Pastels or Oils?

Which type of painting do you prefer? Pastels or Oil?

I paint in both of these mediums ... and sometimes in acrylic. I have experimented with watercolor, but it has a different process than the other three... it is from light to dark, where the other three are dark to light ... for the most part!

Oak in Oil
24" x 18"

The painting shown here on the right is the second painting of this tree ... I did a pastel first from a digitized version of the photo and a black and white thumbnail to determine the light and dark abstract pattern. This version was done from the same resource material without the pastel painting being in the room. I did not want to just copy the first pastel version into an oil version.

Here is the soft pastel version:

"Water Oak"
Pastel 16" x 12"

What is Pastel?

Remember when I talk about "pastel" I am not talking about the colors... I am talking about a "soft pastel" stick of pigment. It is sometimes called "chalk" but it does not have chalk in it. These pastel paintings must be framed behind glass.

There are some galleries that will not carry pastels or watercolors ... because they are behind glass. I do think the attitude is changing in some places, though.

I normally frame my pastel paintings with Museum Glass which has a 98 or 99% UV rating to protect the pastel from fading. Even so, most pastel work will not fade unless you really have left it with very bright sunshine on it for a long time. The main reason I use the Museum Glass is for the non-reflective quality of it. When you walk in a room, you don't even realize there is glass on the painting. It does help! And, I very rarely use mats anymore... all they do is catch pastel dust on them and after a time look rather dingy near the bottom of the framing.

One thing for you to know ... I price my pastel paintings and my oil paintings the same for the same sizes... I believe it does not matter which I paint in... I love them both!

Question for you ...

Do you have a preference? If so, what and why? I would love to hear from artists and from collectors.