oil paints came from him and he became her first painting teacher. On the other side of the family, her father's brother, Joshua Bays, was a very gifted painter and art teacher. Heritage will out!
Deborah’s work has been featured in Southwest Art, the Pastel Journal (she won the Grand Prize in the 2004 Pastel 100) and The Artist’s Magazine. One of my paintings is included in Pure Color:the Best of Pastel published by North Light Books. Deborah is also featured in Les Maitres du Pastel, 2011 published in France by Pratique de Arts. Deborah is recognised as a Master Pastelist by the Pastel Society of America and has represented the PSA at The Butler Institute of American Art.
Deborah is currently represented by Abend Gallery in Denver, Colorado, the Breckenridge Gallery, Breckenridge, Colorado, Portnoy Galleries in Carmel, California, Scottsdale Fine Art in Scottsdale, Arizona, and North Water Gallery in Edgartown, Massachusetts.
Medium: Pastel
Subjects: Still life; Landscape; Figures
Style: Representational. The essence of romance. Deborah uses dramatic lighting to reveal form, and she makes masterly use of lost edges. She is in the mould of all classical artists who revel in the techniques of chiaroscuro, including modern master David Leffel.
Navigation: Links remain available on top of page, with exception of the download image, where a back button is needed. Images are generous, and download is encouraged. A delightful and rewarding website.
Gallery: Available works; Still Life Archive; Landscape Archive; Figure Archive.
Image View: Thumbnails provide information on title and dimension, and may be played as a slideshow in a pop-up window, or enlarged. A download button is provided – this gives a large, downloadable image on a new page. Roses and Teacup is 11 x 14 ins, 800 x 623, 74 KB.
Further images may be viewed on the Breckenridge Gallery website
Demo/Blog: No.