Regina Calton Burchett – Drawings & Pastels

Sunflowers at 100 Congress

I wanted to paint last Friday while at a week-long show at 100 Congress set up via Real Gallery, and didn’t want to take messy pastels to an impressive granite lobby… so I took a small container of my pastel pencils. I have Derwent pastel pencils and Bruynzeel pastel pencils, and like them both. I heard a while back that you should never sharpen your pastel pencils with a regular pencil sharpener, as it twists the lead, and that makes sense.  I use a nice little utility knife that my husband gave me, and it works great. The Bruynzeels are somewhat softer than most other pastel pencils I’ve tried.

It was so much fun, and not messy at all. You can create a lot of interesting effects with the pastel pencils – I used them on their own, and also along with my regular pastel paintings for details or a line.