Some more bits

Richard Childs - "Out to Grass"

Richard is doing particularly well at present - his image "Out to Grass" has just won First place in the latest "From my Perspective" show run by Ann Kullberg, against some really stiff competition by famous CP artists, and has also been chosen by the Michael Elliott Trust "Freshfields" Donkey Sanctuary to help in their fund-raising. Richard will be at a Christmas Show at Buxton, Deryshire, for the Sanctuary, on December 13th, along with several donkeys - and Rolf Harris.

Other bits - another stockist of Prismacolor pencils has surfaced, from amongst our own members. Sonia Bowmar-Scothern, of 1buy1 Pencils based in Northampton writes:

I have the whole colour range of Prismacolor premier pencils in stock at the moment and have just started to sell a few Prismacolor Verithins. I have a few Karisma pencils listed on ebay also and over 100 (at a rough guess)not listed plus around 50 on their way. I also have a few coloured pencil art books listed and on order. Titles include Coloured Pencil Pocket Palette and the complete Colored Pencil Book. I can also get Prismacolor sets at a very good price

Her (low-budget) website is here and her e-bay page is here.

Next, some more good news from Derwent. I have been involved in the development of a new accessory that Derwent will be releasing on September 1st - their very own battery-operated eraser. I can honestly say that I like this a lot, it has a long chunky eraser that can be shaped, a powerful motor, a good carrier system that is not too fiddly to get at and lots of replacement erasers. The price is right too, at a RRP of £2.99p, with 30 replacement erasers for £0.99p. I think this one will fly off the shelves!

Finally, we just wanted to say how pleased we are about the entries for this year's Exhibition. We have had entries from almost 50% more artists, from 11 countries, and the total number of entries are 30% up on last year. Should be good news for the quality of the Exhibition! Great thanks are due to Pat Heffer, who has almost nursed some artists through our submission procedure, even going to the extent of ironing creases out of entries! This should not have been neccessary, but we do thank her for her "above and beyond the call of duty" efforts. The entries will be very soon with the judges. Best of luck to all!

Some Winners - and a Competition

Yes, I know you have seen it before, but I never get tired of looking at it, and apparently neither does David Shepherd - because "Hope of Sepilok" by our very own Richard Childs has just won the "Wildlife Artist of the Year" award from the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Many congratulations to Richard, for winning this prize in the face of strong competition from all other media - a real push for him in particular and CP in general. The photo below shows Richard receiving his prize from David Shepherd along with those well known artists Alan Titchmarsh and David Gower.



And yes, the Executive do realise that under our proposed new rules for exhibition entry for 2009, this picture would be excluded, as it is based on a reference photograph that Richard did not take himself. Obviously this takes nothing away from Richard's tremendous achievement, and we look forward to what he can do under our more stringent, but ultimately fairer rules in future.

Also congratulations to founder-member Gary Theobald, who has a two page feature in this months Artist & Illustrator magazine (August, No 263). Gary's Gallery in Haverhill is still the only one in the country committed to promoting coloured pencil work, and of course is worth a visit if you are in the area.

And finally a competition worth entering and supporting. The website My Arts Space is running a competition in conjunction with The Cumberland Pencil Museum for images for a 2009 calendar. They ask that images submitted should be in pencils or pastels, and show some aspect of the Lake District. The closing date for entries is the end of June, though voting for entries goes on to the end of July, and so far entries are a) sparse to say the least and b) many do not conform to the rules! So we have a good chance of getting some pictures published here! Even if you don't enter, you could visit the gallery of entries and vote for the ones submitted by our members Sue Clinker and Judith Crown. Thanks to Judith for bringing this to my attention.

More bits

It is a case of waiting until several mickles mak a muckle often! Here are three mickles that have come my way recently.

Paper People, based in Crediton, Devon, are one of the few suppliers of Prismacolor pencils in the UK, and the only one that I know of that can even offer singles. I have used them myself, so can recommend them. They also stock many other pencils, including Derwent, Faber Castell and Caran d'Ache. Go to "Coloured pencils 2" to find the Prismacolor, which are listed under "Karisma".

Aesthetica magazine have asked us to publicise their latest competition which is for artworks, poetry and fiction. The submission fee is £10 for five items and the prize is £500, so over to you if you want to take part.

