"Pastels are my primary medium because of their immediacy, their color range, and their
archival quality. I am also pleased to be part of the current renaissance in pastel painting by
serious artists and collectors throughout the United States.

Pastels are not chalk. The pastel sticks I use to paint with are made of pure pigment mixed
with a small amount of binder to hold the pigment together.

Pastel paintings will hold their pure color and brilliance longer than oil paintings. They are archival,
and if kept out of direct sunlight, they will enhance the viewer as long as a Cassatt or a Degas
pastel painting.

Pastels must be kept under glass because - even if they are sprayed with a clear fixative, as most
of ours are - the pigment will smear if it's touched.

For the most part, I have used clear glass to frame my paintings, but that could easily be replaced
with UV or Museum glass. Museum glass is almost totally nonreflective, but expensive. Plexiglass
can not be used on pastel because the plastic in the plexiglass attracts the pigment particles of
the pastel medium, and would transfer them onto the plexiglass.

Art materials manufacturers are responding with exciting new pastel surfaces and wonderful
new pastel sticks that range from hard to extremely soft.

The surfaces I use are sanded surfaces (archival and acid free, of course) that can hold up to
25 layers of pastel pigments. That is why a good pastel painting is often mistaken for an oil
painting. It's also why today's pastel artists can do so much more with the medium than sketch,
which was the way pastels were often used in the past.

Look for more pastel paintings in galleries and art shows. Buy only what you love, and enjoy!