The Wrap Up The PSA Annual Exhibition Awards Weekend (September 18-20, 2015) was once again all about pastel–artists immersing themselves in the subject of pastel–shoulder to shoulder with other artists, looking at beautiful paintings, talking about our cherished medium, exchanging ideas, catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, connecting names to faces. It was a fun and enriching time for all.
Special Gallery Tour & Reception The energy was palpable in the Grand Gallery at the National Arts Club as spectators anticipated the Gallery Tour & Reception on Friday evening, September 18. Richard McKinley PSA-MP, HFH, entranced us with his astute and informed observations on the variety of painting styles in this year’s exhibition. McKinley is a popular workshop instructor, an award-winning painter, author, and member of the PSA board of governors.
Jimmy Wright PSA-MP president (right) introduces Richard McKinley PSA-MP, HFH (left)
The Materials Fair Once again, a bigger-than-ever materials fair filled the Grand Gallery of the National Arts Club in New York City. With goodies from so many of your favorite pastel and pastel gear suppliers, and with hundreds of eager customers, the Gallery rang with excitement and buzz—and with the virtual ka-ching of cash registers (in this case, the Square for smart phones). While buying, many attendees had the opportunity to see the exhibition and enjoy it. We heard lots of enthusiastic comments, and many expressed the hope that they would be accepted into the show—maybe next year. Adding to the glamour of the event were the stunning demonstrations executed by Janet Cook, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, and Richard McKinley. Not only did they paint with virtuoso skill, they also talked with attendees, explaining the techniques and methods that helped them rise to pastel rock-star status. If you didn’t make it this year, we hope you get the chance to attend next year’s fair, which already looks like it will be larger than this year’s.
(L-R) Karl Kelly of Mt. Vision delights his clients with a colorful display of pastel sticks; Rob Mogel introduces True Grit Pastel Boards to the market, and Mike Leczinski of the FineArtStore.com helps clients select product from among the wonderful special offers he had at the Materials Fair.
The Portfolio Review Photo left: Bill Creevy reviews a participant's actual portfolio. Photo right: Gwenneth Barth-White looks at the portfolio of a participant on her laptop.
The Portfolio Review at the Materials Fair was well-received and well-attended. Participants brought images of their work for Master Pastelists Gwenneth Barth-White, Bill Creevy, and Maceo Mitchell to critique. It was held in the comfortable setting of the Salon at the National Arts Club. Next year, it again will be opened to Associates and non-members. The critique is free to Associates and costs $20 for non-members.
The Awards Ceremony The Grand Gallery was filled to capacity with standing room only as the audience applauded the 67 artists who won awards this year. Eight excellent artists joined the ranks of Master Pastelist. To see images of all the award winning paintings, please visit this link here. The two top cash awards were received by Daniel E. Greene, who received the $5,000 PSA Founders Award given by the Flora B. Giffuni Foundation, and Brian Bailey, who received the $3,000 Art Spirit Foundation Dianne B. Bernhard Gold Medal. Bob Ziering won the Herman Margulies Award for Excellence donated by Dianne B. Bernhard for $1,500, and Nancie King Mertz won the Joe Hing Lowe Memorial Award for $1,100.
Pictured left to right are PSA President Jimmy Wright with Brian Bailey, Bob Ziering, and Nancie King Mertz.
Hall of Fame Honoree – Bob Gerbracht PSA-MP Bob Gerbracht, the PSA 2015 Hall of Fame honoree, has been teaching private classes and workshops in portraiture and figure drawing and painting in San Jose, California, since 1979. His workshops have since taken him all over the U.S. and Mexico. He held a five-day workshop at the PSA pastel school in 1992. Bob earned a BFA from Yale and an MFA from the University of Southern California. His pastels have been featured in numerous magazines and books, including Best of Pastel and Best of Pastel 2. At age 90, Bob still teaches three classes a week.
Friend of Pastel – Isabelle Lim PSA and Anita and Robert Z. Norman Isabelle Lim, currently living in Hong Kong with her husband Alex, has been a tireless ambassador of the art of pastel throughout Southeast Asia and China. She has helped to organize international pastel exhibitions, has sponsored Chinese pastel students in European competitions, has been an unofficial and official liaison between the Eastern and Western pastel communities. Not least of her accomplishments have been her own awards for outstanding achievement in the pastel medium. Anita and Robert Z. Norman, professor emeritus in mathematics at Dartmouth College, have generously made a substantial donation of Lockheed Martin Corporation shares to the general fund of the Pastel Society of America in memory of Robert’s sister, Barbara Makanowitzky PSA (pictured left), much acclaimed for her dramatic pastel seascapes. The 43rd Annual Exhibition catalog features a 2009 Pastel Journal article about Barbara’s pastels.
Master Pastelist Class of 2015 Congratulations to the nine new members of the Master Pastelist Class of 2015: Annette Hanna, Colleen Hoerner, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Abel Ricardo Marquez, Richard G. McKinley, Cuong Nguyen, Carrie Raeburn, Pat Suggs, and Jill Stefani Wagner.
Pictured (L-R): Annette Hanna, Jill Stefani Wagner, Pat Suggs, Carrie Raeburn, Richard McKinley, and Liz Haywood-Sullivan.
