Tuesday, December 10, 2013

TXPS Elections

Dear members

The following candidates have been nominated to fill the two vacancies:

President - Irene Taylor
Vice President - Cindy Morawski

Charles Krause as Treasurer, Maria Aguirre as Membership Chairperson and myself as Secretary still have another year on our terms.  In addition, Chris Oxford has agreed to serve as Publicity Chairperson.  We are still seeking a Venue Chairperson.  That individual will help us maintain our contacts with the sites of our various member shows.

Elections will be held at the January meeting.

Please get your membership renewals in.  We are looking forward to another great year.  Have a great holiday season and happy painting.

Roger Snyder
Secretary
Texas Pastel Society

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

November General Meeting



The TXPS is pleased to announce framer Debra Hill of the Greenhouse Gallery will demonstrate framing( on site) at 10 am on Saturday, November 2.  Following the demo members are welcome to enjoy the artwork on display.  An unofficial lunch get together at one of the local restaurants just may happen so be prepared to join in the fun.   The Greenhouse Gallery is located at: 6496 N.New Braunfels Ave, San Antonio.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

TXPS Upcoming Fall events

Join us for our September General Meeting with demo artist Grace Goodson from Colorado. She will be working on a floral painting.

Introducing Grace Goodson


 
Red Poppies
Pastel
12" x 16"

Saturday, Sept. 7th, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at the Tobin Library, one half mile inside Loop 410 on Harry Wurzbach. www.gracegoodson.com

Fall Art Show at the Tobin Library.  Those that signed up may bring up to three paintings to the meeting. We suggest no small paintings since they will be hung up high.  Please tag your paintings on the back left hand upper corner with name, title, contact # or email, and price.  We are not allowed to show the price on the front to the public but if anyone asks, the staff can give the interested party the information on the back. $10 member fee for up to three paintings.

27th Annual San Antonio Home and Garden Show at the Alamodome.  October 4-6. Call for member artists. We will be in booths 177-179. $40 fee for the three days. Sign up with Mary Lopez, texaspastelsociety@yahoo.com.


  • Get a Little Taste of Texas in the Go Texan area
  • Complimentary Wine Tastings
  • Shop til you drop in our Art, Gift, & Gourmet Center
  • Flavors of San Antonio - featuring area restaurants serving everything from Mexican to Seafood!
For more information and a $1 off coupon go to www.showtechnology.com under Event Schedule

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Greenhouse Gallery Art Walk

Join us for a visit to the beautiful Greenhouse Gallery on Saturday, June 1st at 10 a.m.  On exhibit is "Solitary Visions", new works by Adair Payne, Steve Atkinson and Kathryn Stats.    The show runs through June 7th.

Visit www.greenhousegallery.com for more information including directions.

Friday, May 24, 2013

TXPS at the Festival of Flowers

The Texas Pastel Society will be exhibiting at the 16th Annual Festival of Flowers on Saturday, May 25th.

Location:  Alzafar Shrine Hall, 901 N. Loop 1604 West, located off the access road between Stone Oak Parkway and Blanco.

Hours: 9a.m. - 5 p .m.

Admission fees: $6 for adults, children 10 and younger are free.  Parking is free.

In addition to our beautiful pastel art, there will be Herb Market Cooking Classes, Floral Design, Seminars, food and beverages will be available.  Lots more!

Come by and visit at the TXPS booth!

Visit www.SAFestivalofFlowers.com for more information.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

May General Meeting at the Mission Library

Join us for our May General Meeting this Saturday, May 4th, 10:30-12noon.  Demo by Virginia Carruth! 



Back Road - Pastel

"I have always felt drawn to the beauty and serenity of nature and the landscape.  I especially enjoy painting landscapes now that so many are being lost to us through development and growth.  In my paintings, the trees, streams and hills are usually from a specific place but I hope that the viewers are able to feel that these are things from places that they have also visited.  I work from plein studies and reference photos, always rearranging compositions and exaggerating the colors if necessary.  I feel my painting is successful if the viewer can look through my eyes and respond to the beauty that I have seen."


See Virginia's beautiful works at www.virginiacarruth.com.

Meeting location:  Mission Library, 3134 Roosevelt Ave(old Mission Drive-In Theatre).  This is close to the San Jose Mission.

No meeting fee ( non-members-$3 suggested donation).   Invite all!



Prepare to be inspired!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Maggie Price- Sad News

Dear Presidents ….. I have the sad job of informing you that our dear Maggie Price passed away this morning. She had been hospitalized for the past week with pneumonia which was just too much for her to overcome having just finished chemo and radiation treatments.
 
Liz Haywood-Sullivan has today established a perpetual award in Maggie's name to be given at every IAPS exhibition, starting with the Convention.   Maggie was all about education and so we would like to designate this award to an emerging artist.  We know that people will be wanting to do something in her memory and so they could donate to help fund this perpetual award.     Details are now on the IAPS website at www.pastelinternational.com
 
This way Maggie Price will be remembered at every IAPS exhibition starting with the June convention.  Her family is very happy with this, and will advise friends and family of this way to honor her.
 
Liz and I are, understandably, overwhelmed at this point with convention planning, but we will do our best to make this a wonderful convention to honor Maggie.
 
