Victoria Ryan

Soft pastel has been my preferred medium since I first started exploring with it in college. Nothing compares to those pigments to achieve the rich color that suits me and the spontaneity they provide. I work with several varieties and brands from the butter-like Unison to Rembrandt as well as homemade sticks. My surfaces are the finest archival papers like LeCarte and Wallis or prepared boards. Layers of color are applied and some blending is achieved using fingers and blending sticks. Rather than adopting a “technique” I utilize my formal training as a painter to build a pastel much the same way that I paint an oil on canvas. For me the transforming activity of manipulating the pigments on the surface of the paper or board is a uniquely important part of the overall process of creating these images.