Q: Do you consider your finished pastel works to be drawings or paintings?
“The Sovereign,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 58″ x 38″ image, 70″ x 50″ framed
A: Among artists who work in pastel, these two words, ‘drawings’ and ‘paintings,’ have very specific meanings, somewhat unrelated to the usual distinctions made by art historians and others. For a pastel artist, a ‘drawing’ refers to a work in which the paper or other substrate is allowed to show through. In a pastel ‘painting’ you do not see the substrate at all, i.e. pastel is used much more heavily in a painting than in a drawing. Since I have always spent months creating each piece, covering the entire sandpaper ground with up to 30 layers of pigment, I have considered my work to be pastel painting.
Comments are welcome!
Posted on December 3, 2016, in 2016, An Artist's Life, Black Paintings, Pastel Painting and tagged "The Sovereign", art historians, drawings, finished, ground, paintings, pastel, pastel artist, pastel painting, sandpaper, substrate. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
barbararachkoscoloreddust.com 
When I asked an art instructor whose knowledge goes deep, I got the same answer. I know there is certainly a marked difference between producing the two kinds of pastel artworks. And that is what I tell people who ask.
Carol, yes, I often have to explain the difference, especially to art historians. Thanks for commenting!