Linda Dudley

My name is Linda Dudley, and I work with pastels. My husband and I moved here from the Chicago area where we lived for over 20 years. I was introduced to pastels when I was a freshman in high school by my art teacher. My grandmother was an artist, and she gave me the gift of a set of pastels which I used at that time. By the end of my sophomore year, my art teacher included several of my pieces in a show that toured through the Midwest which was a real honor. However, my family moved to a different state in my junior year where pastels were not used in art classes, so I packed them away and they never saw daylight again for over 50 years.   College, children and life filled the time, and I didn’t unpack those pastels again until we were retired and living here at Lake Oconee. About 3 years ago I dug the original box of pastels out of storage, and have been trying to self-teach ever since!

Living here at the lake, there are no other people working with pastels that I have met, so I have had to rely on trial and error, instinct and Utube! Very early in my re-discovery of pastels, I did find a woman in Macon who taught, but at my first lesson and after seeing a few of my pieces, the very first thing she said to me was, “Well, you are doing everything wrong!” After giving it a good bit of thought, I concluded that what is right for me might well be wrong for another person. Art is creating, not engineering. There are NO WRONGS! So, I forgot about her and just kept experimenting. It was not the “best” advice I have been given, but perhaps the most defining…….because of that I decided that I would do it my own way!

With no pastel instruction or classes available in this area, and needing a starting point, I opted to try textures. I have experimented with wood, glass, fur, leather, water, rocks, cloth and many more. I have done pictures of musical instruments, dancers, bottles of wine in racks and wine being poured, animals such as tigers, dogs and horses. I have tried many different kinds of fruit to see if I could get the look and feel of fuzzy peaches, smooth apples or rough-skinned oranges. Again……textures!

The most exciting moment might seem obvious as the night that my Violin picture won Best In Show at The Plaza Arts Center. What an unexpected thrill! However, another moment I won’t forget is the Christmas two years ago when I surprised my family with framed gifts of pastel pictures only a month after I had started this pastel journey. I hadn’t told anyone that I was trying this, so when my daughter unwrapped the pastel picture of her baby daughter, and my son saw his horse race picture, there were tears and happiness, but mostly they were just so proud of me. That was a real highlight.

There are so many outstanding museums, but my favorite is the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain. What makes it stand out? It started as a private collection with just the art they loved, and many of the pieces are the early Van Goghs, Monet and Manet and Fragonard pieces you have never seen before.

Asked what artist I would like to sit with and share a conversation with, I would have to say, Mary Cassatt. Her work is just so amazing, the colors so beautiful, the skin tones and composition just awesome. I would ask, “HOW did you do this, and this, and this……”

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Learn more about our other winners and the Lake Country Juried Art Show.

“Liber” by Linda Dudley – 3rd place Lake Country Juried Art Show 2021. This painting is currently for sale at The Artisans Village Gallery! PRICE: $1,500. Stop in to see this beautiful work of art for yourself. Gallery hours are Thursday & Friday from 11 – 5 pm and Saturday from 10 – 3 pm.