Pastelle
What is Pastel Painting?
Pastel is a vibrant and versatile medium made from pure pigment and a binder. Pastels offer rich colours and soft textures perfect for blending and layering. Pastel paintings are known for their immediacy and luminosity, making them ideal for expressive artwork and detailed compositions.
Our pastel department incorporates the many variations of this drawing and painting medium. Working with the best soft pastels feels like drawing with pure pigment. Oil pastels combine pigment with wax binders, creating a versatile medium that offers blendable texture. Pastel pencils allow you to enjoy the expressive qualities of soft pastel in a pencil form - perfect for precise, detailed marks that can be blended and smudged too.
Is pastel a drawing or painting medium? The answer is both! They’re unique in their qualities and fall between the two. The high pigment concentration in pastels rivals what you’d find in the most vibrant oil or acrylic paint. Their versatility allows you to draw chalky lines and also apply flat areas of colour that can be blended and layered over one another.
Pastel sets make it quick and easy to acquire a number of colours to get started. There are thousands of colours to choose from by world-renowned brands including Unison Colour, Schmincke, Conte, Sennelier, PanPastel, Caran d’Ache and our own brand Jackson’s Soft Pastels.