Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
A small figurine transformed by light, scale, and the assertiveness of oil pastel
Little Glass Elephant (1980) marks a pivotal moment in my shift from pencil‑based realism toward the luminous, fractured color world of oil pastels. The glass figurines—objects that usually sit unnoticed on a shelf—became catalysts for a new way of seeing. Their small scale requires a person to lift them toward their eyes, inviting an intimate inspection of their oddities, distortions, and exaggerated features.
Placed on a surface and hit with direct light, these figurines stop being trinkets. They ignite. Their colors dissolve into refracted light; their surfaces break into reflections; their tiny bodies cast surprisingly authoritative shadows that contradict their size. That sense of outsized presence is what drives this drawing.
In Little Glass Elephant, oil pastel proved to be the perfect medium. Its fragmenting, light‑catching quality mirrors the way glass splinters color and brightness. The elephant becomes both object and prism—solid yet dissolving, small yet commanding the space around it.
This drawing stands alongside Little Glass Duck and Little Green Horse as one of my earliest pastel explorations. Those works didn’t just experiment with a new medium; they opened the door to the much larger oil paintings that followed. In hindsight, they were the quiet but essential beginnings of a major stylistic expansion.
· Dimensions: 11″ × 14″
· Medium: Oil pastels on matboard
· Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting
aesthetic.
A small figurine transformed by light, scale, and the assertiveness of oil pastel
Little Glass Elephant (1980) marks a pivotal moment in my shift from pencil‑based realism toward the luminous, fractured color world of oil pastels. The glass figurines—objects that usually sit unnoticed on a shelf—became catalysts for a new way of seeing. Their small scale requires a person to lift them toward their eyes, inviting an intimate inspection of their oddities, distortions, and exaggerated features.
Placed on a surface and hit with direct light, these figurines stop being trinkets. They ignite. Their colors dissolve into refracted light; their surfaces break into reflections; their tiny bodies cast surprisingly authoritative shadows that contradict their size. That sense of outsized presence is what drives this drawing.
In Little Glass Elephant, oil pastel proved to be the perfect medium. Its fragmenting, light‑catching quality mirrors the way glass splinters color and brightness. The elephant becomes both object and prism—solid yet dissolving, small yet commanding the space around it.
This drawing stands alongside Little Glass Duck and Little Green Horse as one of my earliest pastel explorations. Those works didn’t just experiment with a new medium; they opened the door to the much larger oil paintings that followed. In hindsight, they were the quiet but essential beginnings of a major stylistic expansion.
· Dimensions: 11″ × 14″
· Medium: Oil pastels on matboard
· Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting
aesthetic.