Vendor Voices

Pastelmat by Clairefontaine: Creating Photo-Realistic Art With Pastelmat

Pastelmat is a unique surface for pastels and colored pencils. The surface offers exceptional control for rich, painterly effects. Watch as expert artist and pastelist, Jason Morgan, creates from start to finish photo-realistic portraits of an orangutan on Pastelmat. 

Pastelmat by Clairefontaine is the only paper that has all the qualities required to create my realistic art. I have never found another paper that combines the ability to add multiple layers with a smoothness that is beautiful to blend upon and gentle on the fingertips. And believe me, I have tested virtually every pastel paper available. I use no other paper for my art and it is always the one that I suggest to all the thousands of students I have taught over the years. 

It truly is unique.” – Jason Morgan, Professional artist, tutor and photographer.

The velvety surface of Pastelmat has more tooth than traditional Ingres papers but without the abrasive qualities of sanded papers. The organic surface and powerful texture grabs onto the pastel, breaking up the pigment and pulling it deep into the surface for exceptionally vibrant color. 

Pastelmat’s surface also consumes pastel sticks at a 30% slower rate than sanded papers, creates minimal pastel dust on the surface and in the air, and is gentle on the fingertips and foam applicators when blending.

Pastelmat is available through MacPherson.

About the artist:

Born in Wales, UK, my love of animals has been there for as long as I can remember, along with my desire to draw / paint and teach others, so looking back it now seems inevitable that I would become a professional wildlife artist.

Although it took me many years of trial and error to reach the level I strived to attain.

I vividly remember struggling to paint wildlife when I started 15 – 20 years ago. Instruction was almost non-existent, and what did exist sorely lacked in detail and techniques, almost as if the artists were keeping their secrets back.

So over the years I’ve documented almost everything I learnt and this became a massively informative resource, not just for myself, but also for others. – Jason Morgan

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