*IMPORTANT* - March meeting and member show

What: First Coast Pastel Society meeting
When: Saturday, March 1, 10 AM to 12 noon
Where: Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra Beach

If anyone plans to participate in our upcoming juried member show in May please read on carefully. Requirements are different  from previous shows.

Entries submitted for the spring member show will be juried and accepted into the show based strictly on JPG images submitted on CD. If you are not comfortable with this process then read on, the March meeting may be just what you need:

The program for our March 1 meeting at the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra will feature Pablo Rivera (photographer) and Susan Picket (graphic artist). They will demonstrate photographing paintings for entering shows or website display.  Pablo will begin by discuss his approach to photographing art. He will then photograph one of our member's paintings. Susan will then use the memory card, with these photos, to demonstrate how she prepares photos for entering competitions, websites or other uses. During this time Pablo will continue to photograph member's work. This is a great opportunity to have some of your work photographed by a professional photographer and artist. You are encouraged to bring up to 3 (unframed paintings) to be photographed.  

This year, we will jury paintings for our Juried Members Show from photos submitted on CD. As our membership grows and we have more members outside our immediate area, it becomes necessary to have paintings juried by photos on a CD similar to what other pastel societies do. The March 1, meeting at the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra, will give you an opportunity to learn to do this yourself and if you like to have up to 3 of your paintings photographed for our Juried Members Show.

So get busy painting and work ready to be photographed at our March 1 meeting. To have work photographed, members need to sign up, in advance, so we have an idea of how much time to allow. You can sign up by emailing Lyn Asselta to say you are interested. Once we know how many are interested in getting photographs of their work, we can better plan the time needed for Pablo and Susan. There will be no charge to members to have their paintings photographed, however, we may have to charge a small fee for the CD disk and mailing. Below is a copy of the prospectus for our Juried Show at the Cultural Center. In addition, this show will continue at the Larimer Arts Center in Palatka. Read all about it in the Prospectus.

The prospectus is available online here at our blog. :Look to the right under "FCPS Website" just below the PayPal link. You can bring it from here if you choose.

Ravine Gardens

For two years the First Coast Pastel Society has been lucky on our scheduled paint-out days. But today the weather odds caught up with us. Although temperatures had warmed up some since earlier in the week it was still raw and cool and rainy today.

Which left us all wondering about the best place to set up and paint, as we took shelter under a picnic pavilion.

Some of us did stroll around the grounds, and took photos for possible reference images.

In the end most of us decided to set up in the picnic pavilion where we had a sturdy roof, and were able to look out over the misty landscape.

And despite the weather we had twelve hardy souls who showed up to paint with us today.

And the pavilion was large enough to give us multiple different vantage points for our paintings.

As one participant said, "At least we don't have to worry about constantly shifting light and shadows." :-)

Because of the weather there were few other folks in the park, and we were able to spread out and take over whole picnic tables for ourselves.

Or one could stand right at the very edge of the covered roof to get a more detailed look at the outdoor views.

And here are a few quick looks at some of the works done, in varying stages of completion.

The gray day didn't prevent us, as artists, from using a richer color palette.

But even the subdued hues of the day could make amazing art.

Man-made objects could add a splash of colors also.

As could some of the lush greens.

Sadly the azaleas had not bloomed very much, so we didn't see the park in all its glory. But it was still a great visit. And two of our members even ventured further into the park to take shelter under a gazebo and paint from there.

Next month we meet in Ponte Vedra on March 1. This will be an amazing meeting so stay tuned here for details about the meeting, and important information about our upcoming juried member show whose entries are due April 1.

One important thing to keep in mind: Our spring member show will be juried via JPG IMAGES ON CD. Stay tuned.

Ravine Gardens - coming up!

What: Plein Air paint-out

When: Saturday, February 1, 2014, 9 AM to 1 PM

Where: Ravine Gardens State Park, Twigg St., Palatka, FL

It's February, and folks here in Florida can be out plein air painting!  Okay, though if the last week or two is any indication we may well need our long underwear and gloves, LOL.  But our plan is to meet next Saturday at Ravine Gardens State Park, a small gem in our state park system, located in Palatka. A ravine runs through the park, and there is a loop road that circles the ravine from above, and will offer us many options for plein air painting.

Various spots along the road offer spectacular views down into the ravine itself.

Ravine Gardens is one of the centers for the annual Azalea Festival, scheduled this year for March 1-2. However the azaleas are already starting to bloom, so there should be even more of them brightening up the landscape by next weekend.

There are a number of decks along the roadway that offer great spots to set up an easel and look down into and around the ravine for inspiration.

For the adventurous and hardy there are hiking trails down into the ravine itself.

Lots of opportunity to view wildlife also, as well as many birds singing in the treetops.

If you like to include man-made elements in your landscape there are picnic tables, suspension bridges over the ravine, and wooden bridges over ponds and streams.

Though if you choose to paint at the water you better keep an eye on your surroundings!

At the entrance of the park, at the far left in this photo (pretty hidden I admit, but I didn't get a good shot) is a large covered pavilion and picnic area, and there is plenty of parking. The locations around the loop road all have limited parking, not enough for all of us. So this pavilion is a great spot for us all to gather around noontime or so, and have lunch together, and share our paintings of the morning if we choose to do so.

As long as we've all made the trip to Palatka we should make a detour down to River Road, and see some lovely old Victorian homes.

And stop and see the Larimer Art Center,  home of the Arts Council of Greater Palatka. Not quite Victorian, but this building is also historic, built in 1929.

