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Marlene Wiedenbaum


Marlene Wiedenbaum, PSA-MP is a graduate of Queens College, SUNY New Paltz and attended the Art Students League in New York City.

Her award-winning paintings have been exhibited internationally, including the International Pastel Artists Invitational in Taiwan and the Xi’an Museum in China. Her work is among six International Master Pastelists featured in two textbooks commissioned by the Taiwanese government.

Wiedenbaum has been featured in several art publications, the most recent being the June 2021 edition of VIC Pastel, the Newsletter of the Pastel Society of Victoria, Australia.

In 2015, Fine Art Connoisseur featured her Hudson Valley Landscapes in their newsletter, Fine Art Today. Wiedenbaum was also profiled in the Summer 2016 issue of Art Times, and was a featured artist in the November 2010 issue and the December 2009 issue of American Artist. Her painting, “Downriver from Potown,” was included in American Artist Magazine’s 2011 calendar.

In 2010, Wiedenbaum was awarded a residency at Platte Clove through the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development. A Master Pastelist, Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, and an Elected Member of the Audubon Artists Inc., Wiedenbaum is also an active member of such prestigious arts organizations as the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, NYPAP and LongReach Arts. Marlene is currently serving on the Board of Governors of the Pastel Society of America.

Wiedenbaum teaches pastel classes and plein-air workshops at the Woodstock School of Art. Her work is in private and public collections throughout the country and is represented in the tri-state area.

I am a passionate realist, primarily using a palette of soft pastels, sanded paper, and a kneaded eraser. For me, the excitement starts when I first discover a subject and decide on a composition. My early years of working in the abstract helped me refine my handling of the medium and sharpen my understanding of shape and form as it manifests in the natural world. Describing what I see in a visual language I understand, is a challenging aspect of the process. I am compelled as an artist to reflect the world I live in, to look keenly at my environment, the subjects and objects within it, and present it to the viewer in an engaging way. I am equally excited by the challenges and resolution of each shape, color and form that I face within a painting. Each resolve leads to the next, and just like the treasures of the Hudson River Valley, some are discernible, some are hidden.