In the early 2000s artists Bernadette Ward and Ladd Forsline had an idea for a totally new art material: a dry color medium that would work like a fluid paint. Inspired by both the history of humans using raw pigments to draw and paint for thousands of years and the fact that the pastel medium still remained in its stick format, Berni and Ladd decided to develop a material that retained the characteristics unique to the pastel medium – their directness and purity of color – but would function like a paint.
Bernadette Ward and Ladd Forsline
Berni and Ladd co-founded Colorfin LLC in 2005 and set up a small factory in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. After a collective five years of research and development, they designed a manufacturing process that would press dry pastel pigment into an innovative pan format, which proved to be the key to success. The resulting product, PanPastel®, was introduced to the industry in August 2007.
In addition to PanPastel, Berni and Ladd created a line of Sofft® Tools, which utilize a specially formulated micropore sponge specifically designed for the optimal application of PanPastel colors. Each tool has a unique shape and size based on artist brushes, which provides variety in mark making. When Sofft Tools are used with PanPastel colors, artists are given the opportunity to apply dry color like paint. Not only could artists now enjoy the immediacy of traditional pastels but with less dust and waste, they could also mix and blend pastel colors together for the first time.
Berni and Ladd hoped that pastelists would appreciate PanPastel as the colors offer many advantages for pastel painting, but they also wished to offer painters a dry material that would deliver many of the same paint-like qualities they are familiar with. Since their introduction in 2007, these products have grown in popularity and artists continue to take PanPastel in so many exciting creative directions.
While Berni and Ladd fostered PanPastel into an important companion product for pastel and mixed media artists alike, they felt this unique soft pastel color product line had not yet reached its full potential. To help realize this goal, Golden Artist Colors acquired both PanPastel and Sofft Tools in November 2022. Berni and Ladd worked with GOLDEN employees for several months to ensure that all parties were confident in understanding this new product line and its manufacturing process.
Since the acquisition, PanPastel co-creators Berni and Ladd continue to offer their support and guidance to GOLDEN. In the Spring of 2025, the goal of expanding PanPastel came to fruition with the launch of 53 new colors. This was a major milestone for the brand, as new colors had not been introduced to the line in over ten years, leaving artists yearning for more. Berni and Ladd worked alongside GOLDEN Marketing and Lab departments to offer their input on noticeable gaps in the color offering and evaluate multiple trials of each color option. These efforts resulted in a curated palette that not only satisfies artist requests, but brings the greatest range and utility to artists.
PanPastel Artist Pastels is proud to be a part of the GOLDEN family.
