Carl Weissinger, born 1949, American
A training in sculpture throughout his school years, a professional career shaping and restoring wood, an adult hobby of many years building 19th century catboats. Long training for the hand and the eye.
Then arrived a filial gift of a box of pastels three years ago. Carl Weissinger took lessons in the uses of pastels at the country’s oldest art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia.
Finally, practice, practice copying, among others, the incomparable pastels of Edgar Degas.
A box of pastels (Image from the net)
It is always surprising to me that pastels (and chalks), gross instruments even when sharpened, can deliver under an expert hand sufficient detail – expression of body language, spray bouncing off a boulder on a beach, the alert expectation in a dog’s eye – to entice you from your present moment into the scene depicted.
Here is the gratifying evidence of Carl Weissinger’s success:
a partial record from the year just passed of his life and that of his wife in small pastel tableaux: unpretentious and even exuberant.
With the flair derived not just from a practice in pastels of the last few years but from the experience and skills of a lifetime spent negotiating among hand, eye and real media in the real world.
Scenes from Avon by the Sea, and details, New Jersey, 2017
Scene from the beach at Avon by the Sea, New Jersey; summer 2017
Robertson’s Florist, Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 2017
Starbucks Clock, Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and details, 2017
Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 2017
Penuche, the Corgi, 2017
Sammy Pepys, the Golden Labrador, 2017
Washington’s Crossing, Delaware River, New Jersey, 2017
Washington’s Crossing, Delaware River, New Jersey, 2017
Washington Crossing, Delaware River, New Jersey, 2017
At the Delaware River, New Jersey, 2017
The Pavilion at the Curtis Hall Arboretum, Wyncote, Pennsylvania, Summer 2016
Venice, Italy, October 2016
Venice, Italy, October 2017
Venice, and detail, October 2017
Venice, Italy, October 2017
The Artist’s Mother, Frances Jones Weissinger, 1915-2002. 2017
Davis Craven, Annapolis, Maryland, 2017
Self-Portrait, 2017
