Chalk pastel must never be confused with colored chalk. Chalk is a limestone substance impregnated with dyes. Pastel is a pure pigment, the same pigment that is used in making all fine art paints. It is the most permanent of all media, when applied to conservation ground and properly framed. Pastel has no liquid binder that may cause other media to darken, fade, yellow, crack or blister with time. Pastel art from 16th century exists today, as fresh as the day they were painted. No restoration has ever been needed.

Pastel does not at all refer to pale colors, as the word is commonly used in cosmetic and fashion terminology. the name pastel comes from the French "pastiche" because the pure powdered pigment is ground into paste, with a small amount of gum binder, and then rolled into sticks. The infinite variety of colors in the pastel palette range from soft and subtle to bold and brilliant.

An artwork is created by stroking the sticks of dry pigment across an abrasive ground, embedding the color into the tooth of the paper, sandboard or canvas. If the ground is completely covered with pastel, the work is considered a pastel painting; leaving much of the ground exposed produces a pastel sketch. Techniques vary with the individual artists. Pastel can be blended or used with visible strokes. The medium is favored by many artists because it allows a spontaneous approach. There is no drying time and no allowances need to be made for a change of color due to drying.

Historically, pastels can be traced back to the 16th century. Its invention is attributed to the German painter, Johan Thiele. A Venetian woman artist, Prosalba Carriera was the first to make consistent use of pastel. Chardin did portraits with an open stroke, while LaTour preferred the blended finish. Thereafter a galaxy of famous artists: Watteau, Copley, Delacroix, Millet, Manet, Renoir, Toulouse Lautrec, Vuillard, Bonnard, Glackens, Whistler, Hassam, William Merritt Chase, just to list the more familiar names, used pastel as finished work rather than preliminary sketches. Edgar Degas was the most prolific user of pastel, and its champion. His protege, Mary Cassatt, introduced pastel to her friends in Philadelphia and Washington, and thus to the US. In the spring of 1983, Sotheby Parke Bernet sold two Degas pastels at auction for more than three million dollars each. Both pastels were painted about 1880.

Today, pastel paintings have the stature of oil and watercolor as a major art medium. Many of our most renowned living artists have disinguished themselves in pastel and enriched the art world with this beautiful medium.