What is Soft Pastel?
Pastels are made by mixing dry artist pigments with water and binders and forming them into stick form, either by hand or by mechanical means. Pigments come from natural sources such as the earth pigments or they can be produced synthetically in the laboratory. These same dry pigments are used in all art mediums such as watercolor, oil and acrylic paints. Because pastel is a dry medium, the color of pastel is the closest to pure color of any of the mediums.
Because pastel is a dry medium, the color of pastel is the closest to pure color of any of the painting mediums. Pastel has a long and illustrious history dating back to the 1600's and today is enjoying a surge in popularity among artists and collectors alike. Many excellent artists around the world are using soft pastel as their primary painting medium.
A Brief History of Pastel
Pastel has many great painters in its long history. Early masters like Rosalba Carriera{1675-1757} were portrait artists who painted charming portraits of their aristocratic patrons in a smooth heavily blended fashion which was the preferred style of her time. Later the great artist Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin {1699-1799} developed a painterly layering technique similar to the way pastel is used today.
Soft pastel once again became popular during the period of French Impressionism and in that era produced its greatest master Edgar Degas[1834-1917].
Degas was a fearless innovator who revolutionized pastel painting with his unusual techniques, magical color and great skill at composition and drawing. He brought pastel to wide acclaim in his lifetime and his work is priceless today.
The modern renaissance in pastel is relatively recent. In the 1970's a pastel show was held in New York City that ushered in the birth of the Pastel Society of America, an organization entirely devoted to the pastel medium. The show was a great success and the society has grown and mushroomed into separate societies around the world showcasing the great talents of pastel painters today.
