Juried show winners

We were lucky with the weather for our annual juried show at Ponte Vedra this year, and it was a wonderful occasion to be handing out awards.

We had a really nice turnout of folks who came to the reception, and of course, as usual, all our food was outstanding. Our members really do a great job in providing wonderful refreshments for our receptions.

We were so fortunate having Kathy Detrano as our judge and juror this year. She did a great job but also provided thoughtful commentary on why she made the selections she did. Thank you Kathy for all your hard work.

So following are all our award winners with Kathy's comments - except for the People's Choice award as that was selected the night of the show.

People's Choice:

Christine Corcoran - Afternoon Meadow

Judges's Choice Award

Carron Wedlund - Mad River Valley Detour

"Interesting compositional arrangement of subtle diagonals, restrained detail that suggests rather than dictates. The pinks, goldish orange and muted dark blue green counterbalance the dominance of green that must have been there in the actual scene."

Signature Member Award (a new category for 2019)

Rick Peterson -  Cattails 4

"This painting is a delightful gift to the eye…a small amount of well-executed detail against calming places for the eye to rest. The eye darts to a bit of detail but then retreats to the quiet, where it is energized to find another place of interesting detail. This painting encourages the viewer to ‘breathe’ and let the soul ‘rest’."

Merit Awards:

Betsey Hogan - Tucked Away

"A landscape with the feel of a mosaic relying heavily on the secondary colors to create a sense of harmony and peacefulness. Interesting layering of pastel with texturing used to create interest and move the eye around the painting…and the yellow sky makes me smile."

Janice Jackson - Sun Jumping

"A cleverly planned and executed use of pastel to portray a mosaic. For those of us who love puzzles, we are held there searching to find the figures hidden in the mosaic design. And the framing becomes part of the portrayal. Note that this painting relies heavily on fully pigmented colors and this that works well in this context."

Keri Keene - Misty Morning Pasture 

"A low horizon landscape…simple palette but the slightly muted background trees is aerial perspective done well; the use of the muted peach color in the sky and in the grass as a counterbalance to the green works very well; the lost and found edges of the fencing are wonderful, and who could not relate to the horse with the same muted peachy nose?"

Janelle Wagoner - Returning

"High horizon composition gives space for the treatment of the sand dune in the foreground. Masterful blues and violet shadows are the star of the show….the greens are subdued and do not try to hog the stage; the sea oats add texture and the distant red roof is a delightful way to bring the eye around the composition, teasing it away from the strong shadows of the foreground."

Third Place:

Paula Pascucci - Woman in Sunlight

"Unusual offset composition that catches attention; a well-executed facial image which is so important, but the use of purple against blue to portray the hair is a brilliant departure from the predictable color."

Second Place:

Renee Faure - Yellow Tree

"Simple high horizon composition, masterful use of texture and color to portray the foreground. The turquoise carries the day, with the violet in the distance as the finishing touch."

First Place:

Helen Anderfuren - Only One

"At first a mysterious landscape full of abstraction and simple suggestion, very well done. It draws you in for a closer look…and then you understand! The title says it all."

Best in Show:

Corinne Samuels - Taking Talmadge

"The unusual composition, the restrained palette and the simple portrayal of figures are the perfect combination for the star of the show….the rain and wind soaked plastic poncho….masterful treatment of light! The white elastic hat band is a nice touch."

Congratulations to all our winners! Next up the remainder of our wonderful show. 

Don't forget tomorrow night

What:     Juried member show reception
When:    Friday, May 3, 6-8 PM
Where:  Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach

Tomorrow is the big night.  It's the reception for the show we've been thinking about for months! It seems such a long time ago that we had to have our entries in. Even a long time ago when we got our acceptance or rejection notifications.

But now the time is here. The receptions at Ponte Vedra are always awesome. Come see the show, come see the awards ceremony, come enjoy the refreshments. Come vote for your People's Choice award painting. Come see your works if you got paintings into the show, and come look anyway even if you didn't get paintings into the show. The paintings are always so amazing. I love this show every year.

we painted indoors

We had a small turnout in April but it was great to see those who came, and were welcomed by President Carron Wedlund.

And got updates on our upcoming juried member show from show chair Janelle Wagoner.

Those who were there had a great time, and we did something different this time. We all painted together but we painted various things. We did have a couple still lifes set up, but people were also encouraged to bring their own still lifes or reference photos to work from and many did. So we had quite a variety of paintings. It was fun.

