John Blyth Arches, Unison soft pastels on Fisher400 paper, 16x12in. (41x30.5cm)
The art of painting
I’ve always had the ability to draw and paint, right from infancy, a skill I did not exploit for many years. I became interested in oil painting in 1960, but then came marriage and I did no more until 1990 when I started making pencil drawings whilst on holiday after which I resumed painting. I began to find that I often had to correct a line, tone or colour, and was finding this difficult, especially in water colour. I began reading articles on painting with pastels in Leisure Painter and in a book, and thought this medium was worth a trial. I bought a box of pastels suitable for landscape work and immediately warmed to the medium – and have used nothing else since.