Chris is a local artist (currently in Ravenstone) who studied graphic design at college and is otherwise self-taught. After college, she went into teaching. She told us that most of her paintings are inspired by her local walks, such as a former quarry that has been turned into a nature reserve.

Tonight she was demonstrating techniques to create a skyscape using soft pastels. These are not oil pastels, which are very different. They are similar to chalk in consistency but feel much nicer. It is easy to blend with your hands, but you do need to keep wiping them, either with wet wipes or a cloth, to avoid transferring dark colours onto light. A board and easel is used with a gully at the bottom which allows the pastel dust to fall and be cleaned up easily.

Pastelmat paper by Clairefontaine is great for layering more pastel as it has a good key that grabs the pastel. The paper colour being used was dark grey. This brand can be used for multi-media. (Other papers may dissolve when adding water.) Water or solvent can be used over the top of pastels to liquify them. However, be careful when blending pastels, as you can end up with mud.

Chris says she often does a preparatory sketch to check the colours and composition. Prior to working with pastels, Chris places the colours she is using into a tray that she uses as a ‘pallet’, sorting them into warm and cooler colours. The tray is filled with flour to keep the pastels clean. Pastel pencils are used for adding detail and also for the under drawing.

Starting on the painting, Chris used the edge of a dark blue pastel to fill a large area and then blended. Clouds were added over the top and the smudged texture is very life-like. She said it is possible to work without blending by hand and some artists choose to work that way. Applying without blending will give more texture. At one stage Chris used a pastel as a glaze over another colour, which is another way of blending.

You can work very quickly with pastels. Chris tries to transition gradually. She used pink between the blue and the orange of the sunset to avoid a difficult transition. A very light yellow was used for the lightest areas. Chris likes to get all the colour down before going in with detail, putting the lightest lights down at the end.

To add clouds, Chris used the edge of the pastel very lightly and blended, also lightly. A blending stick with a silicone tip can be useful  in smaller areas where a finger is too big. Chris pointed out that the clouds on the horizon (middle of the picture) are further away than the ones at the top, which would be overhead. There is more blending in the under layers than those on top to try to get more texture in. Chris is always thinking about values, for example trying not to go too light too soon.

Chris says she saves little bits of pastel that are useful for adding small detail. Chris has a variety of different brands in her pastel stash. Some of the pastels are softer than others, for example Sennelier. Harder ones can be useful for adding texture. More detail was added to the sky but Chris says it’s very easy to overdo it. With pastel it’s always possible to knock things back by adding other colours or softening. Whilst your reference picture can be good to give you an initial focus and guide to colour, at some point it is good to look at what the painting needs.

For the landscape, Chris did not want to make it as dark as the reference, as a photograph will tend to darken everything, but fairly dark pencils were used at the edge to make it stand out from the sky. She also added a glow from the sunset into the land.

Chris wanted to make sure she was happy with the sky before adding the tree, as after that stage it is hard to make adjustments. The tree was done using a pastel pencil, avoiding using black and instead a dark violet. When doing the branches, Chris twisted the pencil to create more natural looking branches. The edge of the land was pushed up towards the sky to soften it. For the landscape, Chris added different greens and also some violet. A lighter pastel was used to add some detail.

To add a foliage effect to the tree, a blue-grey pastel was used very lightly. A little light was added to the trunk on the side of the sunset. Golden brown touches were added where the sunset would touch the land.

Detail on the horizon was refined and softened. To finish, Chris added a few highlights in the sky. She said she often leaves a painting for a day or so and then goes back to see if there’s anything she is not happy with. Another tip is looking at it in a mirror.

Asked about fixative, Chris said she would not normally use it, especially with Pastelmat, as it flattens the picture. Storing is done flat with wax or greaseproof paper to protect the work. When framing, Chris puts an extra channel on the back of the mount to provide a gap for loose particles to disperse.

​Meg Grant