I have just been asked to complete a survey relating to my activity as an artist. It was run by a reputable national (perhaps international) network. Among the questions to which I was asked to respond was one relating to the media in which I work. To my astonishment pastels were not included at all. There were some ridiculously refined distinctions, but also some astonishing lacunae.
Not only did the list of potential media omit pastels, there was also no mention of charcoal or oil pastels, and there was also no consideration given to the fact that artists might work with mixed media or that we might work in three dimensions, or with collage. The whole exercise was ridiculously amateurish. If, in my former career as a university teacher of sociology, I had seen a questionnaire like this offered as part of a student project I would have been down on it like a ton of bricks.
Leaving aside my own feelings about this, I wonder what the response to it might be from the Pastel Society. I have a good mind to draw it to their attention. Have pastels really sunk so far below the horizon that it is no longer worth enquiring who uses them?