Dorien Harden

Pastel Art Gallery,

More than 15 years ago I discovered the medium 'pastel'. I previously worked with oil, acrylic, etching and various other materials, but afterwards I became fascinated by 'chalk', the power of pigment contained in lime and a binding agent.

I have always enjoyed working directly with my hands on the canvas. With the combination of pastel and charcoal on paper it became simply fantastic.

The subjects are mainly animals, realistic, surrealistic, illustrative narrative, sometimes socially critical. When it comes to portraits, I prefer 'striking heads'.

The format changed, as did the supports, and experiments were done with pastel on canvas, paper and wood. The fixative comes from our own 'kitchen'.

The challenge lies in depicting the expression of both humans and animals. Think of humor, personality and emotion.

Sometimes I experiment with lines. The figure within a figure with the invitation to 'look'. A play of lines, do I really see what I think I see? 

Dorien Harden

Moergestel, The Netherlands
 

​facebook: @DorienHarden.nl