MALCOLM JARVIS - ARTISTWhy I use pastels
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The crisp crunch of the pastel across
a textured surface excites me every time a new painting is started.
The tactile experience of the pastel caressing the surface is a thrilling
part of the pure pastel technique.
Until the early 1990s I painted almost exclusively in oils. That was until, thanks to the late Christopher Assheton-Stones and John Blockley, I ‘rediscovered’ pastel. Since than I have concentrated on pastel in its purest form, unadulterated by other materials, using various supports. Velvet texture Rich saturated and unsaturated colour with deep tonal contrasts, and the subtlest of exchanges achieved by the lightest of touches, can be expressed through the wonderfully velvet texture which the medium possesses. The strokes can convey the artist's response to mood and atmosphere in a very individual and recognisable way similar to handwriting. My method of working is based on working directly from nature. I feel there is no greater painterly challenge than to set up and paint on the spot, whatever the elements throw at you. There can be all sorts of distractions ranging from wind, rain, the unexpected lorry parking in front of you when half an hour into your painting, the odd inquisitive onlooker who refuses to stop talking, or simply a large battery of people - an audience no less. In the middle of Dartmoor one can avoid the latter, but not in the Plazas of Spain. Usually the painting is completed in my studio, and sometimes I will just establish tonal differences on site, and then work on the subject in the studio. References I also sketch on site, taking notes, as reference for a painting to be produced later in the studio. Much of painting is derived from intense observation, and when accompanied by the briefest of sketches can form the basis for a work of great complexity in terms of mood and atmosphere. I have used Unison pastels for the past 14 years and first made contact with John and Kate Hersey in 1992, not long after they started their highly successful business in Tarset in Northumberland. Their pastels are very well known now, and deservedly so. The range is the result of much painstaking research into the structure and unity of colour. I have experimented with various textured surfaces, pastel papers and coated boards. I currently favour Colourfix paper, which is available in several colours or, when I can get it, Wallis Archival sanded paper. Both are extremely suitable for pure soft pastel work. The surfaces are kinder to the fingertips than glass paper, and hold a lot of pastel. The textures receive both vigorous and subtle feathered strokes and express a painterly approach very well. |
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