Nagomi Pastel Art

During my time away from all things “bloggy”, I actually did some stuff! It wasn’t much, but it was something!

A chance encounter with a Facebook post from someone on my friend’s list there, I came across a workshop being conducted by Sarana Khoo. It was a 2.5 hour workshop on a Saturday morning and it involved coloured pastels and what appeared to be an awesomely beautiful form of art.

Isn’t it just gorgeous?!

However, what I forgot to take into consideration was that, the level of my artistic skills may be a small challenge to actually produce such gorgeous work…hehe.

I went for the workshop feeling SO proud that I had taken the initiative to leave my house…and even my room to attend anything outside the radius of my house, AND that I had curbed my impulsive self from signing up for the second workshop being held the same day. However, regardless of how the first three little pieces I did turned out, my ever so hopeful and optimistic self jumped at the chance of attending a full 3-day workshop on this art form!

What is Pastel Nagomi Art?

Pastel Nagomi art originated in Japan and was developed by Hosoya Norikatsu about 15 years ago. The goal of this art form is to achieve a society that is spiritually rich, health, harmonious and balanced. The awesome thing about this art form is that you don’t need to be an “artist”. At it’s simplest it’s just like finger painting with pastels.

This art form uses chalk or soft pastels to create an almost magical piece. The technique uses pastel powders, your fingers and erasers to produce “transparent art” that appear gentle and has a dreamy quality to it. It can be done by anyone and at any age with or without experience in art. The believe is that creativity is within all of us, and this is a tool to tap into our innate creativity and to allow it to flow.

The use of our fingers while working with the colours of the soft pastels allows the vibrations of the colours to flow within us. Each colours carries a certain vibration and the contact between skin and the colour can bring about healing. It has also been used as a means of meditation – being mindful of the colour, the feel of the pastel powder and the paper; our breath and movement of our fingers.

Below are some of my attempts at this art form. I’ve also combined this with other pieces of work as well.

This piece was created using colours that we thought wouldn’t “go” together

And this is the after. These patterns were created using templates and by erasing or “polishing” the colours.

The two below I combined some Zentangle doodles I had learned from a little class I went for and Nagomi Pastel Art: