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| Maggie Price (1947-2013) |
The world of pastel today lost one of its most enthusiastic advocates. Maggie Price passed away after a short battle with cancer. She was a member of the Master's Circle of IAPS (International Association of Pastel Societies) as well as a Signature Member of PSA (Pastel Society of America.) Additionally, in 1999, she helped found and then edited The Pastel Journal. Deeply involved with pastel, she was instrumental in raising public awareness of pastel and helping it earn the respect it deserves among collectors and artists.
One day back early in 2000, I'd stopped into Ventana Fine Art in Santa Fe to look at some paintings. I'd recently caught the pastel bug, and at the time, it was the only gallery in town showing pastels. In one of the back rooms, they had stacks of magazines for the taking, magazines they had advertised in. One of them was a little magazine called The Pastel Journal. Desperate to find out more about this wonderful medium, I took a copy, filled out the subscription card and also ordered all the back issues. After reading them and getting a lot of pastel dust under my fingernails, I decided I'd send the editor a query for an article idea I had.
The editor was, of course, Maggie Price. And thanks to her, I've had a long career with that magazine and F&W Media, which purchased it several years ago. Maggie was always encouraging as my editor. In the early days, we worked exclusively by e-mail and occasionally by phone, and it wasn't until much time and many issues had passed that I finally met her in person, even though we were separated only by a 100-mile stretch of I-40.
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| Maggie and Bill at the 2005 Plein Air New Mexico event. |
Maggie and her dedication to the art and craft of pastel will be much missed. I've posted a couple of her paintings here for your to see.
