Artist finds her calling

OSKALOOSA January 09, 2008 10:41 am

— “When I was little, I had no doubt in my mind that I was just an artist. I didn’t doubt that one bit.”
From a little girl in grade school, more interested in art than her other subjects, to a grown woman now living southeast of Oskaloosa, Pamela Pantuso has finally found her muse.
“I know I got in trouble a lot in first-grade because I was coloring instead of doing my math,” Pantuso said of her life-long passion to be an artist. “I got in trouble every time my parents went to conferences. I knew I was going to get in trouble because I was coloring instead of doing my homework.”
Pantuso said she started with crayons, went to watercolors and now uses oils, pastels, colored pencils, acrylics, an airbrush, and even her fingers, to create her artwork.
“Even with my oil paintings, I use my fingers a lot,” Pantuso said. “I still finger paint. I like to almost feel my paintings. I feel like I’m more involved in the painting.”
The 39-year-old Colorado native said she has been painting all her life and professionally for the last 10 years. She moved to Iowa five years ago and has lived on Queens Avenue off Highway 23 the last two years.
Pantuso said she paints portraits, leather paintings, and scenery, wildlife and fantasy paintings.
“I love portraits,” Pantuso said. “I’m fascinated with people’s expressions — it’s like a story. You can look at somebody’s face and you can see a story there.”
One of her latest endeavors has been that of a famous Native American and Mahaska County icon.
With not much visual reference to work with, Pantuso has created an oil and acrylic painting of Chief Mahaska, a famous Native American for which this county is named. Pantuso created the painting using reference work from the famous frontier artist, George Catlin, and various other sources.
“There is very little to go on visually. However, some of the written documentation has filled in the gaps for me as best as possible,” Pantuso said. “I get the feeling that Catlin’s painting was the best reference as he did his paintings in person, and was not tied to any political agenda. He also seems to share my sentiments toward the people he painted.”
Pantuso’s rendition of the chief of the Ioway Indians shows the man in his 40s, at a time in his life where he had lost his wife and father. It measures 19 1/2 inches by 29 inches, is oil and a little bit of acrylic on canvas and took Pantuso 30 hours to paint.
“What I wanted to get with him was the fact that he had all these hard times and that shows in his face,” Pantuso said. “But yet I wanted to still to have gentleness about him. Because that was what he was about. He was a peace lover.”
Pantuso said she picked Chief Mahaska to paint, based in part, on her respect and admiration of the man and his people.
“Native American history kind of fascinates me. And I started reading about his life and his belief system is a lot like mine. And as a people, I think they haven’t been portrayed in the way that it actually was,” Pantuso said. “And I wanted to give some honor to how he really looked, what he was really about.”
Pantuso said her goal was to create a painting where a member of the Ioway tribe would recognize the chief.
“Where an Ioway Indian could actually come up and say, ‘You’ve got this right. You’ve got this right.’”
Pantuso said her painting of Chief Mahaska has not been sold and she is in the process of making 11-inch by 14-inch prints for $25 each.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with this actual original painting yet,” she said. “I definitely am open to selling it. But, I want it to go someplace where it can be seen and enjoyed by the people that it would mean something to. People in Mahaska County. I’d want it to be able to be seen by the Ioway people as well. I’d want it to probably be somewhat public instead of just hanging in someone’s home.”
Pantuso said she admires the work of Leonardo da Vinci and his use of sfumato, a technique she employed on “Chief Mahaska.”
“Some of this piece here is one of my favorite things that I like about some of his art work,” Pantuso said. “And it’s the light coloring on the outside that almost gives it a somewhat smoky look.”
Other artist Pantuso admires includes Thomas Kinkade and Terry Redlin.
“Nobody does light like Kinkade,” Pantuso said. “He is the king of light. It’s my goal to capture light the way he does sometime before I die.”
Pantuso admits she has had struggles in her life; at times taking jobs to supplement her income to pay the bills.
“And I started looking at being an artist as being this goal I would never reach,” Pantuso said. “An unattainable dream. And then I quit enjoying it.”
Pantuso said at one point she realized creating art was for her own enjoyment. Being an artist is a process of self-realization.
“And as soon as I just decided once again that I’m just an artist and whether I make money at it or not, it doesn’t matter, I guess that’s when I started getting back into it,” Pantuso said. “Follow your bliss. Everything seems to work out when you do something you love. And I went back to the Kindergarten mentality of, this is fun.”
Herald City Editor Michael Schaffer can be reached by email at mschaffer@oskyherald.com

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The Oskaloosa Herald