The Legacy Collection The board of governors of PSA established the Pastel Society of America Legacy Collection to honor our late founder, Flora Giffuni. Held in the permanent collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, it comprises works gifted by PSA Hall of Fame artists who have been invited by Dr. Louis Zona and his curatorial staff at the Butler to submit work. Our mutual goal is to create a legacy of excellence in a premier collection of pastels to be shown at this extraordinary venue. Hall of Fame honoree Bob Gerbracht's painting Dountes with Headband been accessioned into the Butler’s Legacy Collection.
The Annual Dinner and Raffle Paintings The Grand Gallery was transformed into a lovely and lively venue for the Annual Dinner. The large crowd packed it to capacity. Following the dinner, the highly anticipated drawing of the winners in the annual painting raffle occurred. The winners: David Ivers (CT) won Stephanie Birdsall's still life; Alice Laputka (PA) won Marla Baggetta's landscape; Bev Lee (CO) won Brian Cobble's landscape; Lee Quincy (MA) won Helen Kleczynski's architectural painting; and Arlene Thek (NY) won Arlene Richman's abstract.
Some interesting statistics on the 43rd Annual… Six hundred two artists submitted a total of 1,365 images. Of those artists, 451 were PSA members and 151 were non-members. Of the 183 paintings juried into the exhibition, 20 were by non-members; 163 were by members. Among the award winners, 26 were existing Master Pastelists, 47 were Signature Members (9 of whom became MPs), 16 were Associate Members and 8 were non-members.
Thank you ever so much We wish to thank all those volunteers and artists who worked so hard to produce an outstanding and memorable exhibition – the 43rd Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance! Thank you Richard McKinley, Liz Haywood-Sullivan, and, Janet Cook for your artistry. We salute Marla Baggetta, Stephanie Birdsall, Brian Cobble, Helen Kleczynski, and Arlene Richman, the five artists who donated original paintings to our raffle, the proceeds of which will benefit the PSA School for Pastels. We especially thank those of you who purchased tickets to support this worthy cause. We are grateful to Naruki Kukita for his photos of the Awards Ceremony. Thanks also to Peggy Rose for her narrative and observations on Brian Bailey's still life demonstration. We hope you have enjoyed the photographic review of events surrounding this year's exhibition. Read on for a review of Brian Bailey's still life demo on Saturday, September 26th.
Still Life Demo by Brian Bailey PSA-MP Example of an under painting
Brian Bailey, PSA-MP Demonstrates the Still Life We were very pleased to have Brian E. Bailey as our demonstrating artist for this year’s PSA Annual Exhibition: Enduring Brilliance! He was the recipient of the Art Spirit Foundation Dianne B. Bernhard Gold Medal Award for his painting Natura Morta. Last year his painting Unity received the Founders Award given by the Flora B. Giffuni Foundation. Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Brian now paints and teaches in New Jersey. On his website, he states that he uses “the still life genre as a primary vehicle in [his] paintings to depict subtle metaphor regarding nature and its fragility.” Brian likes to work on Rives BFK or other mould-made paper, white or midtone, for enabling clarity and edge control. As a child, he worked with pastel on newsprint, and he now finds that BFK gives him the closest feel to the newsprint he used years ago. He feels it almost never resists, even the harder pastels. He primarily uses Rembrandt pastels (a less soft pastel), with some Schmincke, Sennelier, and Unison used later in the painting process. He notes that while some might think of the Rembrandts as a lesser pastel brand, he feels that in the end it all depends on what the artist brings to the work—there is no magic bullet in art materials. In the day’s demonstration, Brian started with a quick pencil drawing of a strongly spot-lit peach against a simple backdrop before laying a value pattern in a darker shade of ultramarine blue with the side of the stick. He avoids any rubbing in at this stage to maintain more luminosity and depth. He later lightly applied color in the shadows and half tones over the under painting, again with the side of the pastel stick, working dark to light. Later, as the painting developed, he began to blend the pastels “like paint,” and spoke of himself as a “blender” but with a very light touch and is cautious about blending too soon in the painting process. He also noted that he likes to work larger than life—large enough to be able to work with his hands since he enjoys moving the pigment around; he noted again that he only rubs as heavily as he feels he needs to (blending tools lift too much pigment). Toward the end, he continually and carefully re-evaluates how bright or vibrant he needs to be with the pastel. He also enjoys the playfulness possible as he gets the paper to do what he wants after working on it for a while. Brian keeps many journals and even does a lot of sketches in bed in the evening (!), where, he noted, some of his best ideas come to him. To his wife’s chagrin, he also has “lots of scraps of paper around the house,” full of his idea sketches. In speaking of his creative process, he noted he could spend an entire day setting up different still life arrangements. While he may photograph the arrangement to work on later, he works directly from the objects. When incorporating a figure in his composition, he uses several model sessions—for sketching various poses and for adjusting colors. He does use photo references
while the model is absent. In describing his work ethic, he says that he tends not to move once he starts a painting and will paint six hours non-stop, even forgetting to eat. In response to a question about whether he uses other mediums, Brian responded that he used acrylic for his illustration work, later gravitating back to oils, but he prefers pastel. He feels the pastel medium is versatile, tactile—a different feeling from other media. He loves the touch of pastel—nothing offers the touch of pastel—which so lends itself to his connection with his work. “In a controlled way, my work is very expressive.”
