Workhouse Artist of the Week: Carol Iglesias

Carol Iglesias is a pastel artist whose love of travel inspires her work. Her featured exhibit, All About Color, runs May 11 to June 5 in Building W-4 at the Workhouse Arts Center.

“I love to paint buildings, boats, water -- what I would tend to call street scenes,” said Iglesias. “I love to travel, and I combine that with my love of painting,” she said. “All my works are places that I’ve been."

Iglesias said she is drawn to places with lots of color. “My pastels are very bright,” said Iglesias. “The Impressionists used color accurately, painting what they saw,” she said. “I bump up the color,” she said. For that reason she considers her style abstract/impressionism in vibrant colors.

“Color really sets in my mind the ambience of a place,” said Iglesias. “I get the work well established, working all day on location,” she said. “I try to grab the light at the point that I like it best,” she said. “Then my brain remembers the feeling of the place when I get back to the studio.”

The artist said she thinks about paintings before she begins them, and then throughout the process. “When I return to the studio, I will continue to work on a painting,” she said. She said the break between working en plein air and then back in the studio gives her time to think. “It’s good to get away from a painting, to take a break then come back to it and see it objectively,” she said.

Iglesias only discovered her love of pastels about seven years ago. “When I visited my friend and mentor Janis Wallis in her studio, she was working in soft pastels,” she said. “I saw the trays of all the colors, and that just did it,” she said.

During her art studies at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, Iglesias had tried pastels. “They were student sets of hard pastels, and I didn’t like them,” she said. But she fell in love with soft pastels. “I love the medium of soft pastel because it is color ready to go,” said Iglesias. Oil paints require mixing to obtain variety in color. “With soft pastels, I can overlay colors,” she said.  “The super soft pastels allow for up to 25 layers of color on the heavy grit paper that I use,” she said. 

She explained that pastels are pure powdered pigment and a binder. “The particulates refract light tremendously,” she said. “And the many layers of color produce great luminosity.”

“What captured me was the tactile nature of pastels,” she said. “There is nothing between me and the pigment and the paper. It’s just beautiful. Lots and lots of colors,” she said.

Iglesias travels with about 15 other artist friends, and they eat, sleep and paint together for two weeks at a time. “Jane Wallis takes on the awesome task of planning our trips,” said Iglesias. Locations have included Provence, France, and Tuscany. Later this year the group will travel to Glacier National Park in Montana. “It’s a different location than we’ve visited in the past,” said Iglesias. “It will provide a lot of opportunity to capture reflections in water.”

Iglesias was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve loved art since I was a little girl,” said Iglesias. “I began drawing when I could hold a pencil, and I’ve always been drawing,” she said. 

Iglesias is a signature member of the Maryland Pastel Society, and her paintings are in public and private collections throughout the world. She has won numerous awards, and participated in more than 30 exhibitions. Her next goal is looking for gallery representation.  “I’m ready to research galleries and approach them,” she said. “I’ve hesitated until now because it’s easier to paint than to make that business effort,” she said.

Iglesias loves being at the Workhouse Arts Center. She says the artists there are like family, and she enjoys having the public see her work.  “It’s nice to have people come and see your work, not only at a show but also in your studio,” she said. “The feedback from the public is huge and very rewarding,” she said.