16 Jan 2011

Henri Roché Pastels

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2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

It is funny how a small wooden box can get you all excited. My heart jumped at this sight. The box contains some Roché pastels!

2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

I was surprised how long and quite hard they turned out to be. If you compare them to the hardness of other pastels, I would put them somewhere between Girault and Unison.

Because they are so long, you can hold them at the end and move them easily from top to bottom. It’s obvious why Degas was able to leave with the Roché Pastels the kind of marks one can recognize in his paintings and sketches. Anyway it is a mystery to me how it was possible for him, that the pastel layers stayed on the wrapping paper he used.

Even though the pastels are quite hard, they are too soft to hold many layers on the paper. Clearly one of the reasons why Degas experimented with different types of fixativs and steam.

Unfortunately he kept this secret to himself.

>The cost of one stick with 14 Euros is quite expensive, which probably can be put down to the manufactoring process. (you can watch a film about this here). The pigments quality seems to be very good, but if they are superior to other excellent pastel brands, I doubt. Those who want high quality won’t do anything wrong with the Roché pastels and they certainly do expand the possibilities of further pastel techniques.

Ausschnitt aus einem Bild von Edgar Degas

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1 Jan 2011

Eva im Bad (VI)

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Eva im Bad VI, Pastell,

2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

To all my readers, I wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2011.

It was really interesting to see all the different feedback I got for the last Eva post, because I wasn’t happy with the hands.

So here are some thoughts that came to me.

First,the spectator doesn’t necessarily dislike a certain part in your painting, but the painter himself certainly does. Maybe he or she recognizes it, but it doesn’t do any harm to the general liking.

So this leeds to an important rule, when exhibiting. Never, ever mention, that you don’t like your own pictures or parts of it.

What’s the reason, why artist sometimes have problems to like their own paintings and seem to be dissatisfied with them?

I got a new idea from Daniel Coyles book »The talent code«. He has the theory, that there aren’t special people born with a talent, but that it comes down to put in the hours to become a master. (Take any field you like). It is a combination of putting in 10.000 hours, having good teachers and most importantly to stay in an active learning zone. It is this active learning zone, where our dissasisfaction often derives from. You are setting a goal, try to get there, see the difference,between your goal and what you achieved and you start all over again. Concerning the faces people make when they are in this zone, it doesn’t seem to be a comfy place.

No, it is not always a comfy zone, but a place where it is worthwhile staying in, because you can often feel, how you are moving forward, even though you feel bad about certain parts of your painting.

Because it is new year and don’t we all like new year resolutions, here are some of mine.

  1. Drawing hands on a regular basis (geometrical forms only)
  2. Study other painters and how they managed their hands.
  3. Painting hands in pastel with a very limited color range.

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12 Dec 2010

Eva im Bad

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Spiegelbild, 15×17cm, Pastell,
2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

Another Eva. I don’t like my hands. I know about the technique to look and think in geometrical terms when it comes to hands, but I just fight at this point.
Funny enough, during the studio hours with Eva in France I already had problems with her hands.
I now go with Degas who was supposed to have said, that there is only true beauty, if there is an ugly part as well. O.K., I can live with that…

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4 Dec 2010

Henri Roché Pastelle

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The Pastels of Henri Roché are known for its outstanding quality and among the artists‹ who used these are Degas, Chéret, Whistler and Sisley.

The family business was founded in 1720 and during the last years it was run by the two elderly sisters Denise and Giséle Roché, both aged 80 and only a small cliental was able to buy the pastels.

The business was handed over to Isabelle Roché and she has started to increase the production of the different colors, which once were available. In the 1930 they had a collection of over 1650 colors. Just imagine that!

Roche has a website in French and English, with interesting information, videos and links, where you can buy the pastels outside of France.

Der Traum aller Pastellmaler.

This is a video about Isabelle Rochés work. It’s only in French, but it’s a feast for every pastelartists eyes.

Des Meisters persönliche Pastellbox.

Edgar Degas hat diesen Kasten benutzt.

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28 Nov 2010

Winter landscape: Plein Air

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These last days winter finally came to us in North Germany and everything looked liked as it was covered with icing suggar. This morning the sun came out too and the cold didn’t feel so bad. It’s funny how the same landscape can look completely different, if you turn around 180 degrees.

Pastell, 12×12cm,

2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

Up front there was the sun and in my back it looked like as if fresh snowfall would soon arrive.

Pastell, 13×21cm,

2010 © Astrid Volquardsen

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