When Sally Hayden Von Conta moved from New York to Santa Fe, she took an audio tape of the rivers; the Chama, the Pecos and the Rio Grande, and did a successful series of abstract paintings based on the sounds of the rivers. But then she went back to New York for a visit, just before the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
She couldn't go back to the studio and do what she had been doing. It was too isolating. She wanted to find a way to get back in touch with the land. So she joined a Plein Air Pastel class with Kathleen Schalock.
Sally wasn't a pastel artist - she was a watercolorist, and at the time she really just wanted to join the class to have some company while she worked. She loves how five or six people can be looking at the same sight, and none of the paintings come out the same. She said, "It's the inner vision that comes out."
After a few sessions where she sat in on the class, painting with her water colors, Kathleen told her, "I don't care if you don't pay me, I don't care if you don't want to be taught. But this is a pastel class, and if you want to stay you have to try pastels."
"It was like eating candy," said Sally, "I was so at home with pastels." The vibrant colors and the texture helped her to finally get the impact that she was looking for in her art.
Once she fell in love with pastels, there was no going back. She and a friend, Janet Shaw Amtmann, travelled to Italy and stayed for three weeks on a working farm in Umbria and painted. She came back with nine finished pieces. She has since gone to Montana and all over New Mexico.
Her work will be displayed at Harry's Roadhouse on Old Las Vegas HWY during the month of November, and her piece received the "Best of Show" award at the Twenty First Annual Fine Arts Show at the Old San Ysidro Church, October 2-10.
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