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Thanks, Sharon
 

I've e-mailed for their catalogue, This looks like an interesting place.

Jean

Wallis Sanded Paper
 

Hi Sharon,

I have been using primarily the Wallis Archival Sanded Paper, manufactured by Kitty Wallis. You can get it at most large art supply stores, catalogues or through Kitty at 1-800-760-7870.

It is incredibly durable, and accepts underpainting washes in watercolor, acetone, mineral spirit, acrylic or thinned-down oil without buckling or filling the tooth. It's good for painters who, like me, have a pretty heavy hand.

I know of painters who literally wash off a failed pastel with a toothbrush and running water.

If I am working large (about 32" x 40" or larger, I have the Wallis paper tissue mounted to 4-ply rag, and the rag tissue mounted to 1/2" foamcore (Gator board would work well here too.) Even very large sizes are lightweight. I have had a ittle warping occasionally, but not enough to distrurb the surface shape in a frame. I would probably have something mounted on the backside next time to equalize things.

The paper comes in sheets from 9" x 12" to 24" x 36" (I just checked Dick Blick for example, and the museum grade is $18.68), and in big rolls that measure 46" x 10 yards, or by 50 yards. It's available in Museum or Professional grade. In my view, there's not enough price difference to justify not getting the museum grade paper.

The original papers have sll been white, but it's now being offered in a neutral toned option, similar to a La Carte light grey (warm grey).

At the 2002 ASOPA conference I had an interesting conversation with Virgil Elliott (SOG artist and sometime contributor to this forum) about archival pastel materials.

As many of you know, he consults with the ASTM folks on the archival characteristics of many media, grounds, etc. When we spoke at ASOPA he was particularly emphatic about the fugitive qualities of certain pastel colors.

It would be worthwhile contacting him directly, I think, if anyone wanted to know more about the research he has been doing (for ASTM, I believe).

At my suggestion, ASTM is now looking into pastels as regards lightfastness, and we will be writing a lighfastness standard for them. I conducted some tests of some of the more popular brands of pastels, though not complete sets, and more testing was done by my ASTM colleagues Joy Turner Luke and Mark Gottsegen. Gottsegen, Chairman of the ASTM Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Materials D01.57 and author of The Painter's Handbook, is currently conducting tests on a wider range of pastels using state-of-the art scientific testing equipment. It may be possible to find or put together a set of reliably lightfast pastels after the tests currently under way have yielded their results, but until then, it can only be a guessing game for anyone who has not tested his or her entire set of pastels to see what holds up and what does not. Golden Artist Colors sells a lightfastness test kit, which I recommend highly for that purpose.

Once our tests have covered the field completely, I hope it will be possible to assemble a full set of lightfast colors, with which I can work with confidence. At this point, I am not ready to say that it is possible, and until I can, I will not work in pastel again. One of the things I want to accomplish with this is to give the manufacturers good reasons to improve their products. Until pastel artists demand it, the manufacturers will not change anything.

Virgil Elliott

Thanks so much for that post, Virgil, and it's good to hear from you again!

I suppose there is a continuum of permanence in artistic media. At the most permanent end is marble but until they find a quarry of it in a wide range of colors, it won't be the medium for me.

At the most fugitive end of the scale, it seems to me, are the elaborate mandalas made in sprinkled colored sand by monks. As soon as the last grains are dropped into place they literally blow the whole thing away. This is to remind us, once again, of the transitory nature of the human condition.

I'll settle for somewhere in between, with my oils.

Ophelia:

O heavenly powers, restore him!

Hamlet:

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another... To a nunnery, go.

Sharon,

I wouldn't go so far as to pitch the entire set, but I'd certainly test them, and find more lightfast replacements for the colors that fade unacceptably.

After you have run your own tests and seen what fades and how quickly, it would be well to write the manufacturers of whichever pastels fared poorly and let them know how disappointed you are that they chose fade-prone pigments for those colors. That will put the pressure on them to improve their products.

Regarding the Golden Lightfastness Test Kit, I recommend using Wallis paper (white) instead of the sheets included in the kit, and making your sample swatches larger than the boxes printed on those sheets. My swatches are 1 1/4" x 2 1/2", so with one half covered by a mask and the other half exposed to the sun, I have two 1 1/4" squares side by side for easy comparison. Leave sufficient space between samples to keep one color from contaminating another. I found it necessary to draw the excess dust from each sample into a vacuum cleaner nozzle held directly above the sample, when preparing my test sheets. I used heavy black paper for the masks covering half of each sample, and separated the mask from the pastel with glassine paper cut to the same dimensions as the mask. I stuck the test sheets and masks on foam-core board with push-pins. On one of the sheets I pinned a Blue Wool Card, supplied in the kit, with half of it covered with a mask. The kit has good instructions. The hardest part is preparing the test sheets. After that, it's just a matter of placing them in a window that gets full sun, looking at them every few days to see what has faded, and writing down what we see.

