Sennelier La Carte Pastel Card

As a professional, this is now my preferred ground. After much experimentation, I have found that a light rub over the surface with a fine sandpaper before painting takes off the somewhat coarse grit without any loss of 'tooth' and 'grabability'! The card will also take fairly vigorous scrubbing with an old hog's bristle brush to remove any pigment, again without any loss of tooth and will also take plenty of finger-blending without loss of flesh as with Hermes/Fisher papers! An all-round great surface for anyone who, like me likes to load the pastel on the paper - far better for the purpose than canson mi-teintes and other cheaper surfaces - don't waste your money on them, it's false economy. It is also much easier to frame, not needing any dry-mounting and avoids the problem of cockling.

I agree with previous review - it is a terrific paper as long as you keep it away from liquids - a tiny splash and it's ruined - use fixative sparingly and at a distance - it holds a lot of pigment and the pastel melts into the paper - I find it particularly good for skies and coastal scenes and it has lovely blending abilities - pastel can be lifted carefully using a putty rubber- for an example of a work on this paper visit www.centralarts.co.uk and click on Michelle Duffy Page 5 - "Whiten Head from Sangobeg"

I have found this the most suitable paper for my style of pastel painting. It is firm, holds lots of pastel and gives a much better finish than the cheaper pastel papers which also need backing before being framed. The only drawback I find is that it will not tolerate liquids so that if water gets onto it accidently it lifts the top layer and spoils the painting. However, an allround excellent paper for all pastel painters