Karen F Rose My Painting Journey

Friday, November 12, 2010

Pastels - What's Old and New - Henri Roché Pastels, PastelMat, Pan Pastels

An assortment of new Pan Pastels
Clairefontaine's PastelMat
Something Old: In a previous post, I included photos of my visit to La Maison Du Pastel, 20 Rue Rambuteau, Paris, a small shop that is like a walk back in time, not having changed much since the 1920's. There Isabelle Roché sells hand made Henri Roché Pastels. This line of pastels dates back to the 1720's.


Whether you are an artist or not, you would be fascinated by their luminosity. The history of these pastels, complete with mentions of Whistler and Degas and how Isabelle came to continue the family tradition of making these handmade pastels can be found by clicking on the history of Henri Roché pastels.


Something New: At the big department store BHV in Paris, you'll find just about everything. Want to have a snack while you are shopping, forget to pack that sweater, need a new watch battery, need a laundry basket? No problem!


At BHV a fully stocked art department awaits you. I found packages of PastelMat on the shelves. This acid free and lightfast surface for pastel will be a joy to work on and is available in eight colors.


At home, I have discovered Pan Pastels, which create less dust than stick pastels.  Pan pastels are an exciting new way to apply the pastel medium. Love the pans with lids, the sponges and the varied shapes of Sofft applicators to apply the pastel.


If you are new to the pastel medium, visit the site Artists in Pastel, a blog written by
a gentleman in Cork, Ireland who reviews websites of artists who work in pastel.


I am most honored to have my name mentioned on his blog site.

3 comments:

Nanci Hersh said...

Hi Karen,

Thanks for visiting my post about my trip to Washington DC with my son and his class.

It was a memorable day in many ways. Congrats on getting mentioned by the artist in Cork. I clicked on the link you provided which took me to his site but I didn't see your name. Did I miss it?

I spend so long the past couple of days on my About Pages, but I think I got it working for me, thanks to you!!!

Karen F. Rose said...

Hi Nanci,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Yes we are having fun and learning a lot in Alyson and Cynthia's class. Happy to have helped you.
On the Artists in Pastel there are two lists. Websites that have been reviewed and a list of websites yet to be reviewed.
I am happy to be on the yet to be reviewed list... so I better get my blog and web site in shape!!

nancy egol nikkal said...

Hi Karen, Thank you for including information and links, especially for Sofft applicators to apply pastels (what great products-so many uses). Thanks for link to Artists in Pastel. Congratulations on your success.