President’s Message and September 2015 Newsletter

Hello PSWA Colleagues,

Congratulations to all the members who contributed their paintings, time and multiple talents to making our 2015 PSWA Exhibition such a success! This year saw the largest number of members entering the largest number of paintings. Despite the current economic climate and the inclement weather, we exceeded our 2014 effort both in the number of paintings sold and the total value of sales. In addition, if our door prize is any indication, we had a substantial number of people attending over the weekend of the exhibition. All in all, a great effort by everyone. Our Guest Speaker, Mr Luke Simpkins, Federal Member for Cowan, was well-received on Opening Night, providing an entertaining speech and presenting our awards. Congratulations to the well-deserved winners – the details are provided later in this newsletter. Thank you also, to all our sponsors who make these awards possible. Comments from the general public who attended indicate that the PSWA continues to provide a high quality exhibition, both in the standard of paintings and their individual presentation, and in the overall layout and display.

In July, we were presented with an informative and interesting demonstration by local artist and teacher Caroline Marinovich. Her demonstration was peppered with many useful tips and unique approaches to pastel painting which kept us all involved. The newsletter describes her demonstration in more detail.

Our Society continues to grow with well over 100 members. An exciting new initiative is the development of a “south-of-the-river branch” of the PSWA, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of our new member Deb Weber, who both suggested and initiated this group. It reminds us that we are truly a state-wide group, representing pastellists from all over WA. The number of enthusiastic inquiries we handled at the exhibition about this new initiative bodes well for its future. Details about the group, and meeting place and times are provided later in the newsletter. Please spread the word to any who might be interested in joining this group. All will be members of the PSWA. Our thanks go to Deb for her commitment and enthusiasm in getting this initiative up and running.

Our other exciting initiative – the visit of Master Pastellist Stan Sperlack in March 2016, is well on track and in the next weeks we will be spreading the word outside the Pastel Society and asking for a definite commitment from those interested in attending one of his workshops. So if you want to be listed for a workshop, do it soon! Many thanks to Margaret Verge and her husband who have kindly agreed to host Stan during his stay. Check out the finalised details and dates in this newsletter.

Now that our Annual Exhibition is over, we can all settle back into the lovely, relaxed painting groove on Monday nights in our bright and warm surroundings. Let’s keep the Monday buzz going!

Yours in painting,
Adrianne Kinnear

Pastel Society of Western Australia Newsletter September 2015