What are pastels

 Pastel is an art medium that consists of pure powdered pigment mixed with a small amount of binder that is rolled into a stick form. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those used to produce other art materials such as oil paints.

The colour of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process, creating the most vivid colours of any art medium.

An artwork made using pastels is called a pastel drawing or a pastel painting.

All my pastel paintings are created using soft and hard pastels with high lightfastness.

Soft pastel sticks have a higher portion of pigment and less binder and are very opaque making them useful for backgrounds. Hard pastels have a higher portion of binder, are less opaque but produce a sharp drawing material that is good for fine details.

My artwork is produced on an acid-free archival support (toothed paper) which prevents the pastels from moving. Original pastel drawings are then professionally mounted and framed under glass that does not touch the artwork. No fixatives are used as these may eventually cause discolouration. High lightfast pastels should never crack, darken, fade or yellow over time, thus leaving the artwork unchanged despite the passing of many years.

It is these qualities that have made pastels a medium of choice for many artists since the 15^th century, notably: Leonardo da Vinci, Jacopo Bassano, Edgar Degas and Eugene Delacroix, among others.

 Fiona Stansfield