Pastel Paintings

The Main Avenue Galleria features the unique pastel paintings of Norma Tolliver, Mary Wagner and Sue Gioulis. Norma's paintings feature beautiful landscapes, seascapes, floral still life, sunsets and sunrises. Mary's work focuses on striking faces, birds and abstracts. Sue's paintings portray charming vignettes of life by the shore.

The Galleria features artists that paint in all media including pastels, watercolor, oil, acrylic and pen & ink. Each artist tends to favor one media over the other, but will not hesitate to mix media to achieve their artistic vision.

Pastel is pure pigment, the same pigment used in all art media. According to the Pastel Society of America, 1990, "It is the most permanent of all when applied to acid free surfaces, kept from sunlight, humidity, and properly framed. Pastel has no liquid binder that may cause the surface to darken, fade, yellow, crack or blister with time. Pastels from the 16th century exist today, as fresh as the day they were painted." Pastel paintings have the stature of oil and water color as a major fine art medium.