Pastels

UNISON HAND MADE SOFT PASTELS – A WORK OF ART EVEN BEFORE YOU USE THEM

Unison Soft pastels are counted among the world’s finest Soft Pastels. In the early 1980’s, in the hills of Northumberland, England, artist John Hersey began hand-making his own pastels. An award-winning artist using soft charcoal, Hersey loved the texture of charcoal and the boldness of the absolute black it offered. His work in black and white gave him a keen awareness of light and shadow and he wanted to translate that awareness to the use of colour but he could not find any pastels that provided the colour or performance required. He found that mass produced, factory-made pastels simply did not offer the qualities he was looking for. He began researching to see whether he could construct a mirror to the magic of colour and Unison Soft pastels are the result. With Unison pastels, Hersey has developed cycles of related hues from many pigments to reflect the colour seen in nature. “If the sun is the true light, then in the earth also there is true colour” Hersey writes. “But unlike the sun, the