Q: You use so many pastels in your work. Do you have a favorite?

Barbara’s Studio

A: When people ask if I have a favorite pastel among the thousands in my studio, I am quick to answer, “Rembrandt black pastel!”  This is the single color that I use the most.  I buy them by the dozens because it takes many layers of pigment – applied and hand-blended together, one on top of the other, on sandpaper – to achieve the intense black backgrounds that distinguish my “Bolivianos” series of pastel paintings.  Typically, I use up a minimum of two or three Rembrandt pastels to create these backgrounds.  A few years ago one New York art critic cleverly dubbed them, “Barbara’s black-grounds.”  How cool is that!

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