Question Mounting pastel paper before painting..

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dpetti

dpetti

PFG, Picture Framing God
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I have managed to secure permission for a plein air pastel class to be held at a plantation owned by some friends and clients in November. The artist who will conduct the class says he dry mounts his pastel paper to Gator board before he paints on it.

Since I have no dry mount equipment, I would be interested in your ideas of how to mount the paper. One site I explored suggested using acrylic matte medium and using a roller to attach it. Any better thoughts on how I can mount the paper to a backing before painting? I am planning on using Uart paper, which can apparently take even oil washes.

Thanks in advance for your replies. I've never painted with pastels, but I am looking forward to learning a new medium. (Or at least trying to.)
 
The easiest scheme is to use something Ampersand "Pastelbord" which has a pastel-receptive surface and is about 1/8" thick. Blick has it.

I drymount Arches paper to Gator all the time for my wife's pastel work using 2 layers of Fusion 4000 tissue. I'm sure it could also be glued by rolling PVA out onto the Gator then applying the pastel paper.

Cut the Gator slightly smaller than the paper on three sides, but longer on one side. Register the paper so that it slightly hangs over the Gator on three sides, then tape it on the longer fourth side. Roll the paper up on a tube. With an 8", 3/16" foam roller roll out about 0.003 ounces of PVA glue per square inch onto the Gator, quick like a bunny. If the roller is dry, you will also need to add another 3 ounces of PVA to prime it, but only if it's dry. Now roll out the rolled up paper onto the Gator, pat it down, and voila! The reason you want overlap on the 3 un-taped sides is so you don't drag glue onto the surface. For good measure put a smooth cotton glove and one hand with the other hand pressing on top of that slide it around the whole surface a few times pressing as hard as you can. Trim the edges with a knife.
 
Mounting

Mounting pastel paper to a substrate, before the pastel is added, is a good idea and acrylic medium can work as an adhesive, while good qualiy dry mount tissues are also fine. Gator type boards often have surface papers that are stiffened with urea formaldhyde and that can cause chemical problems for some of the pigments in the pastel. Mounting to materials like Dibond, Alucobond, D-lte, and Aluma-lite is an alternaitive that is worth considering.


Hugh
 
Thanks for the ideas. I will explore them. Right now, I am just getting my feet wet with pastels--I have always worked in watercolors and this is a whole new ball game, but I like the fact that the Sennelier pastels can be used like cake watercolors. Maybe some interesting art will come from this.

I was just thinking that mounting the paper before painting on it seemed like a good idea.
 
dpetti said:
I was just thinking that mounting the paper before painting on it seemed like a good idea.
Click to expand...

It is. I suppose that on the artist's side it would be a matter of preference, but it certainly makes things easier for the framer. A rigid panel can be easily sink mounted with a minimum of handling, avoiding any potential hazards of hinging or the need to have anything that would contact the paper's surface, such as edge or corner supports.
 
I feel morally bound to ask you question this move to pastels. :soapbox:

I have been trying to convince my pastelist wife to switch to watercolors or oil pastels. There is pastel dust everywhere in her workroom, even though she works hard to keep it clean. "Clean" and "pastels" are mutually exclusive. TV's last 2 years in there, tops. She works at big sizes, 32 x 40, which compounds the problems. I hate to think of the stuff she has breathed over the last 20 years. If I plead for a month, she will wear a dust mask for a day, then give it up again.

And, oh yeah, there's the issue of framing artwork made of dust. The stories I could tell. The fatal attraction between pastels and glazing of any kind is legendary. And let's not even think about mattes, which should of the reverse bevel persuasion if you must use them. Most pieces have been taken apart, cleaned, and reclosed at least 3 times before being sold.

And FWIW, she has given up on Sennelier's which were recently recompounded with a much harder formulation. No more nice soft Senn's.
 
pastel dust

Pastel, the medium without a medium, poses challenges in many areas. The pigment comes off and is more vulneralble to light and pollution than it would be if it were bound into a medium, but it also puts the artist at risk. Care should be taken to avoid heavy metals: cadmium, lead, cobalt, chromium, etc., and since so many traditional pastels have been shown to be vulnerable to light, these pigments may be included, today. Oil pastel, and water color in stick form are far superior alternatives, for the health of the artist and the sanity of the preservation framer.


Hugh
 
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