CARAN D’ACHE Geneve Neoart Oil Pastels arrived in the mail!
Today I have a bit of long story to share with everyone.
It all started when I got this message from CARAN D’ACHE. CARAN D’ACHE based in Geneva, and made also in Switzerland are basically the top maker of art supplies, including NEOART 6901 oil pastels, which I sometimes use. Because they are a little bit expensive, I kept my set back home safe in Korea, and I took some much cheaper pastels with me to Brisbane, Australia. CARAN D’ACHE pastels are too precious to loose by accident or have anything bad happen to them.
NEOART 6901 oil pastels, are the creme de la creme of the oil pastel world. Their colours are rich, beautiful and absolutely essential when it comes to creating investment grade oil pastel artworks, because NEOART 6901 oil pastels are the most lightfast, meaning the colours won’t fade much overtime. My mother once bought me a set for my birthday when PI was younger, but also again she bought me another set for my very recent 31st birthday. So I am a fan of this brand and product. So when I received this message from CARAN D’ACHE asking me if I would like to participate in their 50th year birthday celebration, I really had to check to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. To even receive this invitation was a great honor me, yet alone have the opportunity to selected as one of their top 50 favorite oil pastels artists around the world.
The invitation was to contribute an oil pastel drawing to the 50th birthday celebration of their NEOART 6901 oil pastels. They wanted to gather a drawing from 50 top international oil pastel artists from all over the world, with the theme of celebration. They also wanted a portrait of each artist.
I 
I brainstormed some idea around the theme of celebration with my good friend Sue, who is also an artist. Then the guest house manager popped by my room doing the rounds, and we asked him if he had any ideas. I guess he is also a big Disney fan like me, and the first thing that came to his mind was a Disney-style Castle, with fireworks and surrounded by a beautiful lake and fields of flowers. I really liked the idea of a @ddashuan_ castle. I guess it’s every girl’s Disney-inspired dream to be a princess one day and live in a castle like every other Disney princesses. I also thought it was a very European idea, fitting for a grand Swiss company. So i got to work and drew it, and I answered the questionnaire and I drew my portrait for CARAN D’ACHE. Then the guest house manger whose father is from Switzerland came around and say “actually Switzerland is probably the only country in Europe without a Monarchy, and royal hierarchy. Everyone is lord of their own land there. So hopefully CARAN D’ACHE don’t find the idea offensive”. By this time it was too late, I had already poured my heart and soul into drawing this beautiful castle.
I actually don’t have a cat but i think cats are cute. There is a cat who lives in the neighborhood who comes to the guest house every night to be feed salmon by the manager. So i guess it inspired me to draw a cat in my portrait picture.
The publication hasn’t been officially released yet so I don’t want to put any spoiler pictures, but it’s a really fantastic publication to look out for. I greatly enjoyed looking through it. So I’ve just screen shot the first and last pages so you can see the name of the publication and the list of contributors on the back page. It was truely one of the greatest honors of my life to be in this and I can’t thank CARAN D’ACHE enough!!!
So you will find me placed between Crayon Rabbit (another Korean artist) and Katia de Conti. Then when i couldn’t imagine things getting any better they sent me a set in the mail to the guest house where I am staying in Brisbane!
So I used it to draw Snow White…see @ddasuhan_ on Instagram for the full posts.
It is a real joy to use the NEOART 6901 Oil Pastels. Now that I have begun selling my @ddasuhan_ artworks here on www.ddasuhan.com and I don’t want the colours to fade, so I am using CARAN D’ACHE oil pastels more and more. It’s time like this that you feel all the struggle to be an artist has paid off a little bit. Thank you again CARAN D’ACHE and to everyone for supporting me and enjoying my artworks.
See you again soon,
14 March 2025
- Jisu Sang