The White Rose (Portrait of Miss Jessup) - Pastel on paper mounted on canvas (c. 1886) by William Merritt Chase - American, 1849 - 1916 (...

Pastel is a great medium: fast, luminous, subtle. The drawback of working with almost pure pigment is dust. Whatever technique you use, what...

I thought I will show you my current pastel set-up in a few images. A heavy watercolour paper, primed with Art Spectrum Sanfix ground, is...

I painted this pastel from a reference photograph I took many years ago, while spending a Easter break with my family on a lambing farm in K...

This article was first published in my newsletter "Notes From My French Easel" – July August 2009. Follow the link to receive this...

There are a number of colour palette generators available online. Just type “colour palette generator” and then “color palette generator” in...

This article was first published in my newsletter "Notes From My French Easel" – June 2010.   I have been thinking about the id...

The opening went well and the paintings look good in the gallery of the Wyvern Theatre. I put together a slide show with all 21 paintings in...

This article was first published in my newsletter "Notes From My French Easel" – July/August 2010. Follow the link to receive this...

Beginners are often afraid of painting glass. It seems a daunting task to render the transparency, the reflected lights and shadows and conv...

Using rubbing alcohol to create an underpainting with pastel is great because it dries so quickly. An advantage of pastel is immediacy and t...

This is a house in Berkeley, not far of Prince Street. I just loved the big armchair in the porch, like a throne for its proud owner. The li...

Ambroise Vollard, in his book “ Recollections of a Picture Dealer ", told a story about his visits to Degas’ studio where the artist wa...

This subject was ideal for a pastel painting. I could build it with large strokes yellow stripes of the crossing, the moving pedestrians and...

The field was full of buttercups, but Jake stopped and raised his right paw... and just in front his left leg was a white cuckoo flower. Jak...

This article was first published in " Frequency Magazine " – March 2010 In this article, I will discuss several strategies to ...

Painting Landscapes with Atmosphere, An Artist's Essential Guide is an excellent book for intermediate painters. Ray Balkwill shares hi...

This article was first published in " Frequency Magazine " – February 2010. In England, it’s cold outside and we are better off ...

It has been snowing all night and every inch of ground is covered in snow. I like painting snowy landscapes, so this is great news. One of...

I work in oil, watercolour and pastel and enjoy these three media. When someone asks me which one I prefer, I usually answer that it depend...