Do you blog about your coloured pencil art?

Sixteen members of UKCPS now have their art blogs featured in the members' blogroll (see side column) of UKCPS News.

If you have a blog which features your coloured pencil artwork and you would like to see it in the UKCPS News blogroll - and gain a link back to your blog - this is what you need to do:

• contact the UKCPS Blogmaster - see Contact Me
• provide the name and URL of your blog and ask for it to be included in the blogroll

If you've just started blogging, it's a good idea to wait awhile before submitting your blog for inclusion so that you can see whether blogging is for you or not. Not everybody wants to continue after the first few posts.

What happens next

• A link to your blog will be included in the members' section of the UKCPS blogroll
• Your blog will also be 'followed' (using the 'follow' function on Blgger Dashboard) by UKCPS News.
  

You can also have a link to your blog included in your members gallery page. You need to contact the UKCPS websmaster to get your page changed - or you can indicate this in your email to me and I will forward your email to the UKCPS webmaster

Any queries - please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll provide an update here of any frequently asked questions that I get.

UKCPS at Art Materials Live

The UKCPS information stand at the Art Materials Live

Earlier this month, UKCPS was at the Art Materials Live at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. This post reports on what happened and provides photographs of the stand and three of the demonstrators

Peter Weatherill demonstrating

UKCPS activities at the NEC helped us to:

• promote coloured pencils as an art medium. The artwork on display and our demonstrators showed visitors the range of different ways that coloured pencils can be used to produce different types of artwork
  
• boost the profile of the Society amongst those visiting the exhibition
  
• increase UKCPS membership - a number of people visiting the stand enrolled for full membership
• identify that Coloured Step by Step Guides (prepared by UKCPS members) are hugely popular with both UKCPS members and other visitors to the stand. Indeed some sold out before the end of the exhibition! They have the potential to generate a lot of revenue and UKCPS is now planning to collect a basic range of these for use and sale by the society. Those still available for sale can now be found on the UKCPS website.
  
• generate a profit after expenses - although the aim of this event was to promote our medium rather than worry about maximizing profit.
• and last but not least, this event enables us to reinforce our relationship with the pencil manufacturers who so generously support and sponsor our exhibitions and events.

Peter Woof demonstrating

Rachel Stirling, the UKCPS Events Manager, comments on our activities this year.

UKCPS has had another successful year at the Art Materials Live show and we have again shown the art world the great variety in artwork which can be produced using coloured pencils.

A big vote of thanks to all who supported the UKCPS this year - demonstrators, workshoppers, sales people and all those members who just dropped by to say "Hi". A particular thank you to those demonstrators who were inexplicably left off the entry list of demonstrators by the ICHF organisers and yet still demonstrated.

We provided a formidable range of work in terms of art on display, demonstrations and activities. I for one am grateful for those demonstrators who put in the hours despite being in a large room full of cut price art supplies! Paper, canvas and prepared boards were all available as supports for work and generated a great deal of interest

We always listen to what people visiting the stand have to say and we received several very interesting ideas and suggestions from visiting Society members.

Members indicated that they would like to have better information at a much earlier stage about which day Demonstrators will be demonstrating so that they can better plan their visits according to their interests. As a result, we'll be working on how we can improve our communication in this respect for next year.

Finally, I'd like to offer my own personal thanks to everyone involved and to all the members who make the UKCPS what it is. Here's looking forward to next year.

Brian Casey demonstrating

Marion Brown exhibits with EAC Over 60s Art Awards

Peaches by Marion Brown
10.5 x 42 x 10.5", prismacolors on white Stonehenge
copyright Marion Brown

Marion Brown's coloured pencil work Peaches has been selected for the 2009 EAC Over 60s Art Awards. The Awards celebrate the talent and creativity of amateur artists who are between the ages of 60 and over 100, and who work in any genre.

Over 2,150 entries were received for the 2009 entry giving this national art competition one of the largest competitive entries in the UK! Only 101 works were chosen giving artists who entered less than 5% chance of being selected - but that's very much on a par with some of national competitions offering major awards!

However the emphasis of the awards is very much on the creativity of older people.

The EAC Over 60s Art Awards were founded by volunteers almost 15 years ago, with the aim of celebrating the creativity of older amateur artists. They are not about winning and losing. Though artists like to have their work exhibited in a London gallery, or receive a prize, all the feedback suggests that that really doesn’t matter. The real joy of the Awards is the unique opportunity they create for older people to demonstrate their continuing capacity to be purposeful and involved, and to enjoy the collaborative venture of entering a national competition.

The first round of judging was based on the submitted reproduced images of artists' work, either jpeg digital files or colour photographs (max A4 size).

If you're interested in entering next year, you can find out more about the 2009 competition here.

