Getting Back to My Roots

By PAH Member Jack Kinkelaar

I decided to go back to my roots in pastel. I started painting on Canson colored paper again. Just to do it. It was kind of fun to work on that surface. It is relatively inexpensive and so it allows for a little more playfulness in my painting. I also tried Sennelier L’esprit de pastel paper. Costs a little more but it has crystal imbedded in it and so even though it seems like a regular drawing paper, it has a nice ability to hold pastel. It cost twice as much as the Canson but is still half the cost of UArt sanded paper. The Sennelier paper is thin and easily warps. I have not tried to mount it. It comes in a spiral bound pac with sheets of glassine between the pastel sheets. It could be used as a pastel sketch book.

For those of you who are not afraid of using Facebook, you can join the Pastel Society of America FB Group. It is a bit over the top (in the sense of who needs an hourly onslaught of paintings, advice and queries) but you will get to see what others the profession are up to. I found this one post worth the read and so I will post the url. It is stuff you probably already know but a reminder isn’t such an awful thing as we age. Go to jowtopastel.com and once you open the site scroll down until you come to this blog—Improve Your Painting-20 Master Pastellists tell you how. This might be helpful.

At some point you just have to let all this data go and get out and paint. Experiment, play, try something outside your comfort zone, do multiple versions of something you are good at, share your successes and failures. Thank you for being the artist that you are. Your work gives happiness to others. Is there a better legacy for your passage through the galaxy?

Painting done on Sennelier L’esprit du Pastel paper. Coastal pools in front of the Kona Inn, 9x12 by Jack Kinkelaar

Pools in front of the Kona Inn, 9x12 on 500 Uart sanded paper by Jack Kinkelaar