Pondering Pastels

Quite a long while ago I gave pastels a whirl. Pastels had long interested me, but given the considerable time and money required to take up a medium so different from oil painting, the effort stalled and the boxes of color sticks went into the closet. But a few weeks back a colleague challenged a group of us to do something new, or something different than our usual medium and subjects. Over the years and through all sorts of changes I had never reopened those boxes of pastels but decided this might be the time.

In discussing pastels it is important to differentiate them from chalk. Chalks are naturally-occurring and are composed entirely of mineral, colored or not. Some earth pigments used today could be called chalks when they are found in solid rather than powdered form. Sanguine, a natural red chalk, is an excellent example and has been used for millennia. On the other hand, pastels are manufactured in a combination analogous to paint: pigment plus a binder to hold it together. In the case of pastels the binder is often gum arabic or gum tragacanth added to pigment with small amounts of water. The resultant paste is then pressed or rolled into sticks and dried. (The name of the medium comes from "paste".) You see people calling pastel "chalk" all of the time, but the two are quite distinct.

Rosalba Carriera, "Self Portrait," pastel, ca 1745

Pastel is an older medium than many might think, dating to at least the 15th century, that actually gained wide usage in Europe by the 18th. Pastel had been used by artists from the time of da Vinci and into the late 17th century, but usually only for studies and insignificant work. It was Rosalba Carriera a Venetian, who popularized pastel as a portrait medium. Her art began as miniature portraits, a popular form of the time, often painted on ivory. She eventually transitioned to full-sized portraits but in the first decade of the 18th century began making portraits with pastel. As she aged (and after her sister died) she became despondent, more so as she lost her sight. Because of these travails she is said to have "lost her reason"during the final years of her life.

Maurice Quentin de La Tour, "Self Portrait,"pastel, ca 1751

The brilliance of color in a pastel portrait was dazzling compared to the familiar, relative dullness of oil paint. Since pastel binders don't yellow, the pure pigments in a pastel painting can retain initial color and brightness (unless the pigments are light sensitive). In France in particular, pastel gained wide popularity in the works of various artists, including Maurice Quentin de La Tour and others.

Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, "Self Portrait," pastel, 1771

One of my own heroes, Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, began as an oil painter and achieved fame in his own lifetime but in his old age turned to pastels. He produced a number of self portraits and other portraits that today are justly famous. Another well-known pastelist, Jean-Etienne Liotard (Swiss, despite his French name), traveled extensively--Vienna, Holland, England--and probably contributed mightily to the pastel trend in various places. He left many very accomplished portraits.

Since the early centuries of pastel the medium has continued and flourished. In the 19th century it was probably James McNeill Whistler who made the biggest initial impact 
in the medium with his pastels of Venice. But it was Edgar Degas with his innumerable ballet dancers, bathing women and so on who influence was widest. And Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist, was important as well, particularly with her subject matter of women and small children.

In any event, over the past several weeks my own work in pastel has been tiny baby steps. Relearning and refining one's approach to a medium is an important step in growth of skills, seems to me, but much of that kind of sketching and exploration doesn't deserve a wide audience. Accordingly, over the next few weeks I'll continue exploring. Something worth showing may yet result.