About Pastels

I work in Soft Pastels. This medium lends itself to sweeping bands of applied colour. Therefore, the finished image has movement, and the figures can also be very fluid and stylised. That allows me to mould them into specific shapes within the frame. This seems to be important to me!

There is usually text within my picture as I love words and the fun element of a play on words. These are secondary to the image and therefore hidden within the picture - sometimes to give an explanation, but mostly to amuse me! So, just like the pastel is laid down in layers, there are other layers within my picture, so that if the viewer takes the time to look closer, he/she will be rewarded with extra elements.

Soft Pastel is such a tactile medium - I find the ease of picking from an array of small colour sticks so delicious a prospect -- it's like opening a full box of your favourite chocolates, you just want to try all of them! The range of hues is vast, and the colours can also be blended together on the support for even more variety. Being selective can be quite difficult and the danger of overworking the medium can often result in it losing its freshness, and its message!

I use the pastels wet and dry, and apply metal leaf and other types of collage.

Because of the fragility of the finished pastels, all my work is sold framed and glazed.