Southwest Florida's art scene is well charted in some directions - watercolor societies, oil painters' guilds, ceramics studios, and glass workshops each have active communities and venues. Soft pastel has operated alongside all of them for more than two decades with its own regional society, its own annual exhibitions, its own scholarship program, and a workshop calendar drawn from the national instructor circuit. The infrastructure is real. This guide maps it.
What Soft Pastel Actually Is
Confusion about the medium starts with the name. "Pastel" in everyday speech can mean a pale color, a chalk drawing, or a children's art supply. In the studio, soft pastel is a specific and technically distinct material.
A pastel stick carries the highest pigment concentration of any artist's medium. It is essentially pure pigment compressed with the minimum binder needed to hold the stick together - nothing else. Compare that to oil paint, where pigment is suspended in linseed or another drying oil, or watercolor, where gum arabic carries the pigment across the paper. In pastel, there is almost nothing between the pigment and the painted surface.
The physical structure of that pigment matters to how the finished work looks. Under a microscope, pastel particles are irregular and crystalline rather than smooth. When light reaches the painted surface, those crystalline edges refract it in multiple directions at once. The result is the medium's characteristic luminosity - a glow that differs perceptibly from the surface shine of oil or the transparent wash quality of watercolor. This is not an aesthetic judgment. It is the geometry of the particle at a microscopic level, and it is why photographs of pastels consistently fail to capture what the original looks like in person.
Because pastel particles have no liquid vehicle, they cannot flow into a surface. They rely entirely on mechanical grip - the texture, or tooth, of the paper or board the artist works on. A smooth surface will not hold them. Artists choose supports ranging from sanded pastel paper to specialized grit boards, and that choice determines how many layers the surface can accept before it becomes saturated.
| Medium | Pigment concentration | Vehicle or binder | Glass and spacer needed when framing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft pastel | Highest of any medium | Minimal dry binder only | Yes - spacer is required |
| Oil paint | Moderate | Drying oil (linseed, safflower, etc.) | Not typically; varnish used instead |
| Watercolor | Moderate | Gum arabic solution | Yes - spacer generally not required |
| Oil pastel | Lower than soft pastel | Non-drying oil and wax | Yes - different care requirements than soft pastel |
Oil pastel deserves a note here because the name creates genuine confusion in galleries. Oil pastels use a non-drying oil and wax binder, stay permanently tacky, and behave more like a crayon than a painting medium. Work labeled "pastel" in a fine art context almost always means soft pastel unless otherwise specified - but if you're buying, ask directly.
The Southwest Florida Pastel Society
The Southwest Florida Pastel Society was founded in 2001 by Sandy Jackoboice, a Naples winter resident who recognized that the region had no formal organization dedicated to soft pastel. She started the group as a satellite of the Great Lakes Pastel Society, giving the new organization an institutional anchor while it built its own membership base here.
Independence came quickly. In January 2002, SWFPS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and elected its own leadership. Its first president was Sam Platt, whose name now appears on one of the society's most substantive community programs: the Sam Platt Scholarship, awarded annually to high school seniors in Collier, Lee, or Charlotte County who plan to continue their fine arts education. No competing page about the Southwest Florida art scene mentions this program, but it is one of the clearer indicators that SWFPS operates as a working civic organization, not just a social club for painters. Current application requirements and deadlines are posted through the society's website each season.
Shortly after independence, SWFPS joined the International Association of Pastel Societies, connecting its members to a global network of pastel organizations and giving them access to IAPS-affiliated juried shows worldwide. Membership grew to 40 by the end of 2002 and has since reached approximately 100, making SWFPS one of the larger medium-specific art societies in the region.
How the Society Operates
The Seasonal Schedule
SWFPS follows the rhythm of the Southwest Florida arts calendar. Meetings run monthly from October through May and pause entirely from June through September, tracking the period when the region's seasonal residents are present and cultural programming is most active. If you are considering joining, October is when the year begins.
Monthly Meetings and Member Resources
Meeting content is practical. A typical month includes some combination of the following:
- Educational programs and demonstrations by members or visiting artists
- Critiques of work in progress or recently completed paintings
- Updates on upcoming shows, plein air outings, and workshop registration
- Access to the society's lending library of instructional DVDs
The member newsletter, Value Strokes, keeps the community connected between meetings and circulates information about regional and national exhibition opportunities. The title is a deliberate reference to value - the relative lightness or darkness of a tone - which is central to how pastel artists build form and depth on the surface. Membership is open to anyone interested in the medium at any skill level. Current rates and contact information are available through the society's website.
