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This article was originally written by invitation for the Pastel Artists of New Zealand's newsletter. Unfortunately, the last several paragraphs and painting were accidentally omitted so I'm reposting it here on my blog:

 

 For many years I worked exclusively in pastel. Although I used a watercolor and acrylic ink underpainting, the final layer was mostly dry pastels (the acrylic ink gives me a much richer, more saturated underpainting than watercolor alone can and I love to use a combination of the two under skin tones and especially dark areas like hair and clothing). While this is important to enter pastel society exhibitions that require that the final piece must be at least 80% I was getting frustrated by these restrictions. I kept seeing paintings in other mediums that I loved and not wanting to start learning a whole new medium I set out to experiment how I can achieve similar results while still working with my beloved pastels.

 

One of the first results was my Quiet Beauty series where I used iridescent acrylic paint and stencils in the background. This was done after the portrait was finished in pastel and quite scary at first! After all, I had spent many hours on the portrait and I could easily screw up the background and ruin the whole painting. I laid paper over the finished pastel parts to protect it and then very carefully laid the stencil down and applied the acrylic paint. Luckily it worked and I loved the result, creating several more pieces this way. This is the first piece in that series which was started as a demo in a workshop:

Quiet Beauty I, 12x12 inches

 

Another early painting using mixed media was Chaos:

Chaos, 20x30 inches

Here I actually painted the pastel part (the figure) last since I wanted to splatter and be very loose with the background. I used a lot of gesso and charcoal in addition to the pastel, watercolor and acrylic ink. You can see the step-by-step pictures for both of these on other blog posts (you can also see how I use the watercolor and acrylic ink as an underpainting).

 

For When I Am Silenced Can You Not Still Hear My Screams #1, you can see where I left the bright watercolor and acrylic ink underpainting showing through in the background (the red and yellow), which was part of the underpainting of the whole piece. I then painted the face in pastel followed by applying heavy bodied acrylic paint (NOT the ink) with a palette knife, dragging it over parts of the figure. I sprayed the pastel with some fixative first so it wouldn't smear too much but I still wiped my palette knife after each stroke because it would pick up some of the pastel skin tones.

When I Am Silenced Can You Not Still Hear My Screams #1, 8x8 inches

 

Here is a piece where I used metallic ink on the abstracted figure on the left and pastel on the rest of the piece:

Enough, 7.5x16 inches

The writing is done with black pastel, not charcoal, because it is darker and would show up better over the dried metallic ink.

 

I took a very different approach with Resist:

Resist, 11x14 inches

The whole painting is done in my usual way of laying soft pastel over dried watercolor and acrylic ink but the black heavy bodied acrylic paint was applied with a palette knife directly onto the back of the museum glass before framing it. I love the look which gives it a three dimensional feel and plan to do more this way but I must admit it's a bit scary to think about the glass breaking during shipping!!

 

The following piece actually has a lot more acrylic ink on it than pastel so it could never be entered into a pastel show but that doesn't bother me:

Gemini I, 8x10 inches

The entire background is acrylic ink, only the figure is in pastel.

 

Leave A Message In The Dust For Me, is another such example:

Leave A Message In The Dust For Me,10x10 inches

Only the figure is done in pastel, the background is painted with silver and gold metallic acrylic ink sprinkled with coarse salt to mimic the Moon's craters and the space around the moon is micaceous iron oxide which has a lovely sparkly look to it that I just love.

 

For A Glimpse Of Klimt (Portrait Of Artist Nicole Alger) I was tempted to use actual gold leaf like Klimt did but I wanted to use my own method of using metallic acrylic ink for the gold instead. While I have used metal leaf in other pieces before I am not fond of the mess it makes and prefer using the ink.

For A Glimpse Of Klimt (Portrait Of Artist Nicole Alger), 10x10 inches Time was also of the essence since I had a tight deadline to submit it to a show and the ink was faster than gold leaf. I also knew I could easily work the charcoal over the gold ink. I used charcoal in the pattern because I wanted it to be less intense than the hair which has a lot of black pastel in it. I also like the way the charcoal let some of the gold shimmer through.

 

One of my most recent series is the Pins series which is completely different:

Rise #1, 8.5x11 inches

While all the other examples above were painted on sanded paper (usually UArt 320 or 400), here I used pan pastels on translucent vellum (and later in the series switched to Mylar because it's a bit thicker) which is then layed on top of foamcore before adding the push pins. You can see I also used a stencil in the background. I thought my framer would kill me when I presented him with this challenge but he didn't:) Note: I dabbed glue around each pin in the back to ensure that none would come loose during framing or shipping. Why did I use pins? I have been wanting to combine some sort of fiber art with pastel and have used yarn in the past because I love fiber art and grew up knitting, crocheting, doing needlework, etc. This series is an homage to my grandmother (a seamstress) and mother (who used to do piece work sewing sequins onto evening gowns). You can see more of this series here.

 

So far some of the things I have used with pastel are: stamping, stencils, gesso, acrylic, watercolor, ink, yarn, wire, modeling paste, push pins, stone paper, rocks, metal leaf, liquid metal leaf pens, charcoal (dry and liquid, yes, they make liquid charcoal!), watersoluble oils, acetone, mylar, all kinds of scraping and application tools. I will probably remember a few more later!

 

My latest work combines pan pastel with stone paper and acrylic ink mounted onto cradled wood panels. This We All Bleed Red series is for a two person exhibition next spring. Only one piece is currently on my website, I may not reveal the others until it's showtime, but maybe I will:)

 

For me, using mixed media, found objects, stencils, etc. is all about creating the images and telling the stories with them that interest me, not whether or not the works will be accepted into any one art organization. I don't want to be limited to their rules anymore and will try different ways to make more personal art...with whatever it takes!

 

Recently I hosted a workshop with Dawn Emerson and she showed us how to use printmaking and watersoluble oils among other things in combination with pan pastel and pastel sticks. It was a very fun and informative workshop and I highly recommend her as an instructor. You may also want to check out her book Pastel Innovations or her videos online.This was one of the paintings I created in the workshop:

Patterns #3, 10x10 inches

 

I encourage you to give free rein to your imagination and let yourself play and experiment. It can be a bit nerve wracking and you may toss a few in the trash like I did but allow yourself that time to learn and grow and come up with your own way of working that will excite you and make you want to run to your studio in the morning! I can't wait to see what YOU come up with!