Fountain of Youth plein air day

The FCPS was lucky again today with our weather. We had the first plein air paint-out day of the fall season. Our venue today was The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. The setting is a lovely one, right along the banks of the salt marshes. The day started out a bit cloudy and overcast, but the sun came out later, and there was a wonderful breeze blowing all day - just about perfect!

The grounds were lovely as well, and decorated with peacocks and peahens strutting around. Their plumage was so lovely. What a shame they wouldn't stop to pose for the artists.

In addition to the peafowl there were lots of wild birds making use of the salt marshes also, like this osprey and its kindred who circled above us most of the morning.

There were plenty of choices for setting up to paint though. Painting plein air can require a lot of equipment to be dragged around, so at least there were walkways and level ground to travel across to find that pefect spot.

We had a good turnout of artists, both new folks joining us and folks who have been with us right from the beginning. It's exciting to see new folks though, and see that we are continuing to grow.

As the morning ended many of us came together for lunch, and to share views of some of the paintings we did during the morning.

In addition to the painting he did this morning Richard Lundgren brought along the framed painting he did as a demo on painting water at our fall kick-off meeting on August 26. The painting is being auctioned via a silent auction, with proceeds to go into the FCPS treasury. More about this will be forthcoming, but bids must be in $10.00 increments and, as some folks bid on the painting during the paint-out, the current bid sits at $70.00.

This tree caught the eye of quite a few of us when we were walking around looking for inspiration for our painting, and at least three of us decided that this was what we wanted to paint! For one interpretation of the tree you can see here. 

Upcoming events

We have a lot of wonderful upcoming events for the First Coast Pastel Society. Please make a note of these on your calendar as we look forward to seeing everyone.

Saturday, OCT 13, 9:30~?

Plein Air Painting at the Fountain of Youth

St. Augustine, FL. Your admission is free if you’re here to paint with us! Bring a bag lunch and a drink.

Saturday, NOV 3, 10:00-noon 

General Meeting and demo by Lyn Asselta

“Framing your Pastel Paintings” at ReddiArts, Jacksonville, FL Learn the proper way to frame your pastels using mats, spacers, etc. for shows, galleries or your own walls at home.

Saturday, DEC 1, 10:00-noon

Still Life Painting with FCPS

Join us for an informal session of still life painting. Location to be announced.

December 31

Deadline to register for Workshop with Kathleen Galligan. See below for info

2013 events

February 22,23,24, 2013

WORKSHOP: “A PLEIN AIR EXPLORATION: Letting Go of the Literal” 

with pastel artist, Kathleen Galligan (for info: lynasselta@comcast.net)

This 3-day plein air workshop is an excellent opportunity to help you loosen up your style and take your pastel painting to the next level. Learn to interpret the landscape with an emphasis on color, atmosphere and composition. Don’t miss this opportunity to work with such a talented teacher!! You can see more of Kathleen’s work at www.kathleengalligan.com

October 21,22,23, 2013

WORKSHOP: “FROM PLEIN AIR TO STUDIO”

with plein air artist Michael Chesley Johnson www.michaelchesleyjohnson.com

A Wonderful Opportunity!

For those who saw Richard Lundgren's wonderful demo on painting waves at our August 25th meeting, for those who *didn't* see Richard's demo, but wish they could have .... Here is another opportunity! Richard will be conducting a two-day workshop on "Capturing Water with Pastels" at the St. Augustine Art Association on Saturday and Sunday, November 10-11.

Richard's demo gave us all just a taste of the beauties of capturing water with pastels. Now you can experience a full workshop on the subject. Call 904-824-2310 to enroll, or get more info. Cost is $225 for non-members of STAA and $210 for members. I've already sent in my check!

Fountain of Youth paint-out

Now that the weather is turning milder it's time for our next scheduled FCPS paint-out. Once again we have to modify our date as most of our officers will be unavailable on October 6, which would be our normal first Saturday of the month. Instead we will be holding the event on the second Saturday, October 13.

Our meeting place for this day will be The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine. Their address is 11 Magnolia Ave.  which is on the left side of San Marco Ave. just past the A1A turnoff if you are headed south.

The hours for the Fountain of Youth are 9-5, so we should arrive as close to 9 AM as possible. There is plenty of free parking. You can then bring your supplies in through the main entrance.

They are allowing us in as their guests, so we will be admitted free of charge! Just tell the folks at the entrance that you are with the First Coast Pastel Society.

Lyn tells me that there are wonderful options for things to paint there. There is a tall tower overlooking the marsh, and a replica ship being built on the grounds, and peacocks wandering around as well. There are areas in sun and areas in shade. With 15 acres of grounds to explore there should be plenty of painting opportunities.

On weekends they also fire the cannons every hour! Be prepared. And there will be Native Americans performing that weekend, a great opportunity to paint people in costume.

So bring your paint supplies. Bring hats, bug spray, a picnic lunch. There are picnic grounds where we can meet and eat. I look forward to seeing you on October 13th. I hope we have a great turnout.

Making waves for the fall

August 25th kicked off the first fall meeting for the First Coast Pastel Society. Our normal meeting would have been September 1, but we made a change when we realized that was Labor Day weekend. The change worked well as it was a glorious day for the meeting, and a lovely drive to the library where the meeting was held.

We entered the meeting with  paid 26 members, and added a few new ones at the meeting, so we are still continuing to grow! Pass the word, as anyone who joins this fall will get a membership through the end of 2013. So it pays to join during the next few months!