And Psst, I'm going to tell you a secret. Don't tell anyone I told you this. This is my favorite way to paint, all together in a studio with a group of other artists. I love this way more than plein air and I wish we could do it more often.

Because of time constraints most of our works were more quick studies than finished masterpieces, LOL. If I missed your painting I'm sorry, but these are the ones I managed to get photos of. 

Enjoy and see you all soon for more painting fun.

Back to Dutton Island!

What:    Plein Air Paint-out
When:   Saturday, May 4, 9 AM to 1 PM
Where:  Dutton Island Preserve

For our upcoming plein we are returning to Dutton Island Preserve in Atlantic Beach, up near Mayport. Those of us who attended our last plein air event here enjoyed this absolutely beautiful location, with amazing salt marsh views:

Their own website says:

"Dutton Island is a passive park that consists of 9,000 feet of nature trails, a fishing and viewing pier, a canoe/kayak launch, picnic areas, pavilions, camping areas (reservations required), and parking" 

I don't think we'll be camping or canoeing! However all those nature trails lead to many wonderful spots to set up an easel.

If you are a fan of water views, as I am, you will not be disappointed. 

You will have plenty of options. 

We usually break around 11:30 or so to share a meal, and have a "show and tell" of our morning's work, so please feel free to bring a picnic lunch to join us.

Painting indoors together

Our next general meeting is coming up on April 6th at 10 AM. We're doing something a little different this time, with an indoor group painting session. Members are encouraged to bring in their own still life setups to paint from, or reference photos of their choice. We'll just have fun being together, and maybe developing a little synergy from a group of artists all working together.

It's always fun to see what other folks are working on! Just taking a break to walk around and see what everyone else is up to can be very inspirational. We hope you'll enjoy this opportunity to do this.

And if the weather cooperates, as we hope it will, we plan to set up a still life outside in the courtyard that folks can work from as well. See you all there.

Juried show entries!

The Juried Show deadline is almost upon us! March 10 is the deadline, just two days away. Have you submitted your artwork yet? Have you even PAINTED your artwork yet?? If not you still have two days to go. The entry window doesn't close until midnight on the 10th so plenty of time to get painting. With my own life so discombobulated over the last months I've had almost no time to paint, and certainly no time to paint anything I was truly happy with, LOL. But I did finally enter three pieces in the show just this morning. Even if none of them make the cut I wanted to participate and support the FCPS. I hope you all will too.

This is always a beautiful show at the Cultural Center. It's definitely not one to be missed, and we are so fortunate to have Kathy Detrano as our juror and judge.

Don't forget, to enter the show you go to the Show Submit page. The trickiest part is sizing your images correctly, but all the information is there at Show Submit and once you get your images sized the rest is a snap. If anyone is having problems please feel free to reach out for help. We'd love to see a lot of our members represented in this show.

March plein air

 The temperatures were not bad last Saturday, but it was definitely rather gray and gloomy. I was certainly hoping the rain would hold off for a few hours though so some painting could take place.

But as it turned out there was a very minimal turnout. I looked all over the park and only found the intrepid Pat Mahoney painting.

I had my granddaughter with me and at least that was one more person painting, though she was using colored pencils rather than pastels. However about 10:30 AM the rain started. I didn't even get to talk to Pat except to say hello as he packed up and left. My granddaughter and I went under the covered picnic pavilion by the playground and continued to paint for a bit. But eventually we decided to head home.

But we ran into Sylvia as we were leaving. She was just arriving but I'm not sure if she painted anything. But as we got to the parking lot we had a big surprise. Steve Johnson was there with his dog Maggie. Most of us "oldtimers" remember Steve and were sad when he moved away, but he's now back in the area. He's keeping a low profile for now as he does some work on his house, but we hope he'll be back with us soon. He was painting some old buildings on the edge of the park, and his work was wonderful as always.

I didn't get to see Pat's painting but I'm sure it was wonderful too since Pat is definitely a plein air master. It's a shame more people didn't come since Spring Park is such a lovely spot. Here is a bit of this morning's works.

UPDATE: Sylvia actually did do a painting from her car despite the rain. Way to go! And Apparently Janelle and Betsey were there too until driven away by the rain. Somehow I missed them when I did my pass through the park. So not the best of plein air turnouts but we did have a few who braved the gloomy skies.