Teresa Mason, a local pastel artist specializing in animal portraiture, has made a splash on the international art scene. Her painting, Good Boy!, appears in the Spring Edition of Pastel Journal, which features winners of the 26th Annual Pastel 100 competition. Selected from approximately 2,500 entries worldwide, Good Boy! received an Honorable Mention in the Animal and Wildlife category.
“I cried when I got the email,” Mason said of her inclusion in the prestigious competition. The painting is of her golden retriever, Riley, catching a ball in his mouth.
For the Annual Pastel 100 competition, one hundred paintings are chosen in categories including landscape and interior, portrait and figure, still life and floral, animal and wildlife and abstract and non-objective. All the paintings are created with pastels. The jurors are chosen from established artists in their areas of expertise.
Mason’s pastel work focuses primarily on dogs. Since 2018, she has completed around 40 portraits and has earned recognition throughout the region, as well as nationally. Mason’s best-known commission was for Governor Jim Justice — though not of his high-profile English bulldog, Babydog, but rather of his English Pointer, Lilly.
The past year has been memorable for Mason, who earned five awards between October 2023 and October 2024. Among these honors are two Best of Show awards at Randolph County’s Fall Forest Festival Exhibition and a Second Place award in the Randolph County Art Center’s Gala Exhibition. Still, she considers the Honorable Mention in the Pastel 100 to be her most significant triumph so far.
“I began entering exhibitions in 2023 and collected five awards in a calendar year,” Mason said. “Receiving these awards has given me the confidence to continue to set goals and experiment with new techniques.”
Mason’s journey as a pastel artist began in 2018 when she attended a workshop in Woodstock, Virginia, led by portrait artist Lisa Ober. Ober’s words of encouragement spurred Mason on.
“She took me aside on the last day and said I could have a serious business painting portraits,” Mason recalled. “I was surprised but really pleased to have her compliment my first dog portrait. We stayed in contact and met again six months later at Art in the Carolinas in Raleigh. We had dinner and talked for hours.”
From there, Mason pursued additional mentorships and workshops, and picked up tips wherever she could.
“I learned to paint a cat’s eye by watching a YouTube video,” she said.
Mason credits Pittsburgh artist Christine Swann for challenging her to strengthen her compositions, values and color theory.
“She was tough. I only remember her giving me a compliment once,” Mason said. “But I learned more about values, edges, contrast and composition than I could have imagined.”
While Mason currently favors pastels for their vibrancy and potential for detailed work, she’s eager to expand her style.
“Pastel is my medium of choice, but I am looking forward to experimenting with a new Impressionist oil technique after a workshop with artist James Swanson,” she said. “It can be scary to step away from what has worked and try a completely new approach. But a reminder on my refrigerator from William Faulkner reads, ‘You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.’”
Mason’s next goals include submitting work for admission to the Pastel Society of America and participating in more online and internatonal exhibitions.
“Capturing an expression or pose that is unconventional in traditional portrait work is interesting to me now,” she said. “A story emerges surrounding the subject.”
Those interested in viewing Mason’s award-winning pieces, including Good Boy! and her other notable works, can visit her website at www.teresamasonart.com. The Spring Edition of Pastel Journal, featuring her painting, is available on newsstands and via the publisher’s website.
