| The Red Clay Survey--Part 2 | |
Juror's Choice Award
"Recalling Ophelia" pastel on museum board
Artist: Helen J. Vaughn (pictured)
lives in Huntsville, Alabama
born in Birmingham, Alabama
Artists Statement and Short Bio:
"I am in a third decade of making art as a serious, dedicated pursuit.
My husband and I have lived in Huntsville, Alabama for 35 years. Both of
our children were reared here. For almost 20 years I have maintained a
studio in downtown Huntsville. The studio is now located in a wonderful
building that was the home of the first newspaper in the city, The Huntsville
Mercury. The building is still known by many as the Mercury Building.
I began as a painter using traditional materials in a conventional way.
The work has evolved in a slow, fairly regular fashion. The imagery has
remained constant, typically solitary women in interior settings as well as
landscape and still life studies. The landscape paintings are sometimes
rural and populated with animals. At other times, they feature city
streets and interesting facades.
While the imagery has not altered significantly, the materials and methods of
working have changed. For the past 13 years I have been making pieces with
soft pastels on paper or museum board which I prepare. The scale of the
work varies from small and intimate to quite large.
As a painter, I am continually fascinated by the properties of color, light and
shadow as they effect both the image and my own sense of time, place and inner
harmony.
I don't use soft pastels gently, but rather I saturate the surface with color,
sometimes incorporating pastels as the top layer of a mixed media work.
This marriage of color and form is ultimately very satisfying for me."