Please share this sad news with your membership …. Thank you so much …. Susan
 
 
Susan Webster
Executive Director IAPS
International Association of Pastel Societies
www.pastelinternational.com 

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March Meeting Notes

Texas Pastel Society
March 2, 2013
Member Meeting



Meeting started at 10:30 AM at the Tobin Library with 14 members present.
Old Business
Mary Lopez announced several shows: the San Antonio Garden Club Flower show (April 13th and 14th), the Tobin Library show (later postponed to the September 7th), and a show in Bastrop (cards were available). The Tobin show will require bigger pictures due to the paintings being hung high up.
Virginia Carruth is scheduled for May. The meeting to be held at the Mission Library
The current show at the Candlelight Café is to be taken down Monday (March 4th).
Demonstration
Susan Carlin demonstrated pastel portrait painting. Susan started her demonstration with a brief biography. She found out at the age of 12 that you could make a living doing portraits. She started doing portrait sketches at a PX while in the army. After meeting a pastelist, she studied Daniel Green’s book and acquired a pastel set. Painted portraits in malls and resorts, but burned out after 10 years.
After becoming a Chiropractor, she set up practice in San Antonio. A client seeing her work in her office and asking for pastel lessons, revived Susan’s interest in painting. Attending Austin pastel meetings got her restarted in painting. She highly recommends being in a group (a “sweet group, not a stinky group”). She currently paints portraits mostly in oil, since that is what her clients demand 99% of the time. Also spending a lot of time developing the Whistle Stop Corner (to be a teaching studio) and running her gallery in La Villita.
Getting a volunteer from the audience, she spent some time in selecting the pose and adjusting the lighting. She pointed out “Rembrandt’s lighting”, the triangle of light under the eye. She stressed the importance of lighting and noted that one should not paint from a photo done with a flash.



One should first be sure that the portrait will fit a known frame size (plan ahead). Susan used a pastel pencil to first sketch the portrait, empathizing that the sketch was important before starting the use of pastels. Once the sketch was established she started with dark pastels, noting that most of her pastels are hard.
While working on the portrait, Susan discussed sales, noting that she and Brother Cletus agreed that poor sales were not due to the economy. Painters need to put joy into their work and get their paintings out where the buyers are.
Again returning to the subject of lighting, Susan demonstrated that the true or local color occurs where light turns to shade. Colors might be warmer in the light and darker in the shade. She suggested that the portrait should be simplified, leave out all the wrinkles, but put in the major features. Susan pointed out that a portrait is about the drawing and the values, not the color. Another tip was to make pastel sticks from pastel dust, by dissolving in alcohol, wrapping in Canson paper and allowing them to dry for 2 or 3 days.
Susan ended the presentation by urging everyone to jump in to portraits with both feet.
Roger Snyder, Secretary

Thursday, February 21, 2013

TXPS at the San Antonio Home and Garden Show

Join us February 22-24 at the Alamodome for the Home and Garden Show!  TXPS will be at booth #205 with art for sale and pastel painting demonstrations. Artists Cathy Geib, Maria Aguirre, Cindy Morawski and Mary Campos Lopez will be representing the Texas Pastel Society.  See www.showtechnology.com for show hours and a discount coupon.  See you there!

Mary's demo of a Painted Bunting

February General Meeting Notes by Roger Snyder, Secretary

Texas Pastel Society
February 2, 2013
Member Meeting



Meeting started at 10:30 AM at the Tobin Library with 12 members present.
Old Business
Mary Lopez briefly described the upcoming events: The San Antonio Garden show, the Spring exhibit at the Tobin Library and the San Antonio Garden Club exhibit. Sign up sheets were available.

Demonstration: Painting with a Limited Palette by Irene Taylor
Irene had a still life set up with a vase, a ceramic kitten and various pieces of fabric draped on the background.

Irene has used limited palettes for oil painting. She decided to explore the possibility of doing this with pastels. For pastels, she worked with alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, ultramarine blue, black, and white. Discussing color theory, she noted that lemon yellow was selected as an intense yellow. She described the theory of cool and warm blues. Also that for bright colors one should use only two primaries.

With pastels, only limited mixing is possible since the surface selected limits the amount of pastel that can be added. Irene used a pearl Canson paper in the demonstration.


The drawing was started with a series of straight lines. For a symmetrical shape such as the vase, an axis line is necessary. She started painting the vase by laying in the dark background with a light touch using the side of the pastel. The initial background was started with the black and then alizarin crimson was added. The green vase was started with the yellow and blue, adding white for the highlights.
Irene switched to soft pastels and then back to hard and medium pastels for the details. There was a discussion on how much of the edge closest to the light to highlight. Irene noted that, if the entire edge is highlighted the object will look as if it was pasted on. The highlight should be the part that is perpendicular to the light source.

Roger Snyder, Secretary






Thursday, January 24, 2013

2013 Member Art Show at Candlelight Cafe

Charles Krause, Cindy Morawski, Denise Beard, Modrea Mitchell-Reichert, Mary Campos Lopez, and Maria Aguirre
 
You are invited to a Dessert Reception at the Candlelight Cafe on Saturday, January 26, 2013.  Come see our current exhibition of paintings and meet the artists.

Time: 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Address: 3011 N. St. Mary's St.
San Antonio

Questions? Contact Cindy Morawski, Venues Chair, 210-522-0706 or cski02@sbcglobal.net

Show will extend till the end of February.  All the artwork that is currently on exhibit is also for sale.

Candlelight Cafe hours: Monday-closed
Tuesday - Thursday: 2-11p.m.
Friday: 2p - 12 a.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Invite all!  See you there!   

November General Meeting Notes

We had the last meeting of 2012 on November 10th with Cindy Morawski giving us great marketing strategies.  Everyone admires Cindy's drive and organization to accomplish her goals.  She shared many marketing tips with us and answered questions on what inspires her. She gave us the following websites which have been helpful to her. Thanks for a great meeting!



  • Inside Art Display for Tent Set-up (nylon mesh material):  Flourish Co. Canopies, Phone:  800.296.0049, Website:   www.flourish.com
  •  Scanner App for Smart Phone:  QR Code Generator and Maker Free, Website:  www.qrcode.kaywa.com  (This can be used to direct interested customers to your website, phone, or a text message.)