Exhibition

Work selected for the exhibition was announced this month. 101 finalists’ works are included in the EAC Over 60s Art Awards exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH, from 2nd - 6th December 2009.

Prizes will be announced and awarded at the Private View on 1st December.

Entrance to the exhibition is free, and hours of opening can be found by visiting the Bankside Gallery website at http://www.banksidegallery.com

See all the Art and Vote online

For the first time since the annual competition began in 1995, images of the finalists’ work have now been uploaded to the Art Awards website. This means that those unable to visit the exhibition can still participate, by viewing a ‘virtual exhibition’. They can also participate in the voting and commenting on their favourite entries.

The winning artist, calculated by overall number of points awarded by over the next three weeks, will receive a new prize, ‘The EAC People’s Choice Award’ at the prize-giving ceremony at the Bankside Gallery, on 1st December.

Click here to visit the 2009 Finalists’ Gallery This also provides details of how the site works and how to vote. You can vote for three works with your first, second and third choices adding three, two and one votes to the score for the works concerned

UKCPS Demonstrators at Art Materials Live

UKCPS demonstrators will be at Art Materials Live - which is at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, from 5th - 8th November 2009. This is How to get to the NEC.

The table below shows you who will be demonstrating each day. The dark space represents days the demonstrators will NOT be there.

Demonstrators		5th Nov.	6th Nov	7th Nov	8th Nov
Peter Woof UKCPS	award winning artist who trained at the Royal Academy Schools
Suzy Herbert UKCPS
Rachel Stirling	working on a portrait using Luminance Pencils
Peter Weatherill UKCPS	using watercolour pencils for a large marine drawing of Polperro harbour
Gayle Mason SOFA	popular feline and wildlife artist; teaching how to do a cat's eye and fur
Jonathan Newey UKCPS	wildlife artist; Presidents Award 2009
Shirley Henderson
Malcolm Cudmore	Highly commended Annual Exhibition 2009; working on large panels primed with acrylic
Diana Connor	demonstrating floral work
Brian Casey	a self-taught artist with a love of motor sport, doing large scale detailed work
Margaret Edwards	Wildlife and feline artist

On Sunday you also have the opportunity to meet Bev Lewis and Pauline Longley on the stand who will be assisting at the show. Various volunteers will also help run the shop, sharpen pencils and generally help keep this major four day event on track.

All of the above simply relates to the UKCPS contribution to the event. If you look at page about the Hobbycrafts and Art Materials Live exhibition on the NEC website you can see the lists of other exhibitors at this event

Kate Clarke wins the People's Vote

The final prize awarded for this year's UKCPS Annual Exhibition is the People's Vote. The criteria is simple - it goes to whoever gets the most votes cast by the public at the exhibition.

231 votes in total were received and over 50 of the pictures hung received at least one vote.

This year the winner was Kate Clarke who also took first place overall for her work Old-timers, One, Two, Free! (see right)

Congratulations to all the artists whose artwork achieved 10 or more votes. The names of the artists, the title of the picture and the number of votes they received are listed below.

Links are to the post in which an image of the work is featured. The two works which have not been previously featured on this blog are displayed underneath the list.

Kate Clarke	Old-timers, One, Two, Free!	15
Suzy Herbert	Under a Pear Tree	13
Irina Garmashova-Cawton	The Old Yard	12
Julie Douglas	Dappled son	11
Neil Houghton	Driver of the Great Marquess	11
Irina Garmashova-Cawton	Sun Trapped Under Water	10
John Hurford	Wistman's Wood Revisited	10
Bev Lewis	Red-ruffed Lemur	10

(left) Dappled son by Julie Douglas
(right) The Old Yard by Irina Garmashova-Cawton
copyright - the artists

[Note: Apologies for the late announcement of this Prize - I've been on holiday!]

AGM reminder & Raffle

A quick reminder that the UKCPS is being held on Saturday 3rd October - see UKCPS Annual General Meeting - 3rd October 2009 for details.

Tickets for a raffle - prizes are two coloured pencil drawings donated by Vera Curnow and Bernard Poulin - are being sold at the gallery amd the tickets for the raffle prizes will be drawn on 3rd October.

A Boy from Cork by Bernard Poulin CIPA

UKCPS Annual Exhibition 2009 - Thanks to......

First and foremost, thanks are due of course to everyone who entered a picture for the competition - both UKCPS members and non-members. It goes without saying that there is no exhibition without all of you!

After the members the next most important person to thank in terms of making the Exhibition happen is Pat Heffer UKCPS, the Exhibition Scretary, who kindly provided me with the notes for the content of this blog post - but not the next few sentences!