Alyona Nickelsen, well known for her fabulous CP work and the author of "The Colored Pencil Painting Bible" due out in the Winter of 2008, has a new Online CP School that will open in Spetember, and is signing people up now. Alyona says:

There, we will present a variety of courses that will lead you through all of the detailed steps that we think will open new Colored Pencil Painting vistas previously available only after sitting through sometimes scores of Art Workshops. Our school is modeled on the atelier method of the Masters mixed with modern tools of the Internet never dreamed of in the Victorian age. If you are ready for a blast of new information on a timeline you can deal with then this completely different school is for you. The classes officially start September 1, 2008. This is perfect time to enroll and take advantage of ourlow introductory price (limited time only).

OK - more muckles as and when they come my way. Remember:

Closing Date for entries for UKCPS Exhibition: July 9th

HM Queen opens new Derwent Factory

HM the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh opened the new Derwent pencil factory at Lillyhall Business Park, Workington, on June 5th - and got a lovely box of pencils for their trouble! Sorry it has taken me a while to get the pics of this up, but Patchings Art Festival was extremely tiring for me. Anyway, many congratulations to our friends at Derwent for such a prestigious opening, and for having a brand spanking new factory where they can produce even more wonderful pencils for us. One good point about the day from our perspective was that Her Majesty was introduced to at least one of our members - David Cook.

More pics on the Derwent site.

The Patchings Festival was very successful for the Society, mainly due to the efforts of Peter Weatherill, again, who made very useful contacts with our friends at Caran d'Ache. They had a special team over including their chief chemist, Eric Vitus, who was giving technical talks each day. Wish I could have gone! But it was also great to see many members, including Janet Pantry, Judith Waugh, Will Johnson, and probably loads of others. By Sunday I was kind of bleary!

I hope you are all now working hard to get your entry for this year's Exhibition finished - you have less than a month!

6th Annual "World of Coloured Pencil" Exhibition

Karen Coulson, UKCPS, "Friend or Foe"

Winner of the Derwent Award for Best in Show

Just a heads up that the online version of the 6th "World of Coloured pencil" Exhibition is now available here. The real thing can be seen at the Cumberland Pencil Museum, Keswick for the whole of the month of June, so please if you are in the area, drop in and enjoy. Many thanks to Dave Richards and all of the other members who helped set this up on what I believe was a wet Sunday in Keswick!

Congratulations to Karen Coulson, winner for the second time of the Best in Show at this Exhibition. This time her prize, kindly donated by Derwent, consists of:

1) Deluxe set of Inktense in wooden presentation box which includes 24 Inktense pencils, 3 ink sticks, 3 natural hair Chinese brushes, a slate ink stone, a traditional blue and white ceramic brush rest and a project sheet.

2)A wooden box containing 72 Coloursoft pencils

3) A book on Chinese brush painting

4) An A4 hardback sketch book

5) A silk collection journal

6) A pencil wrap

7) A limited edition pencil set in a leather box

8) A burnisher and blender set

9) A 2 hole pencil sharpener

10) A water brush

Well worth winning or what?

And congratulations to our friends at Derwent, as their new premises at Lillyhall Business Park, Workington, will be opened by HM the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on June 5th - read more about the visit here. But this also leads to our commiserations to the large Sales team who will unfortunately not be present as they have to man the Derwent stand at the Patchings Festival which starts that day.

I have not been invited to meet the Queen either, so see you at Patchings!

Patchings Festival, 5th-8th June

A snapshot of my stand last year at the Patchings Farm Arts Festival, which this year will be held on June 5th - 8th. The UKCPS will be strongly represented there this year, with Robin Borrett having his own stand again, and Peter Weatherill demonstrating for Caran d'Ache, so please come along and see us and take time for a chat.



As I write this, it is raining. This is NOT Patchings weather! usually it is so hot the pencils melt! I hope it sorts itself out in time for Thursday.

Keswick Exhibition and other bits.

Just a reminder that this year's "World of Coloured Pencil" Exhibition opens on June 1st at the Cumberland Pencil Museum, Keswick, thanks to our friends at Derwent. In case you are worrying, while Derwent have moved their production facilities to new premises, the Museum still stays at the old site at Keswick, and the Exhibition is on there for the whole of the month of June. Pat and John Heffer, Dave Richards, Eric Armstrong and the ever-present Suzy Herbert will be setting the Exhibition up on Sunday 1st June, and I am sure they will be delighted to see any members who wish to drop in and help or just say "Hi". Having seen the scans of the 23 entries, I can say how impressed I am with the overall standard this year and I am sure all visitors to the Museum will be delighted with the show.

Other news - thanks to Roger Harris for pointing us to a new supplier of Prismacolor pencils in the UK - Refuelled.com, who are selling sets of 132 Prismacolour for £105, excellent value.

And with apologies for being a day or so late telling you, Ann Kullberg has a sale on at present with up to 40% off many items - but it ends May 26th, so get in there quick!