Why pastels? Why me?

There has been a correspondence recently in the pastel artists’ section of LinkedIn, about how and when people discovered their affinity with art. This has connected for me with other discussions about the attractions of pastels as a medium. Comment on the tactile quality of the medium, as one of its attractions, is common.  In my own case, however, I think that this is far from being the only link.

My own awareness of art dates back to my childhood in Norfolk (aged six?), when I was commended by my mother and grandmother for a drawing of rabbits. Art began with drawing. Thinking about my school days also, I think that the greater part of art lessons were concerned with drawing.  There were poster paints, of course, but these were pretty crude, and there was little provision for mixing them.  In any case, we were each only given a single brush.  Painting was not very satisfying aesthetically, and also fairly frustrating. Drawing was the passion of my art master in Grammar School.  To this day I can remember his comment about training “the fine muscles of the hand”. So, it began with drawing.

Even as a student most of my work was executed in black and white (I still have a couple of examples to hand today.)

I know that this is too simple, but in my own mind the distinction between “drawing” and “painting” has to do principally with a primary emphasis on line and form, on the one hand, and a primary concern with colour on the other. So I grew up with my attention directed principally to line and form (and with them, composition.)  My route into pastels, therefore, was via an appreciation of pastels as a drawing medium.  One simply extended, or diversified, drawing into the area of colour.

Of course, I don’t pretend that there is anything natural or necessary about this progression, but it does illuminate for me something of my own artistic trajectory.