15 February, 2012

News Set - New Sets

New sets  -  cool grays, warm grays and blue-grays.

These new home-made pastels are still wet.  It takes several days to dry them, and I am eager to get them into my new Dakota Travel Box.  I compared the Judson's one (pictured above) with the Dakota ones, and bought the Judson brand.  I think I like it better, but I needed more safe travel storage, and so I also purchased a Dakota Box.  I will let you know eventually which of these two similar boxes I like best.

I still owe you a report on my beautiful new Roche Pastels.  So far, so great!  I have been quite under the weather for the past couple weeks, and my studio painting sessions have suffered.  I will be better soon, and will bring you a new picture and a review.

Breaking News.

The dates for my upcoming workshops have been set.  Denver is May 19th & 20th.  Contact me to sign up for this one.


Cambridge, Ontario is June 2nd & 3rd.
Contact Edward at Pastel Studios, Canada.


I am gathering interest for future dates in:

Berlin, Germany
Portland, OR
Boston, MA

12 comments:

Sonya Johnson said...

Those new pastels look so much like my MV T-storm grays; I couldn't live without my set! I am sure you will love those.

Sorry to hear you are under the weather. Sending some healing thoughts/mojo your way, Casey.

Casey Klahn said...

That is a beautiful set by MV. I've never had an MV pastel in my hand before, but I did see their sets of grays, cool and warm. That reminded me of my Sakuras in cool and warm, and so I set out to make mine.

And, my box of all brands of gray was starting to look nubby. And, I have a disproportionate number of the wild, inclusive, easel tailings grays. The erratic grays like that are awesome, but I needed clean grays.

Thanks, Sonya!

Sara Mathewson said...

Very nice Casey, I don't have the MV grays set but have several of them from other sets. i love MV. They are firm but really go down nicely I think Carl puts pumice in them but not positive on that. i think they are right up there with unisons, maybe just a hair firmer. But you can't beat the price and the size! You get so much for your money and he has some very nice colors.
Your grays look very nice. do you have the pigments or how did you go about this?

i'm sorry you've been sick. i hope you feel better soon. I have the Judsen's plein air box it came out before the new Dakota deluxe boxes. i also have a Dakota large deluxe box for my studio and may need another one with all of my pastels.

I do have the Terry Ludwig grays which are very nice but I wish they had one more lighter step. and I also was accidently shipped the 39 grays by great american when I ordered the SW set of 39 and I liked them so much I decided to keep them! i also have the 12 gray set from Blockx. I got those when I very first wanted to try pastels and bought small sets of various brands. They are nice and smooth and really quite soft. But they are your warm and cool grays, no colored ones.

Take care of yourself!

Casey Klahn said...

That is a good collection, Sara! I heard that the MV had marble dust, and I think their web site indicates that.

I have a bag of pumice for this but haven't used any yet.

The pigments I used this time were Bone Black and Zinc White, and I can't remember whose. Perhaps Sennelier. Most of my pigments are large quantity bags from Daniel Smith. Of course, the "secret indgredients" are the Whiting and French Talc. They are the body of the pastels, and I mix, generally, 1/3 rd pigment, 1/3 each of the Whiting and Talc.

I wrote about this in my post Make Your Own Pastels some time ago.

Thanks for the get wells, Sara!

Celeste Bergin said...

ahhh....Portland Oregon...that's a good one!
Hoping you are feeling better.
I never tire of photos of your tools! They are works of art in and of themselves

Casey Klahn said...

Portland is an art town, for sure!

The grays are almost ready to put in my new traveler.

Linda Roth said...

All this information on pastels is a revelation to me. I had no idea. The word "wet" piqued my curiosity--these come packed wet, then must dry before use? Where have I been. Out to lunch I think. Forgive me for being so naive. Pastels must come in various hardness--I'm thinking fine lines.

Casey Klahn said...

Linda, that is my bad. I forgot to say that I make them myself. They start as powder pigment, then you make a paste with water and form them into sticks. Sorry.

Johnnny said...

Being from Fargo, I would go with the Dakota Box. Hope you are feeling better, light as a feather, warm wool sweater, not under the weather.

Casey Klahn said...

Thank you, Johnnny. I am a little better. Got the sweater. Going to the doc now to report.

Brian McGurgan said...

Hi Casey, hope you're on the mend there and feeling much better. That's a beautiful set of grays you've made. With subtle color like that I'll bet they see a lot of use. Congratulations on the success of your workshops!

Casey Klahn said...

Thanks, Brian. I was thinking about you the other day.

I caught a cold in 1974. Still banking the sinus products from that one. I presented with all day dizziness and the doc who works with my wife is being aggressive with it. I am better, but still a ways to go.

Abstract Expressionism, Art Criticism, Artists, Colorist Art, Drawing, History, Impressionism, Modern Art, Painting, Pastel, Post Impressionism