Newsletter of the Oil Pastel Society

The Oil Pastel Society's Response to the Pastel Journal


A letter to the membership....

I am usually excited when my copy of the Pastel Journal arrives in the mail. However, this month

I was surprised and disappointed in the editorial comments by Executive Editor, Maureen Bloomfield,

in response to a letter from Lisa Baus of Shawnee, KS. Lisa had asked if  the Pastel Journal would

consider making a separate category or separate competition for oil pastels in the Pastel 100. Maureen's

clarification of the Journal's stance on oil pastel vs. pastel contained misleading and erroneous information.

The editorial sent a clear message to oil pastelists that the Pastel Journal did not consider oil pastels as a

fine art medium and that the Pastel Journal would be devoted singularly to dry pastels.

Our first step of action was to notify the membership of this editorial. After that, the manufacturers of

fine artist quality oil pastels were contacted and alerted to the content of the article. We felt that the

integrity of their products and of our artwork was being inaccurately portrayed by the Pastel Journal and

David Pyle, Director of Technical Education at Winsor & Newton. Both Holbein and Sennelier have replied

to our messages, have contacted the Pastel Journal and taken action to correct the inaccuracies about

their products. 

Because of the outcry from artists, the action taken by the manufacturers and your support thru the

Oil Pastel Society, I  received this letter from Katherine Mesch this week...

Original Message -----

From: Mesch, Kate
To: Carly" 
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 12:47 PM
Subject: RE: In Response To The Oil Shortage Editorial in Issue #35, December, 2004

 Dear Carly,

 Thank you for your well thought-out response to our editorial. I plan to
 use sections of your letter in the next issue of The Pastel Journal, along
 with a correction from our editor in chief, Maureen Bloomfield. While we
 hold by the position that soft pastels and oil pastels are two very
 different mediums, we were entirely wrong to have lumped student grade and
 professional grade pastels together, and wrong to have made incomplete
 claims regarding their archival and lightfast qualities. I hope that the
 attention that we are devoting to the matter in our next issue resolves the
 inaccuracies of our previous editorial.

 With our sincere apologies,

 Katherine Mesch
 Assistant Editor
 The Artist's Magazine
Watercolor Magic
The Pastel Journal
4700 E. Galbraith Rd
Cincinnati OH 45236

If the Oil Pastel Society had not taken an active part in alerting artists and manufacturers to this editorial

with its erroneous information, many artists, galleries, and buyers would be viewing oil pastels as an

inferior product.  But, because of everyone's participation, the Pastel Journal's next issue should contain

a complete correction and retraction of statements which were incorrect and allow the manufacturer's to

give accurate information about the archival qualities of oil pastels.

A "Tip of the Hat" and heartfelt thanks to all our members who contributed to this effort!

Carly and all the Staff at OPS

An Oil Pastel Online Show is being planned. Stay tuned to future issues of this newsletter for more information.

"All the masterpieces of art contain both light and shadow. A happy life is not one filled with only sunshine, but one which uses both light and shadow to produce beauty." ~ Unknown Author