Gallery of the Traveling Artist

Painting with Pastels

"Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."—Claude Oscar Monet

Pastel - Pigments mixed with gum and water, and pressed into a dried stick. Works of art done with such pigments are also called pastels.

A picture made with pastels may be called either a drawing or a painting. The principal reason to call it one or the other has nothing to do with whether it has ever been wet. It has entirely to do with whether the resulting image is more linear or more painterly -- showing shapes or forms created with patches of color, exploiting color and tonal relationships.

I like working with pastels because they are immediate and direct and no drying is required. There’s no brushes, knifes or other tools of application to master. I use no tools! My hands and fingers become my tools and are used for blending and softening colors; the only thing between my brain and the final painting is my imagination and the raw pigment between my fingers. This method of painting is ideal for en plein air painting and also when your art studio has limited space.

I paint mostly on artistic sandpaper, which holds more layers of pigment than other types of pastel paper. I usually begin by creating the darkest darks and the lightest lights and cover my entire surface with my hardest pastels as an under painting. Then I layer the next hardest on top of that, layer over layer, and finish with the very softest pastels for detailing and highlighting. I use little or no fixative, because fixative alters and darkens the colors of the painting.

Most all of my Pastel Paintings are unprotected pastel surfaces. Unprotected pastel, no fixative or sprays on surface. I don’t use fixative or other protective sprays, because they distort the beautiful rich and luminous colors that pastels offer. Pastel Paintings require special shipping, handling and framing, to protect their very sensitive surfaces. The surface can only come in contact with acid free materials and there can be absolutely no movement between the materials and the surface of the pastel painting.

With proper care Pastel paintings are very permanent. They don't fade or lose their color over time. Art museums have pastel paintings from as early as the 16th century, still in perfect condition.

The art of pastel painting has been around for hundreds of years. Even the great masters like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso worked in pastels, as shown by the pastel examples below.

Examples are:

Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (French, 1699-1779), Self-Portrait in Spectacles, c. 1771, Rococo, pastel on blue-gray paper over canvas, 16 x 13 inches (40.7 x 32.5 cm), Louvre.

Jean-Étienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702-1789), Portrait of Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven Years of Age, 1755-1756, pastel on vellum, 22 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches (57.2 x 47 cm), J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA.

Maurice Quentin de La Tour (French, 1704-1788), The Marquise de Pompadour,1752-1755, pastel on blue-gray paper, 70 x 51 1/2 inches (177.5 x 131 cm), Louvre. See Rococo.

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (French, 1715-1783), Portrait of Gabriel Huquier, engraver (1695-1772), 1747, pastel on blue paper mounted on canvas, 0.630 x 0.530 m, Louvre.

John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815), Hugh Hall, 1758, pastel on paper mounted on canvas, 15 1/2 x 13 inches (39.4 x 33 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Edgar Degas, At the Milliner's, c. 1882, pastel on paper, 27 5/8 x 27 3/4 inches, (70.2 x 70.5 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Edgar Degas, The Tub, 1886, pastel, 23 1/2 x 32 3/4 inches (60 x 83 cm), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. See asymmetry.

Edgar Degas, Dancers, c. 1896, pastel on paper, Cleveland Museum of Art.

Images to be placed shortly...

Edgar Degas, Three Ballet Dancers, One with Dark Crimson Waist, 1899, [170 k,] pastel on paper, 23 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches, Barnes Foundation

Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916), Madame Arthur Fontaine (Marie Escudier), 1901, pastel on paper, 28 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches (72.4 x 57.2 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See Symbolism.

Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895), A Village (the village of Maurecourt), pastel on paper, 18 1/2 x 28 1/4 inches, private collection, New York

Mary Cassatt (American, 1845-1926), Agatha and Her Child, 1891, pastel on paper, 26 x 21 inches (66.1 x 53.3 cm), Butler Institute of American Art,Youngstown, OH. See American Impressionism.

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Mary Cassatt, Baby's First Caress, 1891, pastel on paper, New Britain Museum of Art, CT.

William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916), The White Rose, c. 1886, pastel on paper on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ. See Ten American Painters.

Natalya S. Goncharova (Russian, 1881-1962), Rayonist Composition, c. 1912-3, pastel on paper, 31.8 x 21.6 cm, Tate Gallery, London. See Rayonism.

Max Weber (American, born Russia, 1881-1961), Slide Lecture at the Metropolitan Museum, 1916, pastel on paper, 24 1/2 x 18 3/4 inches (62.2 x 47.5 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887-1986), A Storm, 1922, pastel on paper, mounted on illustration board, 18 1/4 x 24 3/8 inches (46.4 x 61.9 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Georgia O'Keefe, Pink Shell with Seaweed, c. 1937, 22 x 28 inches, pastel on paper, San Diego Museum of Art, CA. See enlargement, nature, and volute.

Paul Cadmus (1904-1999), Male Nude, c. 1960s, pastel on paper, 14 x 23 3/4 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design, Kansas City, MO. See nude.

Paula Rego (Portuguese, lives and works in England, 1935-), Recreation, 1996, pastel on paper mounted on aluminum, 66 7/8 x 51 1/4 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.