Annual Exhibitions and Where to See the Work
Purely Pastel
The society's primary annual show, Purely Pastel, is held at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. The 2025 edition displayed 72 works drawn from the membership, covering abstract, impressionist, and realist approaches. The Alliance is an established venue with dedicated gallery space and consistent foot traffic, which means the show reaches visitors who didn't set out specifically to look at pastel - the kind of audience that expands the medium's visibility.
Iconic Images of Southwest Florida
The second annual event is a collaborative show, Iconic Images of Southwest Florida, which pairs SWFPS with the Gulf Coast Painters of Naples and Bonita Springs. The show is hosted at the COCO Gallery in Naples. Additional regional groups have participated in past editions - check the society's website for the current list of collaborating organizations. The collaboration is worth attending specifically to see how different mediums handle the same regional subject matter - plein air oil painters alongside pastel artists, all working from the same landscape. The contrast is instructive whether you paint, collect, or are simply curious about medium differences.
The National Online Juried Show
SWFPS also runs an annual online juried show open to pastel artists across the country. This extends the organization well past its regional membership and brings national-level work into view. For collectors wanting to calibrate what serious contemporary pastel looks like, following the society's juried results is a useful reference point. Current dates and entry information appear on the society's website each season.
Workshops with Visiting Instructors
One of the most concrete practical benefits of SWFPS membership is access to workshops with instructors from the national pastel circuit. Those who have taught through the society include: Desmond O'Hagan, Doug Dawson, Albert Handell, Margaret Dyer, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Terry Ludwig, Dawn Emerson, and Nancie King Mertz. These are not local figures teaching locally available content. Several have shown nationally, taught internationally, and produced instructional material that circulates widely in the broader pastel community.
Workshop formats typically run across one or more days and address specific technical territory - color mixing, building atmospheric light, working on unfamiliar surfaces, or developing a coherent painting process from start to finish. For painters who have learned primarily from books or online video, structured time with a working instructor tends to address gaps that self-directed study leaves open.
IAPS membership connects SWFPS members to a global network of pastel organizations and IAPS-affiliated juried shows worldwide. For many years IAPS also ran a biennial in-person convention that drew instructors and participants from dozens of countries; however, IAPS announced in 2025 that its June 2026 gathering in Albuquerque would be its final biennial convention. IAPS continues to operate as an organization, with a current focus on online programming, virtual exhibitions, and educational grants - check iapspastel.org for the benefits now available to member societies.
Plein Air Pastels Along the Gulf Coast
SWFPS organizes plein air outings as a regular part of its programming. Working outdoors in pastel involves logistical differences from studio work - managing a large open palette without tipping it, dealing with humidity that affects how particles grip the support, and working on boards that need to stay fixed on a surface not specifically designed for them. Artists who have switched from oil to pastel for plein air work often cite portability and the absence of drying time as the deciding factors.
Southwest Florida's geography suits the medium. Water reflects and scatters light in ways that align with what soft pastel does naturally - building luminosity through layered crystalline pigment rather than through liquid transparency. Mangroves reward a medium that constructs texture through direct mark-making. The region's mix of Spanish colonial and vernacular architecture gives painters clean geometric forms to anchor atmospheric backgrounds. The light on the Gulf Coast - diffuse, warm, and high in humidity scatter - is particularly well suited to a medium that refracts rather than reflects.
The SWFPS plein air community connects to the broader regional scene. Regional paint-out events draw pastel artists alongside oil and watercolor painters, and the locations SWFPS outings cover overlap with areas that the Gulf Coast Painters and other regional groups also work. If you participate in outdoor painting events through any of the region's other art societies, you will likely encounter SWFPS members on the same ground.
Finding and Buying Pastel Work in Southwest Florida
The most direct path to buying from the regional pastel community runs through the society's own shows. Purely Pastel and Iconic Images of Southwest Florida are the two annual events where a meaningful portion of the membership shows work for sale. Both are selected or juried rather than open submission, which provides curatorial filtering.
