Tim's Wine Market entries

Well in our last entry we got to see a bit of Tim's Wine Market, and great photos of many of our wonderful FCPS members who either participated in the show, or who came out to the show opening to support our group. It was great seeing everyone last night, and great to see all the artwork. So now for the artwork!

Of course I have many of the usual caveats. All the pictures you are about to see are wonky, tilted, at funny angles...Most of you all know how hard it is to photograph framed pastels because of the glare and reflection of the glass. I tried very hard to avoid glare and reflection, so lots of photos are taken from off sides. The paintings were also hung fairly high to allow for Tim's merchandise below them, so I was shooting up for almost all the photos. I also was not able to get the labels for most of them so can't tell you whose painting is whose for the most part - so you all can have the fun of trying to guess who painted what!

And, despite my best efforts, I apologize to those artists who wound up with flying saucers in the middle of your paintings! There was a lot of reflected light. I tried to go around the room and get pictures of all the art, so again I apologize if I missed your painting. Let me know and I can add it.

And my usual last caveat: Since the photos are so bad you need to make a trip to Tim's Wine Market to see the actual show. It will be up for a month.

Enjoy the show, and buy a bottle of wine while you are there. :-)

Tim's Wine Market

Our non-juried member show opened last night at Tim's Wine Market in St. Augustine Beach. Since it's pretty far from home for me I'd never been there before, but what a great place it was. We were very pleased to be able to have our show there with some 35 of our member paintings.

On first Fridays they hold a wine tasting, and we had our opening. Our paintings encircled the whole room, and while it's clearly a wine store it's also well laid out for the public to stay and browse and enjoy, with plenty of tables and chairs.

Tim's provided fine wines to taste, or to buy for $5 a glass, or of course whole bottles. But our membership came through as usual with lots of great finger foods to enjoy.

 Judging by the camaraderie of the crowd it seems that Tim's gets plenty of of regulars at its wine tasting nights, and they enjoyed getting to sample our goodies too.

There was quite an wonderful turnout, and while food and wine were key there were plenty looking at the artwork as well. And we had quite a great turnout of our own from the FCPS members.

One white and two reds were on hand to sample for the evening, and as the evening came to an end it seemed there had been plenty of folks enjoying their samples.

So huge thanks to Janelle for all her hard work in putting this show on, and thanks to Tish for her help, and thanks to Kathleen for getting all the goodies set up and organized. I don't believe we had any sales last night but the show is up for a month so who knows?

Kingsley Plantation!

 

What:   Plein Air paint-out
When:  January 6. 2018, 9 AM to 1 PM
Where: Kingsley Plantation, 11676 Palmetto Ave, Jacksonville, FL 32226

Wow, Do we have a treat in store for us! I had never been to Kingsley Plantation before until today, and what a gorgeous place it is! It's located on Fort George River up near Little Talbot Island, among stunning low country salt marshes.

 

As you turn off the main road you go miles down a narrow paved road, which then turns into an even narrower dirt road. It's quite remote, but as the park ranger said, its very remoteness was probably what saved it when many other former plantations and older homes were razed to make way for modern development.

But all along the road there are glorious views of the marshes, any of which could probably make wonderful paintings. 

Alas for the most part there is nowhere to park and set up to paint. But as you can see, there is very little traffic so nothing to stop you from pausing to take some reference photos.

But after miles you come to the grounds of the plantation, where the first buildings you see are the remains of the old slave quarters. Kingsley Plantation was one of those old southern estates that relied heavily on slave labor, so much of the history, as now told, revolves around this sad trade.

The estate itself  faces out over the river where it picks up lovely cool breezes coming off the water, a great feature in the pre-AC days.

But if they are *too* cool there are places one can step to break the force of the wind.

And from the grounds there are almost uncounted wonderful spots to set up and paint.

 It appears there was some hurricane damage, but for the most part it all looks safe and restored for visiting public at this time. I think we will have a fabulous time.

A few notes to keep in mind:

1) There are restrooms at the Visitor's Center adjacent to the plantation house, but there are no picnic facilities. I spoke to the park ranger who said we are perfectly free to picnic on the grounds, as long as we don't block the view of the plantation house itself, as of course it's a photo op for many - so if we picnic we would need to bring blankets, folding chairs, etc. Alternately, she told me, we could drive 5 minutes down the road to the Ribault Club which has a public covered picnic pavilion by their boat ramp.

2) Remember, it will be **January**. It was 63 degrees when I was there today, but I quickly felt chilled to the bone from the stiff breezes coming in off the river. We know how trustworthy the long range forecasts are, but as of today the Kingsley forecast for January 6 shows a high of 59, so even chillier than today. So plan to dress warmly! I'm sure right now that I'll be wearing warm socks and my down vest, and maybe even gloves. Keep an eye on the forecast. And the ranger even said there is usually about a 4-5 degree difference just between the riverfront and the parking lot/slave quarters. I could feel it myself. So step away from the river to paint if you are too chilled. 

But I'm looking forward to the day. I can't believe I never was here before. I look forward to going back again in a couple weeks, and in seeing you all there.

Debora Stewart - the new year is here soon

Welcome to December fellow pastelists! Upcoming in January is our exciting workshop with Debora Stewart. Today is our deadline for member-only sign-ups and we still have a few openings available. We will be sending out notifications to non-FPCS art groups now.

Debora is a Signature Member and a Master Pastellist of the Pastel Society of America and a member of the Master's Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies. She is also the author of a Northlight book titled Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media and a series of videos on abstract painting from Northlight TV.

"I teach workshops for artists in abstraction throughout the U.S.  My pastels and paintings are available through galleries in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois." 

Take the mystery out of abstraction and add excitement to your work with a step by step approach to developing abstractions.  Begin by adding excitement to your work with energetic, expressive exercises designed to help you tap into your intuition.  

Then you will move into creating abstract compositions and color studies from a variety of source materials.  Expert techniques to help you develop underlying structure with underpainting and use of pastel ground.   

Next you will take abstract concepts and apply them to realistic subjects like figures, flowers and landscape.  

Become energized!  Discover a sense of adventure and freedom in your work!  The workshop structure includes warm up exercises, demonstrations, short lectures, individual guidance plus some fun group activities.  

Note that the member price is $250 but the non-member price is $285, yet for a mere $30 you can join the FCPS (a payment this month takes you through all of 2018) and get the membership price - a $5 savings.

For $30, you get so much!  First, you get to hang out on a monthly basis with some really great people!  You also have the opportunity to participate in shows sponsored by IAPS and other IAPS-related pastel societies, you get informative meetings with demos and discussions that cover all sorts of pastel/art related topics.  Your membership allows you to be first-in-line for the top notch workshops we offer and it also gives you a chance to participate in our annual Members' Show. 

We have a non-juried member show coming up in January, and our annual juried show later in the spring, and stay tuned for even more info!

Every other month, you'll get the opportunity to plein air paint at various locations around the Jacksonville/St. Augustine area. Wow! That's a LOT for $30!