Colbeck Art

Jan Colbeck-Illingworth
Soft Pastel Artist

Painting in the Charente Maritime

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jan@colbeckart.co.uk
www.colbeckart.co.uk

What are Pastel Paintings?

Pastel paintings are made with the exciting versatile medium of soft pastel. Soft pastels are pure pigments that have been mixed to produce the required colour, this is then mixed with a binder, called gum tragacanth and a small amounts of china clay and or kaolin, and formed into sticks. This is the purist colour as an artist can obtain - not even oil paints can match the brilliant intensity and purity of colours.

I use a wide variety of pastel brands, my favourite … desert island ones … are Unison Colour handmade pastels made in England by artists John and Kate Hersey. With their subtlety and intensity of colour and fluency and responsiveness of touch they are a joy to use.

A Brief History of Soft Pastel

The earliest examples of pastel can be traced back to ancient cave dwellers (3000 years ago) who used white chalk and earth colours, ochre's and umber's and charcoal from charred wood to create pictures on cave walls - first art galleries

The first coloured pastels appeared in Italy via French artist, Jean Perreal (Master of Moulins) around 1499, who travelled with court of Louis XII when they invaded Milan. Leonardo da Vinci noted he had met Perreal who told him about a 'new techniques to paint with dry colours' the first colours da Vinci used were black, sanguine (iron oxide), dark sepia, blue, white (chalk) and are seen in some fine portraits by this 'master'.

However the history of soft pastels centres around France and Venice with the 18th Century portrait painters, Venetian Rosalba Carriera and the French Maurice Quentin de la Tour using pastels to create fine portraits. These and other 18C artists described them as being a direct link between hand and 'canvas' , there was no need for pre-drawing colour could be applied straight away, and - built up with no waiting times for it to dry between layers - unlike oil. These artists used pastels to create paintings, using pastel as painting - not drawing - medium. These paintings are very like oils with intense stumping and blending creating similar effects to the brush work in oil paintings and are often confused with oils of a much later date as their colours are still so brilliant and intense.

Many of the Impressionists were inspired by these works, such as Watteau, Renoir and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) especially, who popularised the medium by experimenting using different techniques - linear strokes on top of blended pastel, and many more.

Today there has been a massive revival in the old techniques of pastel painting, artists love them for their immediacy and brilliance and trueness of colour, art lovers treasure them for the brilliance and freshness.

Caring and Framing a Pastel Painting.

To preserve the brilliant colours my paintings are never sprayed with fixative as it will darken the painting and can have an adverse effect on some pigments themselves. This means that, if you someday decide to re-frame the painting, the surface can be smudged if the unframed painting is not handled carefully. Let your framer know that this is a pastel and care needs to be taken, also make a point of saying that you do not wish for it to be sprayed under any circumstances.

Framing is important. Pastel paintings need to be framed under glass, avoid acrylic or Plexiglass as a build up of static charge will pull the pigment of the surface. Like any painting, the glass also serves to protect the painting from environmental issues such as rapid changes in humidity, insects and ultraviolet light. A professional painter will know the best way to frame a pastel painting, essentially space needs to be provided by way of a double mount and or spacers to keep the image away from the glass. If the framed painting is handled roughly, small particles of pastel may detach themselves, they are easily removed by carefully taking off the frame and using a kneaded rubber eraser on the mount and a lint free cloth on the glass. Otherwise, the painting is care-free. The colours are permanent; there are no oils to darken them and cause cracks and ageing as with oil paintings and the colours will not fade as watercolours do. I endeavour to use the most permanent and non-toxic pigments available.