Outside show season, Art Gallery Old Naples 2 (AGO2) in Naples mounts monthly pastel shows featuring work by Karen Stone and Lynne B. Wilcox. This is one of the few commercial gallery situations in the region where soft pastel appears consistently rather than as an occasional inclusion in a mixed-media group show.
Before completing a purchase, these are the things worth checking:
- Confirm the work is soft pastel, not oil pastel - they are different media with different framing and care requirements
- Ask whether the painting has been sprayed with fixative and, if so, what product was used
- Look at the surface under raking or angled light: original soft pastel shows particle texture and dimensional depth; a reproduction printed on fine art paper will appear smooth and uniform
- Request documentation - title, medium, dimensions, and date - particularly for higher-value purchases
Framing, Care, and the Longevity Question
The most common hesitation collectors raise before buying a pastel is durability. The concern is understandable. The historical record is reassuring. Old Master pastel portraits from the 18th century - including work by Rosalba Carriera and Maurice Quentin de La Tour - survive in stable condition in museum collections today. Three centuries of survival, under conditions far less controlled than most contemporary homes maintain. Properly cared for, soft pastel is a stable archival medium. The conditions for that stability are specific and worth understanding before you hang the work.
The Framing Sequence
- Mount the pastel on archival mat board using archival materials that will not off-gas and affect the pigment surface over time
- Insert a spacer between the pastel surface and the glass - this gap is not optional; without it, vibration or humidity changes can cause pigment to transfer onto the glass, creating damage that cannot be reversed
- Use real glass, not standard acrylic - standard acrylic (plexiglass) builds a static charge that pulls pastel particles off the surface; if acrylic must be used, specify anti-static museum acrylic
- Seal the frame package at the back with framing tape to reduce humidity exchange and keep airborne particles out
Beyond framing, the standard conservation precautions apply:
- Keep the work out of direct sunlight - UV exposure degrades pigments across all media
- Avoid walls with significant humidity swings: bathrooms, spaces near exterior walls in humid climates, or rooms directly adjacent to HVAC vents
- Transport the work upright or flat, never face-down
- If the glass needs cleaning from the inside, consult a conservator rather than attempting it yourself
A pastel is essentially pure pigment on a textured surface - there is no binder layer to yellow, crack, or contract with age. The physics that make the medium seem fragile are the same physics that, properly managed, make it one of the more archivally stable media a collector can own.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I join the Southwest Florida Pastel Society?
Membership information and current rates are on the society's website. The active season runs October through May, so reaching out before October puts you on track for the first meeting of the year. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in soft pastel, regardless of experience level.
What is the Sam Platt Scholarship and who can apply?
The Sam Platt Scholarship honors the society's first president and is awarded annually to high school seniors planning to pursue fine arts education. Applicants must be residents of Collier, Lee, or Charlotte County. Current application requirements and deadlines are posted on the society's website each season - check there for the specifics rather than relying on secondhand descriptions, since details can change.
What is the difference between soft pastel and oil pastel?
Soft pastel is nearly pure pigment with a minimal dry binder, producing a matte, luminous surface that can be layered and blended. Oil pastel uses a non-drying oil and wax binder, stays permanently tacky, and handles more like a crayon than a paint. They require different supports, different framing, and different long-term care. Work described as "pastel" in a fine art gallery almost always means soft pastel.
Do pastels fade over time?
Under direct UV exposure, pastel pigments will fade - as will oil and watercolor pigments under the same conditions. Kept away from direct sunlight, a properly framed soft pastel has a strong archival record. Eighteenth-century portraits in museum collections by Rosalba Carriera and Maurice Quentin de La Tour remain stable after three centuries, which is as good a reference point for longevity as exists in the medium.
Does a pastel painting need a spacer between the surface and the glass?
Yes, and this is non-negotiable. Pastel particles have no adhesive bond with the support - they are held mechanically by the tooth of the surface. Without a gap between the painted surface and the glass, vibration and humidity changes can cause particles to transfer to the glass, and that damage cannot be repaired. A frameshop that works regularly with works on paper should know this; if yours doesn't mention it, raise it yourself before leaving the work.
When and where does SWFPS show its work each year?
The main annual member show, Purely Pastel, is held at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. The collaborative Iconic Images of Southwest Florida show is hosted at the COCO Gallery in Naples. The society also runs a national online juried show each year. Dates for all three are posted through the society's website and newsletter, which is the most reliable place to find current scheduling.