Stephanie Wellman, Pastel Artist

Stephanie Wellman, Pastel Artist by Shannon Lee Mannion
Using her father’s old Pentax and a spanking new digital camera, Stephanie Wellman takes shots of landscapes, including the cars that once crowded town and city streets, long since abandoned and left to be reclaimed by Mother Earth. And then this time-consumed mother of four transforms photos into pastel works of art, with every nuance in place.

plethora of art schools has helped Ms. Wellman hone her innate talent. In the late-70s, she attended Ottawa’s High School of Commerce Arts program and then attended the Ontario College of Art. More background came from classes in 1987 at the Ottawa School of Art. Her subsequent attendance at art shows and festivals across Ontario has netted her Best in Show at Westport Art in 1998 and at the Metcalfe Fair in 1999. In 2003, she won the Loomis Art Store Award for Pastel Artists of Canada and in 2004, Honourable Mention by the same group.
	The year 2005 has proved remarkable as she took first place in the Pastel Division of both the Ottawa Art Association and the Bancroft Art Gallery, and Honourable Mention Overall, also at the Bancroft Art Gallery. The Broken Fence Society of Toronto also honoured her with an award in 2005. Earlier in her career at her one-woman show at the Gloucester Gallery in 2003, entitled "Reflective Landscapes, she mentioned wanting to draw one vehicle that has a tree growing through it and described how she came to create one work, "I met man on an old Harley from Kingston who talked about old cars," she explains, "A week later, I got a photo in the mail. There was no return address or anything so I never connected the two. I ran into him recently and he asked if I got the photo. He was really glad that I’d been able to use it." This is the work she calls Staying Secret, as much for the car hidden in the woods as for the hitherto unidentified sender of the photo.
The resultant art with clouds and sky reflected in a fender and in the chromed headlights, the horns and bumpers shooting shafts of ambient light presents what Ms. Wellman calls in her artist statement, "Effulgent metal and chrome absorb(ing) the images . . . elucidate(ing) a sky." If it sounds amazing, it is, and it’s all done with chalk. The detail in Ms. Wellman’s art is extraordinary, from the intricate taillights of a DeSoto to the fiery realism of a siren assembly aptly named, Red Siren, her practiced eye does not miss a jot. She told me how she counted each vertical bar of the grille of a ‘34 Dodge she saw at the Antique Automobile Cub’s Billings Estate Father’s Day show four years ago, "I didn’t want to miss any detail. Car buffs know their cars." She says that working with pastels to reproduce the lustre of chrome and stainless steel is the most exacting thing that she does. But witness her array of hub caps, some in which cars are reflected, and the mirror-like reflections in the back of a Tremcar tanker to become aware of her exceptional skill. There was a period in 2001 when a bout of breast cancer almost prevented Ms. Wellman from drawing, "I found that after surgery, I could not do the fine detail and had to go back to doing landscapes and work my way into it. But I never thought of stopping, just thought let’s get this out of the way and get back at it. Cancer these days is a sickness, not a death sentence." She adds, "My employers at the time at Ullman Woodarts, Greg Ullman and Carol Rowland-Ullman were always there for me. They were friends first and in fact, my first framer."

Have you always done automotive art?
Actually, I’ve been doing landscapes for the past 20 years. But I’ve always been an old car fanatic and I thought of it as a challenge. I find I have to put myself into the painting, If I can’t do this, it doesn’t matter what I do, it won’t work.
How to you put yourself into your art?
I put on my Walkman and crank it up. I listen to Pink Floyd, early Floyd, the instrumental stuff. And sometimes classical. If there’s a lot of singing going on, you have a tendency to sing along and lose focus.
What part of the car is most difficult to draw?
Reflections require a lot of concentration to get the detail, dimensions and perspective. Measuring things against each other is difficult. Sometimes, I have to walk away because it’s not working.
How do you go back and know that you can accomplish what you want?
I (turn the canvass and) paint upside down because when you are drawing something, your brain is telling you that that’s a light and it has to look like a light but the harder you try to make it look like a light, the less it does. So if you turn it upside down, you’re not focussing on it being a light and it’ll take shape.
Naming art must be tricky, like putting titles to poetry? How do you come up with suitable names?
My former co-workers at Ullman’s Woodarts were good with words and I’d ask them, "What does this look like?"Some of the titles just came, like Red Siren of a red siren and Gone for Lunch. It just looked like the person had jumped off the tractor and gone in for lunch. And the Edwards Truck is located in the little town of Edwards, Ontario.
Is there a show circuit that you can become involved in as an artist?
Yes, I did 17 shows in 2003 including one at the Ottawa Art Gallery November 15 and two other pre-Christmas shows in Russell, Ontario. I did even more shows in 2004 and expect to surpass my efforts in 2005.
Where would you like your art to take you?
It’s something you have to put your everything into it. It’s not like a nine to five job and my long-term goal to be self-sufficient doing art.
Postscript: Ms. Wellman is now creating pastel art work, automotive and landscapes, full-time from her home in Russell, ON. To commission a canvass or inquire about prints, please contact her at (613) 862-5613