Pastel

Soft, chalk-based sticks of pure pigment that produce velvety, saturated surfaces with the immediacy of drawing and the color depth of painting. Used by Arab modernists for portraits and intimate landscapes where atmosphere and tone outweigh precise rendering. Egyptian master Mahmoud Said produced some of his most celebrated portraits in pastel; Iraqi modernist Hafez Al Droubi used the medium for figure studies. Pastels' fragility — they sit on the surface unbound by varnish — has historically meant fewer pastel works survive in pristine condition, making well-preserved examples especially valuable to collectors of modern Arab art.