Learning From the Master: Degas

Degas is famous for his pastels of Ballet Dancers, Jockeys and Landscapes.He was a prolific artist producing more than 1500 drawing and pastel paintings in his life. The immediacy of the pastels brilliant hues are undiminished by time even though they were painted in the 1880s. A hundred years later two Degas pastel paintings sold for $3,000,000 each.

Degas worked in many layers of soft pastel which was particularly successful in the billowy flowing skirts of the ballerinas. He used fixatives between the many layers of pastel to prevent smearing work on lower layers and add texture through crosshatching. He used handmade pastels from a Parisian shop. Following is a link to an interesting article about that shop today: http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-31814020080207

As Degas aged and his sight began to fail, he worked more frequently in pastel and eventually turned to sculpture. His pastels of figures began to emphasize form with brilliant colors and outlines drawn repeatedly in dark colors.