What is pastel?
Pastel is a French term – “pastiche”. Pure pigment is mixed with a small amount of binder and rolled into sticks. These sticks are not chalk. Only their shape is similar. Unlike pigment that is mixed with a liquid binder such as oil which make oil paints, pastels will not darken, crack or yellow with time. One can trace the use of pastel back to the 1600’s with a Venetian woman artist Roasalba Carriera. Pastels created in the 1800’s hang in the museums as beautiful as the day there were created. Such artists as Degas, Cassatt and Manet, to name a few, began painting regularly with pastel in the 1800’s. When an artist draws with pastel, it is a pastel sketch. When the paper is covered entirely, it is a pastel painting even though no liquid “paint” is used.
