Artist Profile: Pamela Pindell

In 1968, Pindell studied at Syracuse University’s “Visual and Performing Arts” school, and then transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia so that she could travel to Rome to study at Tyler School of Art.

In Rome, she lived one block from Piazza del Popolo and visited Caravaggio’s “The Conversion of St Paul” in the Santa Maria del Popolo nearly daily on her way to school. It was not the subject matter that fascinated her, but the style of painting, the power, the beautiful brushwork and the strong chiaroscuro in the work. ”Rembrandt is my favorite painter for all of those reasons, plus heart and sensitivity, but Carravagio got me on my way.”

She began working with Sid Willis, master painter trained in the Boston School tradition, who became her mentor. “The Boston School” is a “school of thought and training” that incorporates Monet’s brilliant use of vibrating complimentary color with classical drawing and permanent painting techniques.

Willis had trained with Robert Douglas Hunter, who had worked with Ives Gammel, and this lineage goes back to Bouguereau in France, with an eye on Monet. Sid was a brilliant, generous teacher who sent her away on missions to study works by Paxton, Tarbell, Enniking, Hassam, Bunker, Lilian Wescott Hale – the list is endless.

“With this foundation and my love of depth, shadow and chiaroscuro, I have tried to capture the emotion I feel when I look at my subject. If I can translate the beauty I see and the excitement I feel, I have a chance of stirring a similar emotion in the viewer. And, of course that is the third portion of this whole; painter, painting and viewer.”

“People always ask me why I paint. My best answer is discovery. I see each new project as a unique mystery, amazed as my excitement for something beautiful that I am gazing at emerges from the canvas. I am taken, as we all are, with a beautiful face with heavy eyelids, a combination of achingly beautiful lines or colors in an object, the mystery of fog, the cozy holiday feel of snowfall, and I have to try to put it there and share it.”

Exhibitions

• 2014 “Boston Fine Arts Show”, Boston, MA
• The Guild of Boston Artists 100th Anniversary Show, Newbury Street. Boston, MA
• 2013 “Boston Design Show”, Boston, MA
• “Boston Fine Arts Show”, Boston, MA
• “In Praise of Women”, The Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cape Cod, MA
• “Solo Show”, The Gallery at Four India, Nantucket, MA
• “In Praise of Women”, Cahoon Museum, Cotuit, MA
• 2007-2013 “Museum Show”, Boston International Fine Arts Show, Boston, MA
• 2012 “Artist Talk”, Tree’s Place Art Gallery, Orleans, MA
• 2011 “The Subject is Light”, The Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, CT
• 2010 “The Subject is Light”, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
• 2008 “Close to Home”, Solo Show, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
• “Summer Exhibition”, St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA
• 2006 “Garden by the Sea”, Commission by the Arts Foundation

National Shows

Cape Cod Artists Association All New England Exhibition

• 1990 1st Prize in Pastel
• 1987 2nd Prize in Still Life
• 1982 Honorable Mention in oil

Pastel Society of America, NYC

• 1990 Adriana Zahn Award for Floral 1990

Nantucket Artists Association, Nantucket MA

• 1989 Jurors Choice
• 1986 Best In Show

Hudson Valley Artists Association, White Plains, NY

• 1986 Jane Peterson Still Life Award

Salmagundi Club, NYC

• 1987 Elliot Liskin Memorial Award for Still Life

Audubon Artists, NYC

Lotus Club, NYC

Catharine Lorrillard Wolfe, NYC

Allied Artists, NYC

Academic Artists Association, Springfield, MA

• 1985 Harriet Lumis Award for Still life
• 1984 Morton Donald Catoc Memorial Award

Ogunquit Art Center, Ogunquit, Maine

• 1983 Nunzio and Dorothy W. Vayanna Memorial Prize for Portrait
• 1982 Patron’s Award
• 1981 Patron’s Award

Awards

• 2014 Frank Benson Award at the Annual Juried Members Show
• 2011 Patron’s Choice
• 2011 North Shore Arts Association Award
• 2007 Ives Gammel Award
• 2002 Members Show Award
• 2000 Edmund Tarbell Award
• 1999 Second Prize Members Show
• 1998 Guild Award of Merit
• 1997 Guild Award for Figure
• 1993 Guild Award of Merit

Galleries

• The Guild Of Boston Artists – 162 Newbury Street, Boston MA 02116
• Collins Galleries – 12 West Road Orleans, MA 02653
• The Gallery at Four India – 4 India Street, 2nd Floor Nantucket, MA 02554
• Kristan Chamberlain Gallery – PO Box 115 Barrington, Rhode Island 02806

Publications

• 2013  The Guild of Boston Artists – 100 Historic Years (video), Jul, 2013
• 2013  “Pamela Pindell – The Figure” Collins Galleries (video) , Jun, 2013
• 2012  “Dual Connection” American Art Collector, January Issue
• 2011  Cape Cod Life Magazine Annual Arts Addition, June
• 2010  “The Subject is Light” Catalogue, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA
• 2010  “A Boston Tradition” American Art Collector, March Issue
• 2007  “Pamela Pindell, Portrait Artist” The Nantucket Magazine, Nantucket, MA, Fall Issue
• 2001  “A Painterly Palette, The Art of Pamela Pindell” Nantucket Magazine Summer Issue
• 1989  “Securing Gallery Representation” American Artist Magazine, June Issue
• 1988  “Paintings by Pamela Pindell” Antiques and Arts Magazine, Cape Cod MA, Summer Issue
• 1987  “Pamela Pindell, Artist” The Nantucket Journal, Nantucket MA, Premiere Issue

See more about Pamela Pindell on her website: Pamela Pindell