Sennelier Artists Oil Pastels

In 1949 Sennelier started developing a range of artists' quality pastels for Pablo Picasso. Picasso was looking for a pastel with intense colour that could be applied directly and freely to a wide variety of surfaces. As a result Sennelier created an oil pastel with a soft creamy quality with all the intensity and vibrancy of conventional oil colours.

However, unlike oil colours, Sennelier oil pastels are made using a unique combination of non-aggressive oils and waxes so that they can be used on almost any surface, including paper, without cracking or affecting the substrate. The pigments are ground with an inert, non-siccative binding medium that does not oxidise and that has no effect upon either film stability or surface. This base is then mixed with wax (neutral pH). All colours in the range are 100% lightfast making the Sennelier oil pastel range probably the only true artists' quality oil pastel in the world.

The balance of this mix provides Sennelier Oil Pastels with a unique unctuousness and a creamy texture that allows for a great deal of freedom in pictorial expression.

120 colours available.