“A good setup for working en plein air can be expensive, and a full supply of pastels will cost quite a bit on top of that. I recommend students and beginning pastelists get a high-quality boxed set such as Sennelier’s plein air set, or some of Great American’s travel minis. Once bitten by the pastel bug, artists will soon suffer from CPA, Compulsive Pastel Acquisition, and will continue to add more colors and brands of pastels to their kits.”
— Ray Hassard
“Your pochade box can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Too heavy and you will be frustrated, not only at lugging around the weight, but also from having so much to choose from it actually hampers the spontaneity of your painting session. Too small and not enough color choices bear their own frustrations. I find that the more consolidated my kit and the fewer separate items I have to assemble, the happier I am.”
— Natasha Isenhour
“You don’t have to own every stick on the market; in fact, it can be daunting to carry around a huge box. You can get by with a limited family of 10 to 20 colors, as long as you also purchase three to four values of each of those colors. You can always add more hues as you explore which colors work for you outside. Over time you will also learn whether you prefer soft or hard pastels, or maybe a combination of both.”
— Jill Stefani Wagner
“Take the papers off your pastels to loosen up your work. I have four Signature pastel sets of 80 each by Jack Richeson that I use exclusively for plein air: Urban, Atmospheric Landscape, Stunning Skies & Water, and Lush Coastal Landscape. The minute I open a box for the first time, the papers come off. Just seeing the fully unwrapped sticks immediately inspires me to paint. Have you ever opened a box of candy and resisted? Impossible!”
— Nancie King Mertz
“Every pastelist I know has knocked their pastel box over at least once, hopefully onto the grass, but sometimes we aren’t so lucky (been there!). Carry bungee cords to strap your boxes to your easels, and watch out for gusty days when an umbrella attached to your easel is a liability. Also, keep an eye on your pastels at the seashore — for some reason seagulls are attracted to our colorful palettes!”
— Liz Haywood-Sullivan
Paint alongside Harley Brown, Lisa Skelly, William Schneider, Kim Lordier, and other top pastel artists at the Plein Air Convention in Reno/Lake Tahoe May 19-23, 2026.
