This is me for better or worse...:-)

A good friend and collector of mine sent me the most wonderful birthday present last week. A complete series of Schminke purple hue pastels, from the darkest almost magenta/black to the loveliest light filled shades of lavender.
If you are a pastelist, you know there is no such thing as having too many colors. I suppose there is some spartan value in limiting your choices and really working with those colors to learn their characteristics, but for me half the fun of pastels is being able to reach for the most outragous or subtle colors and being able to try them out against each other.
Anyway, here is a 7 x 10 in my favorite size workbook and paper. It is 400 series black Strathmore in the 76 lb. size. I love using this paper. It doesn't eat up your pastels too quickly and actually accepts textural strokes.
I am not doing very much new work at the present. I am getting ready for two sales and one show in November. Many of the pastels are already framed but I am removing the frames and re matting them with acid free mat board with two inch mats, glass, backing and clips to hold them together.
Several of my collectors have told me the first thing they do when they buy one of my pastels is to throw away the old mat and frame and have them framed and matted again. Apparently I have no taste when it comes to choosing my own mats and frames.
In fact, one of my old artist friends, an old cowboy who really was a cowboy (and is now a nationally recognized artist), Bill Mittag, once wrote me when I told him I was going to work in a frame shop... he said " Terry, it is alright if you want to work in a frame shop, but please, whatever you do, do not frame your own work!"
Well, I guess Bill was right. It is a relief not to worry about it. Oh, and google Bill Mittag and take a look at his wonderful paintings of what life as an Indian was like before we came along and screwed things up for them.