Synchronicity Studio

About Oil Pastels

Oil Pastel is a relatively new medium considering that other mediums have been around for centuries.  In 1921, assisted and advised by artist and theorist Yamamoto, two brothers-in-law developed a high quality crayon which combined the soft, smooth, color application of crayon with the brightness of pastel.  The brothers-in-law continued to improve their product at the Sakura Crayon Company, where the name Cray-Pas was born.  Their final formulation was developed in 1927 and has been considered a children's medium and not one for the serious artist.

In 1947, artists Henri Goetz and Pablo Picasso approached Henri Sennelier with the idea of designing a professional version of the children's product.  Picasso told Sennelier:  "I want a colored pastel that I can paint on anything-wood, paper, canvas, metal, etc., without having to prepare or prime the canvas."  Goetz wanted a pastel he could use to start oil paintings.  Picasso told Goetz:"If painting seems to be the complete of all pictorial techniques, then pastel is certainly the most direct.  No instrument as the brush, knife, or palette interferes between the artist's gesture and his work."  Two years later with the help of the two artists, Sennelier invented the first professional oil pastels.  They had a creamy consistency with a brilliant color palette.  The unusually wide range of grays were chosen specificaly by Picasso.  Later Sennelier oil pastel assortments of iridescent, metallic, fluorescent, giant, and the "Le Grande" (in the standard color range) were added.  Other brands have jumped into the market since the early 1980s:  Talens, Grumbacher, Caran d'Ache (1981) and Holbein (which developed student and professional grade oil pastels).

Oil pastels use wax and inert oils as a binder making them non-yellowing and giving them excellent adhesion characteristics.  They are completely acid free, will never harden, and will never crack.  Oil pastels can be applied to any paper, rigid support, or fabric without technical restraints.  These properties allow the artist complete freedom of expression while maintaining archival stability.  Oil pastels may be used with turpentine, mineral spirits, glazing, and acrylic mediums that have no water added.  Oil pastel paintings are usually framed to protect them from the elements since they harden to some degree, but they never completely dry.  Some artists use an acrylic varnish which negates the need for the painting to be under glass.

All pastels (oil, soft, hard), oil sticks, and oil bars are made into sticks or bars with the same pure pigments that are used in traditional oil paint.  The difference between them is the binder that holds them together.  Oil pastels use a fossil wax and mineral oil binder.  Soft pastels use a gum tragacanth binder, while oil bars use linseed oil and a drying agent as a binder.

Credits: Adapted from "The History of Oil Pastel and FAQs" at oilpastelsociety.com; sakuraofamerica.com; Oil Pastel  by Kenneth Leslie; Glenn Brill, Education Director at Savior Faire