This is where our spring member show is going to travel to after it leaves its original location at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach. 

The Larimer is close to the historic St. Johns River, which is another plein air opportunity right there, if anyone chooses to make a day of it. I hope to see lots of you there.

January

Well the First Coast Pastel Society is now two years old. We had our first official meeting in January 2012. We've done a lot in the last two years - we are now a member of IAPS, we've had two member shows (one juried and one open to all), we've hosted workshops with Kathleen Galligan and Michael Chesley Johnson. We have an upcoming workshop with Casey Klahn and another juried member show.

Alas, your faithful blogger, however, had an issue at home that prevented me from attending the kickoff meeting for the year, so I've had to rely on comments from other attendees about the meeting, and our topic of discussion: : "Paint what you love or pain to sell?"

So some impressions from the meeting:

About 12-15 paintings were examined. Suggestions made mostly about frames, matting to encourage sales. Found that everyone raised their hands when asked if they painted for pleasure. Discussed pricing particularly area pricing. Our area is lower than other parts of country. Stories shared. We said we needed more discussions of marketing.

We noted that pricing is very regional. Do we undersell ourselves?

Do we sell low to keep work moving?

Do you paint for potential sales, like giving donations for charities, piece to friends?

100% said we paint what we love, not what sells.

We all said we paint more to get recognized than to make a living (very hard!!!)

Lyn suggested that if we get posts from PSA painters and see something we like, go to their website and see how they price things.

Make decisions about who is your market

Possibly offer prints as a lower cost alternative. Carron is attending an event on Tuesday and will get info about getting prints made.

We discussed what can legitimately be called a "giclee"

Lyn suggested we get a "thick skin" regarding people's comments about our work.

Discussion of framing for a gallery vs a juried competition. Show framing is different from gallery framing. What is your objective? Richard McKinley says the frame is “the dressing on your painting”.

Mat and frame should not be same width. If you do not use a mat, use a wide frame.

Stay tuned to this space for more details about our upcoming plein air day at Ravine Gardens State Park in Palatka, our interesting March meeting, our workshop with Casey Klahn, and our member show in May!

Upcoming in January

What:    First Coast Pastel Society meeting
When:   Saturday, January 4, 2014, 10 AM to 12 noon
Where:  Southeast Branch Library, 6670 U.S. 1, St Augustine, FL 32086
              (easy access from I-95 exit 305)

Wow folks. Here we are headed into 2014. Come join us as we celebrate our 2nd birthday! Our meeting this Saturday will be at the St. Augustine Southeast Branch Library which is easily accessible at the intersection of Route 1 (Dixie Highway) and 206 - exit 305 off I-95 if that is the route you take.

The meeting should be a fun and though-provoking one, with a round-table discussion about the topic:

Art: "Painting What you Love vs. Painting What Sells"

We'll be having a lively discussion on this topic! Please bring along a painting that you thought would sell but hasn't, or one that you really love but that you feel hasn't gotten the attention you thought it deserved.

Speaking of selling our work, we just took down our show at Gallery 26 in Melrose yesterday. Our show was a great success. The women from the gallery said it was the first pastel show they had ever put on, and it got rave reviews from customers, some of whom said it was the best show the gallery had ever had. The women from the gallery all want to take pastel lessons now.

And we sold *five paintings* which they told me was the most paintings they had ever sold from a single show, so great work FCPS. Special congratulations go to our selling artists: Perry Russell, Lisa Fiore, Linda Hart Green, and Steve Johnson - who sold TWO paintings.

(one of Steve Johnson's paintings which sold)

December brunch and still life painting

It was our last meeting of the year, with Christmas looming on the horizon, and yet the temperatures made it feel as though summer had returned. However we all still had holiday spirits as we gathered for our second annual holiday brunch and still-life painting session. This year we met at the Art Studio in St. Augustine Beach.

The Art Studio is located right on the beach! And it has plenty of free parking to boot. It was a perfect spot as it lent itself to outdoor plein air painting as well as the indoor still lifes.

Once again our President, Lyn Asselta, outdid herself with the wonderful feast she laid out for us - quiche and breads and fruit. All yummy. A special treat were the tangerines that Kay Deuben brought from the tree belonging to Jimmy Blackwell. Jimmy is a faithful attendee at our meetings but was hospitalized this week with pneumonia. We all signed a card for Jimmy, and we send him our love and prayers and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

We had a great turnout for the meeting and even had to scurry around for more chairs when it came time to sit down for brunch.

There was certainly more than enough for everyone to get their fill of food to fortify themselves for the painting session to follow.

Vice President Richard Lundgren and Treasurer Rick Petersen provided two different still lifes for members to choose between.

This is the still life that Richard set up.

And this is the still life that Rick set up. 

After brunch we had a break, and then got down to painting. Though with the weather so nice two of our members decided to go outdoors and paint. And who can blame them? But the rest of us enjoyed painting in the studio.

I'm not sure I got shots of everyone's paintings. I know I didn't see what the two outdoors painters did. Marie and Steve - I hope you will share what you did with us!

But here are shots of many of the paintings, all in various states of completion of course. It would be lots of fun to see them all as finished works.

These first two deserve special recognition because they are both TINY, done on supports that were only about postcard sized. Wow, amazing to get such great detail in such small spaces.

And here are shots of many of the rest, all done on more "normal" sized papers.

Happy holidays and Happy New Year everyone. We look forward to seeing you all again in January 2014. As always, stay tuned here for more details.