Candace Petersen is a plein air pastellist drawn to subjects where light and dimensionality play leading roles. Her work reflects where she lives—the dunes, farms, and forests of coastal New Jersey and Michigan—but she finds the play of light against weathered man-made structures also alluring subject matter, particularly when she travels. Her pastel paintings are usually multi-layered meditations on landscape and architecture. She has studied with Brooke Allison, Alan Flattman, Stan Sperlak, and Skip Whitcomb, as well as being strongly influenced by the work of Richard McKinley, Kevin Macpherson, Lois Grieffel, and Richard Schmidt.