Old Sticks

You will enjoy this article about a keepsake pastel box.

My Old Wooden Pastel Box.

Maria Paterson.

Upcoming Article

Up Country Pines

11" x 17.9"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming article in The Scribbler.

“New faces have more authority than accustomed ones,” Euripides.

Authentic art is the sacring bell of the artist's experience. If you are able to say something new with your pastels, people will beat a path to your studio door.

Developing authority as a pastelist is achieved by creating authentic artwork that is singular and unique. Authority is as uncommon now as it ever was. 

Pastel Guild of Europe.

Artistic Authenticity

The elusive state of artistic authenticity is what I want to discuss.  Here is an excerpt from the article I am writing about Authenticity In Your Art:




"Ignore Everybody,"
 Hugh MacLeod.




Technical skill is not critical to being authentic, although it may help to more easily say what you mean with your artwork. More importantly, I value being comfortable with line, composition and color. The formal elements of all artworks can be a huge distraction when a painter doesn't use them with intention and ease.


One obsolete meaning for the word, "authentic," is "authoritative." This is where my focus lies. Having the merit of authority – unimpeachable work. I once lunched with Donald J. Wiseman, the man who excavated ancient Babylon. Here before me was a living textbook footnote, for he was certainly the authority in his field.

Wiseman.

Hugh MacLeod.

More to come.

In Praise of Henri Roche, Pastel Maker

Casey at the Box

There is a secret in the pastel world that I will now let you in on. The Henri Roche Pastel is the best, and the most desirable, pastel stick on the planet. Keep that little snippet under your hat. This guy, Barry Katz (location held secret), has leaked the news already, but I am not sure if you have read his article yet. He relates the story of how he spent a good deal of effort and fortune to acquire some of these delicate beauties.

Here is a quote from Katz's epic search for the holy grail of pastels:

I first heard about Henri Roché pastels several years ago from the painter, Wolf Kahn. He spoke about the almost ridiculous difficulty of obtaining them. They were, he said, made according to an ancient recipe by an elderly Parisian lady who, along with her two elderly sisters, maintained the last vestiges of a family business that had catered to many of the great artists of the last couple of centuries. If you wanted to buy some, he continued, it was necessary to appear at her doorstep at a particular time on Thursday afternoons and hope that, if she were feeling well enough, you would be admitted to the sanctum sanctorum, the Lourdes of the serious pastelist. I thought he was exaggerating.

Read the whole article here.

Buy 'em here:
Rochester Art Supply, NY.

Okay, let's cut to the chase. Here is Ms. Roche ( Isabel Roché ?) herself, in a video interview: