Pastel Sticks

I inherited some pastels. Legend has it, they were made by Reveau Mott Bassett, a Texas artist (1897-1981). Reaugh created color pastel sticks around 1937 without oil and sold sets for $5 each, using the same crinoline iron as Frank Reaugh to press ruffles in colors to match the colors ladies wore.

Reveau was a Dallas artist known for painting migrating birds and landscape. His style was influenced by training under Frank Reaugh (1860-1945). Frank Reaugh is known as “the dean of Texas artists.” Frank would take students to sketch for two weeks to two months in summers to train artists across west Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Students were required to paint three paintings per day. Artists, camping equipment and supplies were loaded into a bus called the Cicada. Reaugh would join many of these trips.

Reveau trained at the Art Student League in NY and National Academy of Design. During the late 1960-1970s, Reveau taught at the Garden and Arts group in Irving.
The pastels still work! They are skinny sticks if you split apart from the others from the same mold. The sticks are fairly tough; don’t break easily. They are soft on the paper. The color has a lighter strength. I find that newer pastels can overpower them but work fine for being almost 100 years old.