Pastel

I have painted and drawn all my life. When I started exploring what medium I wanted to use – I picked the hardest one ! – Watercolour!

It was an adventure to get the control of colour and water into a painting I was pleased with!  I’ll show some of the watercolour work I have done.

In 2010, I took a pastel workshop where Gaye Adams painted in pastels and her rich colours and textures of a forested scene blew me away. I decided to commit to painting with pastels from then on.

What is so special about pastel? Well, there are pros to Pastel.

Pastel is pure colour pigment with a chalk binder or other binder. Pastel is pressed into sticks. Pastels have to be used on t00thed paper which has a rough surface that pulls pastel from the stick. So, you are painting by drawing or stippling a stick of colour on the paper.

The Impressionist painters like Toulouse Lautrec and Monet used pastel for painting on scene and outside as it can capture the expressive line and immediate colours of the scene.

What is the cons of Pastel.

As each pastel is pure pigment then you have to buy a lot of pastel in order to capture the various shades of brown stick or blue stick. Any pastelist has boxes of pastel with “just the right colour.”  There are ways to cross hatch and layer colour to create illusion of a new colour. But pastel requires the commitment of purchasing a great variation of colours to create.

However, pastels do glow!