When I first started painting, my medium was watercolors.  After taking a pastel class in 2006, I was completely hooked on soft pastels.  I love working close to my fingers and with the numerous, vibrant colors.  The Tucson Pastel Society presents many opportunities to develop my skills and to share my paintings with others. Presently, my winters are spent in sunny Tucson in the richly diverse Sonoran Desert, and my summers are spent near the sparkling shores of Puget Sound.  I am grateful to be able to paint in two beautiful places.  Nature is delightful, and, hopefully, my art reflects some of her beauty. 
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Phone:  360-790-4757
Email:  EMCholski@gmail.com

​As a child, Fran Odum’s passion for nature drew her to the beautiful countryside of her native France. Inspired by that beauty, she pursued an education in art. Over the course of her life as an artist, she has developed a unique style of pastel painting, which enhances the simple beauty of nature and showcases her acute sensitivity to her environment.
 
Fran is known for her award winning paintings of wildlife and she approaches her work with enthusiasm. Her lifelong fascination with the outdoors has taken her on numerous field trips, as far as Idaho. Montana, Wyoming and British Columbia, In 1994 , she was commissioned to design the poster for the Fiesta de Los Vaqueros Rodeo, in Tucson.
 
Memberships include the Pastel Society of America (signature member), the Catharine Lorrilard Wolfe Art club(full membership), the Pastel Society of New Mexico (signature member), the Pastel Society of the West Coast (signature member), and the Tucson Pastel Society.  Exhibitions include Trailside Galleries in Scottsdale Arizona and Jackson Hole Wyoming, Bosque Art Classic in Clifton. Texas, Coors Western Art show, Safari club International, Ducks Unlimited, The National Art club, New York, The Salmagundi club, New York, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Tucson Museum of Art, The Mountain Oyster Club, in Tucson, Western Art Spirit Exhibit, Old West Museum, Cheyenne, Wyoming and many more invitational and juried exhibitions. Her work has been published in Art of the West, Southwest Art , Paint Horse Journal, International Pastel Magazine, Master Artists of the World, Western Horseman Magazine and the Wildlife Art News Magazine.

I cannot remember not drawing. As a child, I was left handed, dyslexic and attended a school with four grades in the same room where individual creative expression was not encouraged. While still in grade school, my sister gave me a Jon Gnagy art kit that contained small tubes of oils and watercolors, drawing supplies and small sticks of pastel along with a book on how to draw by using lines and cross-hatching for shading and modeling.  I still have the book and some of the pieces of that kit.  It opened the world of art for me.
 
I have a strong connection with the landscape so I feel compelled to paint in the outdoors or “en plein air” using pastel because of the vibrancy of the color and I don’t have to wait for pastels to dry. My subjects are often chosen by the play of light and shadow and the patterns created on the landscape. Even though I consider myself a realist, pastel gives me a creative freedom to use loose strokes and leave interpretation to the imagination of the viewer.  
 
I am drawn to Southwest region because I love the environment and the culture. The people, the animals, the flora, the fauna, mountains, boulders and vast blue skies, they all inspire me to paint.  

Brian Freeman  was trained in architectural Illustration and began his career as a mural painter. He supplemented his living by working in the construction trades.

“ I always had some artwork or creative project going when I wasn’t doing it full time. The urge to create is always there, following you around, like an itch that needs to be scratched.”

Brian felt he had not had enough experience in honing his drawing skills, so in 1996 he began attending open studio drawing sessions at the Drawing Studio and U of A in Tucson.

“ It was there that I found a new love for the pastel medium. It’s drawing and painting in one shot and works well for short attention span people.”
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Brian has been a member of the Tucson Pastel Society for several years while trying to balance family life and fixing broken things.

​​The oil paintings: after Bellows (Sanctuary), Fechin (Sunflowers). Some sketches from the beginning of my interest in art. ​

​Donna spent the majority of her college and adult years on the East Coast. She studied Fine Arts at University of Massachusetts North Dartmouth.
 
Her love for pastel started in New Hampshire back in 2015. After taking an introductory class to the medium, the love affair started!
 
Retiring in 2019 in Tucson AZ gave her time to devote to her beloved medium. She enjoys the immediacy and spontaneity of the pastels.
 
7 years later, she has successfully been juried into 2 shows with The Pastel Society of Cape Cod, The Tucson Pastel Society and the New Hampshire Pastel Society.
 
She serves as the Workshop Chair for the Tucson Pastel Society.