Pastels

I have never been a big fan of using dry pastels by themselves as I have never known how to keep the resulting work from fading,   or smearing ; or even how to safely frame a pastel after it is fixed.

  Commercial fixatives dull the colors of a pastel and the Dega method of water spray has never worked for me either.  

 One does notice that the best pastels by the masters are always kept in a darkened room when being exposed in a museum, so another worry for the artist is will the piece fade if you sell it?

I have a big set of colors in dry pastels (pastels secs) and use them mostly only in mixed media pieces. They are also a way of coloring a lino print after it is printed. 

 Here is perhaps the only trio of pieces in my archive that I have done in pastels only.   I still "kinda" like these.   And now I think, "so what" if they fade.  We are all fading one way or another.  That is the way of things.  Non?

28x45 cm.  Pastel on paper