Do you ever wonder why different people prefer to paint on different surfaces? It might be because they just like the way it feels or the way their paint/pastel reacts to and looks on the surface. Some artists use different surfaces according to the subject they are painting.
These two pastel paintings of my little Shih Tzu were done from the same photo but have a markedly different appearance. The first one was painted on gray Wallis sanded paper, and one can see clearly defined strokes which have built up on the surface, layer after layer; the second one was done on gray velour paper which displays the pastel in a much softer way. Velour is a beautiful surface for soft furry animals or to portray delicate young children, florals, or any subject that the artists wants to appear soft and dream-like.The down side is that it basically holds one layer only and unfortunately that layer is not especially secure. When framed, flecks of the the pastel dust may fall onto other parts of the painting or the glass.
I discovered one solution to this problem as I was looking closely at the portraits of my daughters that a friend of my Mom's painted 30 years ago. (See below) She always painted her portraits on sand colored velour and they were very popular because of their beautiful softness and childlike quality. She always had them framed at Trotman's, one of Winston-Salem's finest frame shops . . . and, of all things, I noticed that the "non-glare" glass, so popular in that day and time, was placed RIGHT AGAINST the pastel painting!! This was probably done to eliminate the hazy appearance that it would give to the painting if placed farther away as with a matt or spacer. I would hate to think what would happen if the glass broke or the painting was taken out of the frame, but after 30 years of hanging on my wall, they look as good as they did the day they were framed . . . and . . . for sure . . . that pastel dust isn't going anywhere!
