Artists Back to Basics - Issue 6 Volume 3 2016

always stay there until the particular

freehand work in pastel concerned is

completely finished. By then they are

all pretty much just filthy little lumps

of various sizes, all of a very similar

indeterminate muddy brown colour.

I throw them all in a small wooden

box of (seemingly magic) cornflour

which I then gently shake back and

forth for a while before picking them

out one at a time (now incredibly

clean) and brushing the cornflour

off before replacing them in their

respective places in the long, shallow

trays in which they live. Some are

still almost full length while others

are just small fragments but I clean

them all and put them back for use

next time. One of the things my brain

likes so much about pastels is that

there is no waste at all (unlike paint).

Small fragments often have sharp

edges on them which are always very

handy and even the tiniest fragments

can be smooshed into the work

altogether till there is literally nothing

left in your hand. So at the end of

each project even the tiny unused

fragments are also cleaned and put

back to use next time. It’s also a lot

easier than trying to get my brain to

make a lot of “judgements” about

what’s too small and what’s not and

resigning the “less deserving” bits

to the irreversible oblivion of the

bin. I never put any of my pastels

away unless they are spotlessly

clean as I wouldn’t know what was

what in all the next times otherwise,

and once you put just one dirty one

back in the tray the toboggan ride

Fig 4: Pulleys and bracket on the upper

part of frame, cable comes up from anchor

point and down to large steel counterweight.

Fig 5: The skritching and the scratching.

Fig 6: The three main bad boys I

know of. Middle one is the awesome

Art Spectrum Flinders Red/Violet.

Fig 4

Fig 5

Pencils Down