About Fisher 400

Soraya French

Soraya is one of our most popular and accomplished  UK artists, she’s produced numerous books, and is highly sought after by art groups for workshops and demonstrations. She says the following;

Fisher 400 as a support ticks all the right boxes for me.  The grit is just right with plenty of tooth, so it takes many layers of pastels.   it is wet and dry with waterproof glue,  so I can block in with acrylic inks or watercolors initially.  It is acid free, so I don't worry about the longevity of my work.  It is thick enough so I don't need to dry mount the paper first.  The neutral colour is just right, so that from the start I can have my lightest lights. It creates minumum dust and helps the pastels retain their vibrancy.  It is a truly great support to work on and I can highly recommend it to all pastel and mixed media enthusiasts.(images White C

http://www.sorayafrench.com/

Bill Truslove

Bill Truslove is the Founder of the Pastel Artists of South Australia Inc. He is now an honorary Life Member of PASA.   

I have been using Fisher 400 pastel paper for some time now and find it a very consistent and versatile surface to work on. It has an excellent tooth which holds multiple layers of pastel without getting clogged, I have put up to 10 layers of pastel down and still had some tooth left. Even the hardest pastels simply glide on like the softest, hand made sticks, giving a good layer of color and texture, in some cases, almost like a palette knife technique. The background colour of the paper, if allowed to show through, adds an extra sparkle to beach scenes etc.

It is very tough and waterproof, it can be used for all types of wet and dry mediums. I quite often do a tonal under-painting with black ink, watercolor or acrylic without any buckling or loss of tooth, even thinned oil color will not affect the surface.

 Mistakes can be removed and gone over again with very little effort or damage. I have even, in cases where the painting is not working out, brushed off the loose pastel and then either washed it off using a large paintbrush and lots of water or a wet, "Scotch Brite" pot scourer which still leaves the tooth virtually intact. Both method remove nearly all the color except for some of the darker, more intense tones. Of course it will not remove an under-painting done with water or oil based medium but it still keeps it's surface. Washing with water does tend to make the paper curl a bit but it still retains it's strength and clips or tapes flat to the backing board. I have never thrown a single sheet away since using Fisher 400.

I can recommend Fisher 400 pastel paper to any pastellist who is interested in working on a good stable and strong  surface which, when framed does not cockle like some of the lighter papers.

http://www.billspastelart.com/

Bill Cockburn

Bill Cockburn is one of the founder members of the Leicestershire Pastel Society,

I am a great fan of Fisher400. Without it I would not have been able to develop my own unique approach to painting pastels. This involves carefully wetting and manipulating the pastel pigment to achieve the level of detail that I require and a surface finish that is akin to an egg tempra painting. The waterproof glue and heavyweight paper prevents cockling and the surface remains perfectly flat to work on. The superb tooth allows me to continue applying multiple subtle layers without ever having to resort to fixative. In my mind having tried many different sorts,  this is the best pastel surface available on the market today.

http://www.leicestershirepastelsociety.com/cockburn.htm