Pastel Colors
Soft, pale hues with plenty of white in them, such as powder blue, pale pink, mint and lavender.
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About
Pastel colours are high in lightness and gentle in intensity. They take their name from pastel sticks, and the medium did much to spread the look: 18th-century portraitists such as Maurice-Quentin de La Tour and Jean-Étienne Liotard made velvety likenesses in chalky tints. Rococo interiors and Sèvres porcelain, with its pale pink and celestial blue grounds, carried the same light palette into decoration.
Later painters used pale colour for atmosphere rather than prettiness. Edgar Degas's pastels of dancers and James McNeill Whistler's 'symphonies' in white lean on quiet tones, and Pablo Picasso's Rose Period of 1904–06 softened his palette to pinks and ochres. In the 20th century pastels suggested the modern and the domestic, from Miami Beach Art Deco facades to 1950s kitchen appliances. Ettore Spalletti built sculptures and paintings from powdery, pale colour. Look for tints that seem mixed with light rather than shadow.
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