We had 15 people attend the meeting, which was a treat, as we all got to see our own Richard Lundgren  give a demonstration on painting waves. We have many more photos of his demo so any member who would like to see them can email us at firstcoastpastelsociety@gmail.com and we will tell you how you can see them. But watching Richard in action was a wonderful learning experience.

Lyn told us, at our last spring meeting, how important it was to have your pastel box set up properly, and Richard's box certainly demonstrated how it looks when you have it well done.

It was amazing what Richard was able to accomplish in only 45 minutes., even starting from a drawing already. He worked on the smooth side of Canson paper, which he very lightly sanded. It just shows what you  can accomplish on Canson! And the price for Canson is right too, and it comes in a rainbow of wonderful colors.

This is the painting Richard did for us. It certainly made me want to run right out and start painting waves.

Among other news from the meeting:

Kathleen Galligan  will be conducting our first workshop this coming February. Kathleen has been featured in the Pastel Journal, and been an Artist in Residence for the National Park Service. Check out the link to her website and think about February. Dates will be posted shortly.

Our first show will be held at Reddi Arts in Jacksonville during May/June of 2013. Cost to enter will be $15 for the first painting and $10 for a second. We will have an opening reception early in May on a Sunday afternoon, and participating members will be asked to bring one appetizer. Reddi Arts reserves the right to reject any painting that is not properly framed, and the paintings cannot exceed 36 inches in any dimension. The show will not be juried unless we have too many entries to hang, in which case we may have to turn some aside. It will be judged, however, with excellent merchandise awards being given out.

To give members pointers our November meeting will feature a demo on framing. Stay tuned for the date for  our next plein air get-together as October 6 may not work. If anyone has suggestions for future programs they would like to see please send them to our blog email address.

Among the news our members had to report:

• Adele Horton reported that the plein air paint-out in Cape Canaveral that she has been accepted into will be held this upcoming October.
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• Sharyn Lightfoot and Richard Lundgren both had works accepted into the national juried competition held by the Alabama Pastel Society.
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• Richard Lundgren and Rick Petersen both had works accepted into the Degas Pastel Society's upcoming national show. 
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• Richard Lundgren has also been accepted into the upcoming annual open juried show of the Pastel Society of America. 
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• Lyn Asselta will be teaching a 5-session class on "Painting the Southern Landscape" at the Ponte Vedra Cultural Center, beginning October 31. The class will meet on 5 Wednesday mornings, 9-12, with a week off for Thanksgiving. Contact the Cultural Center for details. 

Kicking off the Fall - August 25

Yay, it's that time of year again folks. We are getting ready to kick off the new season of the First Coast Pastel Society. Normally we would be meeting on September 1 since we meet the first Saturday of the month, but when we realized that was Labor Day weekend we decided to push the meeting ahead a week, and we will be meeting on August 25th instead. The meeting will be held at the Southeast Branch Library in St. Augustine - 6670, US Route 1 South, St. Augustine.  The meeting will be from 10 AM until noon.

The FCPS's own Richard Lundgren will be doing a demo for us. I promise this is something you won't want to miss. It's great to watch Richard.  We hope you all have had a great summer and gotten a lot of painting done. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

We have lots of great things planned for the rest of this year and 2013, including our first show and our first workshops. Come to our meeting to hear all of our exciting plans.

We hope you all like our group's logo as well. It was created to represent our location along the southeast coast of the US, as well as to be simple so that it can easily be seen even if made very small, or if made to be in monochrome colors. We definitely want the southeast First Coast area to get on the map in the pastel world!

June meeting

Our final meeting before the summer break was held this past Saturday at Wendy Tatter's gallery in St. Augustine.  Our president, Lyn Asselta, gave a very educational demo on organizing your pastel box. And, quite incidentally, showed us a fabulous Heilman pastel box.

She stressed that if you use the correct values then color is actually less important, so that it's good to organize not only by color or similar method, but by value also, so that you can pick up almost any color from your box, and and as long as the value is correct it should work in your painting.

We had a good attendance and even had three new members sign up and pay their dues at the meeting on Saturday. We now have 21 paid members which is pretty good for an organization that is only 5 months old. We hope to continue to grow, and have many exciting events upcoming later in the year and in 2013. Workshops, shows ... Come join us!

Member news from the meeting: 

• Adele Horton has been accepted into the Canaveral  Plein-Air paintout, which is only accepting 28 artists.

• Debbie Cusick, Lisa Fiore and Richard Lundgren all have paintings in the annual Honors Show at the St. Augustine Art Association and not only that, but Richard's painting won Best in Show! Not only is the award well deserved for Richard, but it's a great spotlight on our beloved pastel medium as well.

• Richard will also be teaching an upcoming workshop in Bucks County, PA, Sept. 7-9, with a theme of painting water. I wish he would teach it here too! Or at least consider doing a demo for us. :-)
• Lyn Asselta has an upcoming show at the First Street Gallery in Neptune Beach, with opening reception on Friday, June 22, 7-9 PM.

 (artwork by Kim Daniel)

To close out our meeting we did something that was a lot of fun, and I hope we can repeat in the future. We had a painting exchange. Ten member brought in wrapped paintings which were each assigned a number, and we then drew numbers from a basket to see whose painting we would go home with.

Luckily no one drew their own painting, LOL. And we all got mementos of small artwork from other FCPS members. I hope we can do an exchange again like this, maybe at Christmas time.

Note: If any artists would like to send me information about news or shows please email me with the information and I can post it on the blog!