Through the Veil

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Pastel

One traditional drawing medium that is now considered more of a dry painting medium is pastel.  I worked with pastel first in elementary school.  A still life that I made was displayed at a school district art show, and my teacher said I had a talent for blending colors.  I worked with pastel a bit in high school, as well, but left the medium alone for many years.

I became really inspired to learn more about pastel when I saw an art exhibit of the architect Louis Kahn at the Kimbell Art Museum.  Kahn had a large set of pastels and traveled around the world with them, making vibrant paintings of architectural ruins at different times of the day.  I was struck by the vibrancy of the colors.

Additionally, I saw Kara English work with PanPastel, which is a new form of the soft pastel, and was especially intrigued to use this medium.  I was working with colored pencils before I got my first set of PanPastels, and I couldn't believe the ease and speed of application.  I blogged about my first PanPastel experience here:

http://erinreaumesketches.blogspot.com/2017/03/hilly-landscape-with-panpastels.html

I have a lot to learn about the pastel medium.  I bought a book about pastel techniques that I still need to work with.  I still have only the basic 20 colors in my PanPastel set, though I also have pastel colored pencils.  I don't enjoy working with the pastel pencils.  The PanPastel set I have is limiting, because it is very difficult to blend with the white.  I really need a set of tints, as well as a set of shades.  I plan to get these eventually.

Here is a collection of pastel paintings I have collected on my Pintrest:

https://pin.it/q7j7b3e5b4rwbv

Most of these are Louis Kahn's, though I also have some of Jan Sirks' and a few other artists.


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