WORLD’S BEST PASTEL & COLORED PENCIL ARTISTS: TEDDE, NAN, PELTIER, PEI, LEWIS, VILLON DE BENVENISTE AND HOWARD
Pastel, chalk, crayon and colored pencil artists from Italy, China, USA and Great Britain win big in Category 5 of the 2018 AMERICAN ART AWARDS.
This year the American Art Awards (www.AmericanArtAwards.com), juried by the 25 Best Galleries & Museums In America (listed below), had online art images in 50 categories submitted from artists in 59 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine, USA, Venezuela.
The 1st Place to 6th Place winners in all 50 categories will be revealed in the news about a category a day — stretching into November, making this one of the longest winner announcements of any art competition in the world.
LUCA TEDDE
Born in Cagliari (Italy) in 1976.
As a child I was very fascinated by “street portrait artists” but I didn’t have a school education in art so I trained myself to become a portrait artist with a lot of practice and observation.
I’ve been working for 20 years with graphite and charcoal, trying to get the most realistic if not even hyper-realistic results. I’m in love with human faces and my constant thought while I’m drawing is to transfer the inner essence of a person to the paper, so that the viewer can share an experience with my portraits that is not just related to the appreciation of the mere technique involved but far beyond that.
Until I discovered soft pastels, my portfolio was basically made of graphite and charcoal portraits, one of them published on the “Amazing Pencil Portraits 2” collection by Platte Productions Publishing (USA) and I had the chance to work on commissions received from several countries around the world. I enjoyed participating to collective exhibitions and artistic events during the last 5 years, winning awards for my graphite portraits.
In the last few years I attended private courses to learn the technique of soft pastels, a medium born in France in the late 15th century and used in the centuries to follow by great artists such as Rosalba Carriera, Maurice Quentin de La Tour and Edgar Degas, just to name a few. With this technique, my art is getting known even more and already won awards like at the first International Pastel Exhibition in Italy in 2017 and at the International Marchionni Prize in 2018.
At the moment, I work on a commission basis and teach drawing and portrait classes in long-term courses and 3-day-workshops all around Italy.
CATEGORY 5. PASTELS/CHALK/CRAYONS/COLORED PENCIL — HUMAN FIGURE
1ST PLACE LUCA TEDDE ITALY www.lucatedde.it “La Musa In Fiore” 50x70cm Soft pastels on Pastelmat.
2ND PLACE ZHENG NAN CHINA 709582313@QQ.COM “Listen To The Waves” 39.3X27.5” Pastel on paper.
3RD PLACE MANDY PELTIER USA www.mandypeltier.com “See Me” 9x12" Colored pencils on sanded paper.
4TH PLACE-TIE FABANG PEI CHINA wubiyingbonny@gmail.com “Pamir Mom” 22x30" Pastel.
4TH PLACE-TIE JANE LEWIS GREAT BRITAIN www.janelewisartist.com “Double Portrait” 20x27.5" Pastel on hand-made paper.
5TH PLACE MARY VILLON DE BENVENISTE USA wwww.MaryVillonDeBenveniste.com “Yves Famchon” 18x24" Oil on linen.
6TH PLACE-TIE FABANG PEI CHINA wubiyingbonny@gmail.com “Kyrgyz Hunter” 22x30" Pastel.
6TH PLACE-TIE MARY VILLON DE BENVENISTE USA www.MaryVillonDeBenveniste.com “Charlie” 19x28" Pastel on paper.
6TH PLACE-TIE JULIE HOWARD USA www.organic-pastels.com “Dream Job” 24x36" Soft pastels.
This year’s 25 Best Galleries & Museums asked to vote on art were:
BEST IN ALABAMA — ALABAMA CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER
BEST IN ARKANSAS — FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM
BEST IN CALIFORNIA — REVOLVER GALLERY
BEST IN COLORADO — COLORADO FINE ARTS CENTER AT COLORADO COLLEGE
BEST IN FLORIDA — LIK FINE ART MIAMI + LIK FINE ART KEY WEST
BEST IN ILLINOIS — TRICKSTER ART GALLERY
BEST IN KANSAS — BIRGER SANDZEN MEMORIAL GALLERY
BEST IN KENTUCKY — E&S GALLERY
BEST IN LOUISIANA — NEWCOMB ART MUSEUM
BEST IN MASSACHUSETTS — BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY
BEST IN MISSISSIPPI — THE OHR-O’KEEFE MUSEUM OF ART
BEST IN MISSOURI — UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI MUSEUM OF ART AND ARCHEOLOGY
BEST IN NEBRASKA — KIECHEL FINE ART
BEST IN NEVADA — THE METROPOLITAN GALLERY OF LAS VEGAS ART MUSEUM
BEST IN OHIO — LEE HAYDEN GALLERY
BEST IN OKLAHOMA — JOSEPH GIEREK FINE ART
BEST IN OREGON — JORDAN SCHNITZER MUSEUM of ART
BEST IN PENNSYLVANIA — JAMES A. MICHENER ART MUSEUM
BEST IN SOUTH CAROLINA — MARY MARTIN GALLERY OF FINE ART
BEST IN SOUTH DAKOTA — SOUTH DAKOTA ART MUSEUM
BEST IN TEXAS — ART ON 5TH
BEST IN UTAH — THE LEONARDO
BEST IN WASHINGTON — MARYHILL MUSEUM OF ART
BEST IN WEST VIRGINIA — WEST VIRGINIA STATE MUSEUM
BEST IN WISCONSIN — MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART
Enter art at www.AmericanArtAwards.com