Every art society knows that putting on an Annual Exhibition each year is a massive exercise. Planning for each Annual Exhibition starts before the previous one has been taken down. For Pat it starts with first meetings with a gallery, continues through the creation and dissemination of the call for entries, maintenance of lots of administrative records and provision of support to members and non-members who are trying to get their entries right and in on time. Then images and support need to be provided to the three jurors (plus the webmaster and blogmaster!). Plus a team of people need to be recruited and organised who also make very important contributions to making it all happen - as indicated below. Pat is very committed to the exhibition doing well and spends a lot of time each year endeavouring to make sure it is a success.

Of course, as with most official UKCPS activities, nothing happens or moves without the involvement and support of people who volunteer their help in an official capacity, as a member - and even as a spouse or partner of a member!

This year Pat has been ably supported by a number of members and members' partners and below she provides a summary about those who helped. Plus some photos of what's actually involved with getting an exhibition hung and opened which we thought you might like to see.

(left) Ann Massey and Paul Hipkiss organise the hanging of the 8th Annual Exhibition
(right) Ann Massey opens 8th Annual Exhibition

Paul Hipkiss RBSA the Honorary Curator of the RBSA Gallery, opened the gallery up for us a 8.30am and had cups of coffee ready for all the helpers! He provided advice and helped with the hanging in the morning

UKCPS President Ann Massey SWA, KA, CPSA, UKCPS came all the way from Paris and organised the hanging brilliantly with Paul Hipkiss. Ann also opened the exhibition and gave advice to up and coming artists in the afternoon.

Membership Secretary Will Johnson was superb at putting fixings in frames, putting up the alarm system, unwrapping pictures...I could go on forever!

(left) Will Johnson fixing frames for hanging
(right) Dave Richards hanging a picture

Dave Richards as always provided invaluable support for all the exhibition preparation prior to the hang and designed all the labels and the Private view invitations. On Sunday, Dave and his wife Sylvia Richards set off from mid Wales at 6am. Dave is brilliant at hanging exhibitons as we all know from Keswick, and was a fantastic help hanging this exhibition and also helped out all day. Sylvia checked all Dave's labels, sorted all the wrappping, helped with the hanging, put up labels and sold raffle tickets (£136.00 already taken!) - and took a lot of photographs. We could not have managed without these two.

Janie Pirie SBA is a fantastic botanical artist who is exhibiting with UKCPS for the first time. She was brilliant at putting fixings into the backs of frames. Both Janie and her husband John also provided excellent support serving behind the bar.

Rachel Stirling, Malcolm Cudmore and Janie Pirie fix frames for hanging.

Rachel Stirling helped with the exhibition advertising, organisation of the demonstrators, delivery of pictures, the hanging of the exhibition served behind the bar and generally brought a calming influence to the day which was absolutely invaluable! Her son, Daniel Stirling aged 10, also helped all day and was brilliant at packing up vans!

Suzy Herbert UKCPS drove up from Cambridge with her husband Michael. Suzy is a very experienced UKCPS 'exhibition hanger' and worked tirelessly in support of the hanging. She's an amazing lady who is always there when needed and is always able to provide excellent advice.

Lesley Galton left home at 5.30am to get to the gallery by 8.30! She worked hard all day, helped clear up the gallery at the end of the day and was one of the last to leave before driving herself back home. What a star!

Malcolm Cudmore was another first time helper and had never met any of us before but helped all day with the hanging, serving behind the bar and anything else which needed doing.


(Left) Pat and John Heffer - at the Hanging (with John and Janie Pirie)

Last but not least - my husband John Heffer got up at 4am to load up a hired van with 50 pictures, crates of wine and glasses and loads of other bits and bobs needed for the exhibition. He then worked all morning helping to hang the exhibition and was on hand all afternoon to help wherever it was needed. We eventually arrived back home at about 9.00pm having rattled our way home in a very cranky van which then had to be unpacked and returned to its depot.

We did all retire to the restaurant across the road from the gallery for lunch...just to make sure it was OK for the society lunch!

The Private View of the 8th Annual Exhibition

Thanks also to....

• the three jurors who independently reviewed and rated all the entries to the competition.
• Vera Curnow and Bernard Poulin who have donated works to be raffled
  
• the Cumberland Pencil Company (Derwent) the 2009 exhibition sponsors who help UKCPS to exhibit at the RBSA Gallery.
• all those sponsoring the providing awards - Derwent, Faber-Castell, Lyra, Caran d'Ache, Staedtler, Great Art, Legion paper (Stonehenge), Fisher 400; Ann James Massey (Presidents Award) and ex Chairman Peter Weatherill UKCPS (Best Landscape)
• and finally, not forgetting that there would be no exhibition but for the fact that Peter Weatherill UKCPS works miracles getting fantastic sponsorship for the UKCPS exhibition. We would not have been able to use the RBSA without Derwent's sponsorship and the list of awards just get longer every year as Peter persuades yet another manufacturer to come on board!