The manufacturers really ought to be doing this testing themselves, and making the results available, reported truthfully, but unless pastel artists insist, it will not likely happen. The long-standing (and erroneous) belief among pastel advocates that pastels are a permanent medium is precisely what has allowed manufacturers to get away with giving us fade-prone pastels. That needs to change.

Virgil Elliott

Unison Pastels
 

Vigill,

It was a serio-comic reply. I love my pastels too well to pitch them!

Fortunately, Unison is my brand of choice, followed by Schminke and Sennielier.

Your input is most appreciated, helpful and anticipated.

Sincerely,

Sharon,

If you were to see my test panels you might want to narrow it down even further.

I would like to see the actual performance of so-called artists' pastels match the confidence pastellists have been expressing in them on faith for so many years. Right now there seems to be a significant gap between belief and reality on that score. With the help of pastel artists, this situation can be corrected, but a problem must first be acknowledged before it can be solved.

Virgil Elliott

Diana Townsend Great American
 

Virgil,

The next full sets I had been thinking of purchasing were the Diana Townsends and The Great Americans. Do you have any information as to the lightfastness of these two lines?

I am about to use the Light Green, Cobalts and Ultramarines in the Schminke line. Are they problematic? I have avoided the Schminke Reds but not the Quinacridones and Purples. As for the lights in my present oeuvre, they are Unisons.

I hope I am not being too much of a bother, but I would love some information as where to sink my next pastel dollars.

Thankyou so much for your very helpful information. You can bet I am going to stock up on Unisons!

Sincerely,

Sharon,

I didn't test any of Diana Townsend's pastels, unless she calls them Artworks. I didn't test The Great Americans, either, unless they go by another name.

Ultramarine blues are reliable in all brands I tested.

I would hold off purchasing pastels for a while, as the manufacturers will probably improve their lines as a result of the tests being done, and if so, we will get more lightfast pastels if we wait until then. At least we will have a better idea which ones we can expect to hold up if we have the full test results to refer to in making our choices.

Virgil Elliott

Sharon,

Thanks for letting me know.

Virgil

Sharon,

I just read the article by Mr. Merrill (thanks for putting it up here) and was surprised to see that a conservator would immediately put a fixative on a pastel that came into their possession. I've heard other people say that their pastels were fixed by framers against their wishes. What are your thoughts on this? I've always thought we were not supposed to use fixatives and only rarely use a reworkable fixative by Grumbacher and now wonder if that's the one Mr. Merrill says NOT to use. The burnishing method makes sense to me and I'll definitely test that method, just because I'm curious. Do you use fixative?

Wouldn't all mediums fade in the sun?
 

I was under the assumption that any medium will fade in direct sunlight no matter what it is drawn/painted with. Is this correct? Oils will turn yellow if it sat in front of a sunlit window too so I wouldn't be surprised if pastels did.

I am in the experiment stages in using pastels. I was looking into buying Unison pastels and was discouraged when I read on the side of their boxes that it could cause cancer. Just seeing the 'c' word made be shutter. I do have other brands and I am fully aware that the chalk is toxic and I'm taking extra precautions when using them.

Sharon,

Do you wear a mask, surgical gloves or have a clean air machine running while you paint in pastels?

Also, I have several books of artists such as Paul Leville and Wendy Caporale, both in which use a wide range of pastels from different manufacturers. Wendy also uses hard pastels alongside with her soft pastels. So wouldn't her beautiful portraits fade over time? I'm sure she wouldn't want to hear this.

Is it that pastels will fade faster than any other medium?

Re: Wouldn't all mediums fade in the sun?
 

Melissa wrote: Melissa,

There are several misconceptions expressed in your post, which I will try to address briefly.

Permanent pigments will not fade in the sun, regardless of the binder. I have had several panels in the sun for many years, beginning in 1985, to test various oil paints, and some have faded and some have not. It depends on the pigment.

Oil paints will not turn yellow in the sun, but will do so in the dark, if linseed oil is the binder. The yellowing can be reversed by exposing the painting to light. Linseed oil yellows initially, and then loses its yellow color in normal indoor light in ten to fifteen years, and much faster in outdoor light.

Chalk (calcium carbonate) is not toxic, but inhaling airborne particles of any kind is harmful to the lungs. Pastels contain other pigments besides calcium carbonate. The dangers of breathing pastel dust may be exaggerated, as most of it falls toward the floor, but it is nonetheless wise to avoid inhaling the dust while it is suspended in the air, such as after blowing on the picture to remove excess loose pastel.

