My love affair with Soft Pastels…
As a mom of 2 young girls, I struggled for years to find a medium that worked for me and my limited amount of time for creativity. Over the years, I tried so many different things: acrylic paints, watercolors, oil paints, ink, etc. But all either took too long to set up, clean up, or dry between layers, or were too messy to start and stop with when I’d inevitably need to pause to get one of my daughters a snack or up from naptime. I never got to a point of completion with a project in any of these mediums, which left me feeling like a failure. Eventually, I just sort of gave up and let my artistic side go. As my girls got older, I’d do artwork with them, but rarely made anything for myself.
However, like many others, my need for a creative outlet amplified during the pandemic when I found myself working from home full time and helping homeschool a kindergartener and a 4th grader who were learning remotely full time. I desperately needed an outlet to escape and feel empowered. I watched another artist work with soft pastels in a way I had never seen before, and I was immediately curious. As soon as I tried them myself, layering the colors, I fell in love.
Soft pastels are incredible tools to work with, and have 100% become my medium of choice. They are essentially sticks or small blocks of raw color pigment that have been compacted, combined with the least possible amount of binder. It’s the same exact pigment used in oil paintings, but oil paint pigment is bound together with a liquid, which can lead to the degradation of color, causing the paint to yellow over time. Because pastels lack a heavy binder, pastel artwork is able to remain as rich and vibrant as the day they were created, lasting for generations, so long as they are protected from sun exposure and humidity. I love their versatility and the ability to mix them with alcohol to create a vibrant underpainting that peaks through the finished painting. I then layer the dry pastels over top, playing with color, value, tone and various marks, to create the finished piece.
The really amazing thing I found was that a small pastel work can be done in just a few hours. This meant this was a medium where I could actually start and finish a piece in one weekend or even sometimes in just one day! I could also start and stop whenever I needed to, and I was able to just leave my palette out and pick my pastels back up again whenever I had the time to do so. Super liberating and exciting. And I’m happy to say that my love of pastels has rubbed off on my youngest daughter, who loves to join me in the studio and make her own beautiful creations from time to time.
Are there any other mama artists out there who have had this same struggle? I’d love to know what mediums you’ve explored and what’s worked for you.
Until next time, sending you so much love and light!