2nd Biennual National Show Awards

Doug Dawson PSA -Juror/Judge

BEST OF SHOW- CHRISTINE SWANN PSA, Baden, PA "Youth"

                                                 

FIRST OF SHOW - BONNIE WILLIAMS, Brookeland, Texas "Hayfield Series June 29th"

SECOND OF SHOW - MARY CAMPOS LOPEZ, San Antonio, Texas "Dance of the Cactus Flowers"

THIRD OF SHOW - CAROLYN KILDAY, Austin, Texas "Purple Hydrangeas"

Honorable Mention - Barbara Churchley, Cedaredge, CO " Meander"

Honorable Mention- Diane Fechenbach, Highlands Ranch, CO "Taos Whitewater"

Honorable Mention- Cathy Geib, Boerne, Texas "Catching Up on the Guadalupe"

Honorable Mention-Robert Rhodes, Rockport, Texas "Harbor Lights"

Show will be up through Nov. 2 at the Art Incorporated Gallery of Fine Art, 9401 San Pedro

OCTOBER MEETING NOTES BY ROGER SNYDER, SECRETARY

Texas Pastel Society

October 15. 2012

Member Meeting

The October members meeting was held at the San Antonio Garden Center on Monday October 15^th. 22 people were in attendance, including the demonstrator.
No business was conducted. The meeting was turned over to Doug Dawson, PSA (see http://www.dougdawsonartist.com/ for more information).
Since everyone knows that ending up with too many colors can ruin a painting Doug proposed to start with too many colors and demonstrate how to rescue the situation.
Doug explained to those in the audience who had not attended day one of the workshop that he started his paintings with only 4 sticks of color, a dark, a dark middle, a light middle and a light value, since starting with 4 colors almost always led to a painting with a common color and more than 4 leads to trouble. He then had audience members select some sticks at random. He then arranged these 20 some sticks into four value groups and started a landscape.
First producing a thumbnail sketch establishing three values in black and white (although he normally uses 4 values) and then using a template to denote the size of the painting; he began establishing the masses of the three values. Each mass used all of the colors of that value chosen by the audience. The result was a very colorful underpainting.

September Meeting Notes

Angie Banta Brown kicked off our fall events with a great still life lecture/ demo on September 8th at the Thousand Oaks Library.

TXPS Secretary, Roger Snyder gives a summary as follows:

Angie Banta Brown gave a demonstration of composition and design, illustrating the concepts with a collection of her prints and photographs. She discussed in detail how to select items arrange them and photograph them. Angie always photographs her arrangements as some components such as flowers change with time. She then paints from her iPad.

Angie recommended starting with 1 or 2 objects and is not confined to using an odd number of items. She often uses stripes of color or ribbons to tie these objects together. She prefers to use natural light instead of artificial spots. Her usual viewpoint is from above in order to avoid a horizon effect.

Angie demonstrated her technique, starting a still life of two vases, roses and peaches. Painting on of the peaches, she pointed out that value is often more important than color. She uses a limited palette.

During Angie’s demonstration, the audience asked several questions. Concerning the use of fixative, she does not like to use it due to the color darkening effect. There was also a discussing of framing, with Angie and several other members commenting that they were now mounting their pastels directly against the glass and sealing the edges with tape.

During the afternoon, Irene Taylor and Mary Campos Lopez participated in a hands-on activity with the community, several coming in to try their hand at pastel painting.  A very good impression was left by the Texas Pastel Society at the Thousand Oaks Library.  TXPS has been invited back for their anniversary celebration on Nov. 17th.

TXPS at the San Antonio Home and Garden Show

A great time was had by the four artists representing TXPS at the San Antonio Garden and Home Show held at the Alamodome, Sept. 28-30.  Cindy Morawski, Irene Taylor, Jeannette Cuevas and Mary Campos Lopez, demonstrated the wonderdful world of pastel. Irene did a live interview on WOAI Radio.  Visitors numbered in the hundreds and many stopped by the TXPS booth and learned about the society. More than one was pleasantly surprised by the fact that pastel is not chalk but pure pigment.  Sales were made making the event even more successful.