Belgian artist Mathieu Weemaels’ site includes a large gallery of his figures, landscapes, still lifes (pictured: bouchons rouges) and distorted self portraits—as well as fascinating images of his hand-made pastels-in-progress and a look inside his studio. (The site’s in French, but easy to navigate.)

Margot Schulzke had an interesting conversation with Weemaels in our February 2007 issue, in which they discussed the terms "soft pastel," which is commonly used in the United States, vs. the  Belgian usage, "dry pastel."

"I don't like this 'soft' terminology that seems to mean something very sweet, too sweet," he said. "That's what is usually associated with pastels: insipidness. That's an image we shouldn't encourage."