Robert Kirk-Pastels

'There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual ...We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could bur recall this vision by some sort of sign...It was in this hope that the arts were invented.'

Robert Henri.

P
astel is very versatile medium, the late Christopher Assheton-Stones used it as a full painterly medium building up his paintings on first colour statements rubbed into the surface.

I began this way and still sometimes follow the method but then I discovered Whistler's pastels, marvelous direct statements with the ground colour showing through the pastel marks.

A difficult act to follow but I'm left with the feeling that he grasped the distinctive essence of the pastel medium. The pastel painter shuffles and arranges coloured marks to try to define what he sees and there is no single way of doing this.

By nature I'm a hoarder and collect all sorts of pastel sticks, hard and soft. I find an occasional use for nearly all of them. Mostly though I use Unison, Conté and Rembrandt.

Ingres and Canson papers both take pastel well and the heavier weights take the punishment meted out to the surface when blending.

For serious work, I now prefer to make my own prepared pumice grounds on heavy cartridge or mountboard. You are more in control of the properties of the ground–its colour and texture–and it is satisfying to craft a picture throughout all of its stages.