President’s Message and May 2015 Newsletter

Hello Fellow Pastellists,

It’s hard to believe that we are almost into the mid-year, with our thoughts already turning to our Annual Exhibition in August. It has been wonderful to see so many of you bringing your pastels on Monday nights and creating a “warm and fuzzy” buzz around the hall. Let’s keep this momentum going. We are fortunate that many of our top pastel artists attend these nights and give their advice and encouragement so generously. Congratulations to June Payne who won the mat frames and voucher in our first raffle for the year. And while we are talking about winning, it is great to see so many of our members taking off awards and prizes for their paintings in art events around the state – congratulations to you all! (See details later in the newsletter).

Early in the year, we were treated to a very special presentation by Pascale Doumerc who took us on an historical tour through the ages of pastel as an art form. We were all very much the wiser for her beautifully illustrated talk. Thank you Pascale! Our next demonstration will be on June 15th when pastellist and teacher, Caroline Marinovich will demonstrate a cafe scene. Some of you may remember that Caroline was one of the judges at last year’s exhibition.

A very big thank you to Rayma and her team for the recent Unframed Sale at Floreat. Again it was a resounding success with nearly 40 paintings sold. Together with the raffle of Rayma’s beautiful poppy painting, we raised over $500 dollars for our Society. Thank you to all who contributed their time and paintings – this event is becoming an important one in our annual calendar.

It’s time to turn your pastels into beautiful paintings for our Annual Exhibition and sale. It will be held at Sorrento Life Saving Club again on the weekend of the 21st – 23rd August. This year we have made every effort to ensure minimum competition from other exhibitions, particularly in the northern suburbs. We have a reputation now for the quality of our exhibitions so let’s work to make this one of the best we have produced.

Lastly, for those of you, who are yet to indicate your interest in a two-day workshop with Master Pastellist Stan Sperlak next March, please let me know. The first workshop is almost full and we are hoping to be able to offer a second. We will be opening the event to artists outside the Society once we are sure all those members who wish to participate have indicated, so please let us know if you wish your name to be added to the list.

Yours in painting,
Adrianne

Pastel Society of Western Australia Newsletter May 2015