Pastels Cleaned and Replenished

Cleaning my pastels is a perfect way to start the new year. In the first photo below, you can see the “before” picture, and above is the “after” picture. On New Year’s Eve, I wiped each one and cleaned it, supplementing my nice box with back stock I had left over from teaching a class of teenagers before COVID.

Then we mixed the dust (which already has binder in it) with a little purified water and hand shaped some neutrals, as shown below.

Since then, with some of my COVID stimulus money, I ordered some new pastels to fill in those missing or often used. You can see them in the last two photos below.

So grateful! Now I’m ready to paint!