Richard Varela | #A2 | Artist Type

Whether painting realistic or imagined landscapes I use soft pastels for their vividness of color and immediacy of execution.  It is very nearly painting wirth pure pigment.  The versatility of pastels enables me to acheive an incandescence that is appealing to the eye and to the emotions.
My favorite subject, the landscape, provides a variety of shapes, textures, and forms. These are ever changing according to the effects of light, time of day, and season. When the challenge of depicting these effects is met the result can be gratifyingly beautiful and appealing.
After nearly forty years in the education/retail/telecommunications wolrds I retired to pursue what truly has beend a deeply rooted passion in presenting beauty as I ssee it and interpret it. While not refusing to work in different media such as gouache or CHinese in brush painting, my strongest passion is for the brilliance of soft pastels. I believe soft pastels present the ideal opportunity for combining painting and drawing skills into compostiions rich in detail, texture and light.