in a medium I’d never used before!
I even used the backing board of a
frame as the support because I didn’t
have access to pastel paper. My
introduction to pastel was entirely
accidental—using hard pastels on an
atypical substrate. Still, I thought it
was wonderful!
I didn’t stop painting in watercolor
entirely, because I still had buyers,
but I began painting regularly in
pastel. I tackled subjects that I’d never
tried before, as pastel offered more
subtlety, stronger colors, and more
contrast and light than watercolor.
As an artist who’s totally focused
on light, working in pastel was a
revelation. After just three years,
I stopped working in watercolor, apart
from the occasional painting to bring
in some funds. Because I didn’t have
any formal training in pastel, I didn’t
know any better and, as a result,
I only worked on board using very
hard pastels for about a decade, until- I didn’t submit work to any
pastel exhibitions; instead, I showed
my pastels locally, and people bought
them, but I wasn’t well known.
In 2012, I submitted my work to a
competition sponsored by the French
Pastel Society, and when I won, the
committee noticed that I hadn’t
exhibited previously—and they
couldn’t find any information about
me on the internet. The committee
AN
EPIPHANY
IN PASTEL
The French Pastel
Society prize I won in
2012 was a pastel work-
shop with artist Sophie
Amauger, in County
Mayo, Ireland. It was
an epiphany and com-
pletely changed my
concept of what could
be achieved in pastel.
Sophie is an excellent
teacher, and I learned a
lot from her. When she
saw me arrive with my
box of Rembrandts, she
thought that she didn’t
have anything to teach
me, but she soon real-
ized that I didn’t know
a great deal about
pastel and had a lot to
learn. And, of course,
we didn’t work in the
same way at all: She
was using pastel card
and soft pastels, none
of which I had.
When she demon-
strated something,
I couldn’t copy it
because I didn’t have
comparable material;
for me, it meant that
there were many basic
techniques to learn
without necessarily
saying that I was
going to change my
working process. I
had to integrate a lot
of things. This intern-
ship was a revelation
because I started
working with pastel
card and was intro-
duced to softer brands
like Sennelier and
Schmincke. I now work
with almost all brands
based on each paint-
ing’s unique needs.
—Catherine HutterArtistsNetwork.com 53