Painting on Paper by Abel Vazquez: Untitled

A toy wagon, a barrel, a slingshot and a doll, and everyone busy with their own afternoon.

This untitled painting on paper is by Abel Vazquez, made ca. 1991 in pastel on archival paper. Pastel is nearly pure pigment pressed into a stick, which gives it the dense, chalky color seen across this sheet. Rounded, doll-like figures fill a room of flat color blocks: one balanced on a little wheeled cart, one perched on a striped barrel with a slingshot raised, and a third holding a small bear. Greens, grays, pinks and blues are laid in with dark outlines and a soft, rubbed texture. It is 23 inches wide and 15.25 high.

Nobody is in trouble yet, but it is early.