Regarding artists who use hard pastels, it would depend on which colors they use. The earth colors can usually be relied upon not to fade, but many of the rest of them faded very rapidly on my test panels. Whoever uses them can expect their works to change. Using a wide range of pastels, hard or soft, from many manufacturers virtually ensures that some of the colors will fade or otherwise change over time. This might change in the future, if manufacturers respond to pastel artists' concerns by improving their products, but it won't if no one demands it. As things stand now, it is unrealistic to regard pastels as a permanent artists' medium.

It is possible to paint impermanently in other media as well, by choosing one's pigments unwisely and/or adding the wrong ingredients, but pastel is more likely to exhibit changes sooner than anything but colored pencil, which is even worse. UV filter fixatives and glass will help, but these, too, lose their effectiveness over time.

If you love pastels and are not concerned for permanence, pastels are a good medium for you. If permanence is a concern, oil paint is a better choice.

Virgil Elliott

I discovered this site awhile ago on Rembrandt Pastels in it's lightfastness. http://www.artmaterialsupplies.com/reminfo.htm
The minimum number of years (11 colours) seems to be 25 years in fading. I don't know how accurate this is but would like to hear some opinions.

Also, is there a site that states the lightfastness of NuPastels or Unison?

Sharon: Do you spray the entire pastel painting before framing again?

Information Overload.....
 

I have never been so confused in reading information about pastel, lightfastness, fixative...and so on. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about everything. <Sigh>

Lesley Harrison, a professional pastel animal artist, has been painting with pastels for over 25 years states in her 2002 printed book, Wende Caparole (Daniel Greene's wife) paints beautiful and detailed children portraits. In her book, 'Painting Childrens Portraits in Pastel' states, " Sharon wrote:
So who is right? Daniel Greene doesn't have a problem in spraying his pastel paintings but why would his wife Wende?

I am in the learning stages of this medium (and color) but the opinions are scattered all over the place. Maybe I'm looking too far into this(?)

Ahhhh, I think I will have a glass of wine and start sketching with my pencils. :D

LOL
 

I think I will go back and enjoy drawing and painting like I did before. ....it was more relaxing.

Cheers!

Melissa,

Normal museum lighting for pastels is a fairly dark room. That is the context of the information on the Rembrandt Pastels web site. Test them yourself by putting sample swatches on a pastel board and place them in a window in direct sun, with half of each swatch covered by a black mask. Check them every few days, comparing the covered half with the exposed half. It's a simple enough thing to do, and it will clear up all the confusion, and you won't have to rely on what anyone else has said. Do it with every color you're considering using, and then decide which ones to use after they've been in the sun for a year.


Virgil Elliott

Melissa, et al,

Wende is a strong painter in her own right. I would never assume that she sprays, or does anything else, without asking her.

In this and in (at least what I have learned) most things, there aren't absolutes about right and wrong. It's much more about what works for you.

Virgil,

I would love to visit your studio in California to see your test panels, but unfortunately I'm several miles away in the great white north of Canada. (But then again it would be warmer down there :) ) It has been interesting in what you have found in the longevity of pastels.

Chris,

I can't agree with you more that Wende is a strong painter in her own right and an absolutely great pastel portrait artist. I try to read an instructional art book from front to back and to learn as much as I can about pastels or drawing. When I read her opinions on why she doesn't use fixative (which is mentioned a couple of times in her book) this had confused me with how other artists have approached this issue. I also was reading a pastel instruction book by Paul Leveille who believes in spraying his artwork.

I had sprayed a pastel drawing I was working on (before I read Wende's book) but after I had read her comments I thought I might've damaged my painting. I was actually relieved to hear that several other artists have sprayed their work too. I have the utmost respect for Wende and any other professional artist who has had the experience and expertise in their chosen medium. Yes, there is no right or wrong.

Sharon, you and many others on this Forum have been a great help to me and to others I'm sure.

BTW, I had a glass of wine and watched the opening night of Celine Dion in Las Vegas. Fascinating!

Update
 

I read these posts with interest and found that there is still no new info from the ASTM as of this week.

I also found a good link from the Cape Cod Pastel Society:

http://www.capecodpastelsociety.com/conservation.html

Julie,

We (ASTM Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Materials, D01.57) are working on the proposed pastel standard right now, which is currently in its sixth draft. It will be discussed at the ASTM meeting in Chicago on April 13. We would appreciate the participation of representatives of pastel societies at this meeting, and I expect to see some of them there. The venue is Navy Pier, where the NAMTA convention will be held. Contact me or Mark Gottsegen if you would like to attend, so we can put your name on the list for admission to the convention hall. My e-mail: [email protected].

Virgil Elliott

Thanks
 

Thanks, Virgil for the update. Won't be able to attend, but would look forward to hearing what is decided.