The first time I touched a pastel to paper was in my freshman year of college. Something just resonated – the combination of using such a direct way of applying colour on a toothy paper, the scumbly appearance of the stroke, the colour of the paper peaking through, even the subtle sound – a synaesthetic experience for me. I couldn’t get enough of it.
As often happens that unfettered joy of artmaking slipped into the ether after I graduated and I didn’t return to soft pastels until I went back to college some years later to study design. A happy reunion in a drawing class with the medium reminded me of the charge it gave me. A few years later and I fully launched back into it and haven’t looked back.
I was eager to try new products, and Unison soft pastels were on my radar. I bought a 72 landscape set and was set!
I have always looked to landscape as my main subject of expression. Chalk it up to living in Canada – wide open spaces and lush wilderness! A penchant to experiment with colour and texture keeps me engaged and inquisitive – what would happen if I tried this… All in all pastel is my favourite carrot!
Several years ago, 2012 to be precise, my pastel painting took a side road off the path I had been following for a long time. We’ve all been there I think (we pastellists that is). A piece that went sideways because of various reasons: too many layers of pastel, the sinking realization the composition wasn’t…
