I started this work some months ago and finally got the pastels out and set up to complete it. I don’t do as many pastels as other media partly due to the greater difficulty storing the work. Studying pastel under Helene Vasilj I like applying pastel in a variety of ways, something which she encouraged. These days I do less rubbing of the pastel into the paper surface, prefering feathering and scumbling which give a broken surface and allow natural blending as the colours are overlaid.