Reminder: 7th 'A World of Coloured Pencil' Mixed Media Competition 2009

Just a quick reminder that:

• tomorrow - Monday 30th March - is the earliest sending in date for the 7th "World of Coloured Pencil" Mixed Media Exhibition 2009 sponsored this year by Derwent and Leisure Painter.
  
• the closing date for all entries is 16th April 2009.

If you've mislaid your entry form, you can download a formal Call For Entries and Entry Form from the page dedicated to this exhibition on the UKCPS website. The form plus image - in the form of a photo, print or digital file on a CD - should be submitted to Dave Richards (address and contact details are on the Entry Form). All entrants will be contacted and advised whether they have been successful by 30th April.

The key facts about this exhibition are:

• Only UKCPS members can enter (entry is free)
• Each member may only submit one picture.
  
• Work must be original (concept, design and execution by the artist)
  
• Work should demonstrate compositional and drawing skills as well as an ability to use coloured pencils.
  
• Work can be in mixed media so long as coloured pencil is the main medium.

The Exhibition is to be held at The Cumberland Pencil Museum between 31st May and 27th June 2009.

[Update 6th April 2009:
There has been a good response to the call for entries for this exhibition and sufficient entries for the space available have now been received. Confirmation of accepted entries will be announced as soon as possible.]

Info:

• The Cumberland Pencil Museum, Southey Works, Keswick, Cumbria, CA12 5NG
  
  

Richard Klekociuk - Glover Prize finalist

Wholemeal Landscape, Northern Tasmania
90 x 75cm framed (35" x 29.5"), Prismacolour pencils on Canson Pastel Board
copyright Richard Klekociuk

Richard Klekociuk is an international member of UKCPS who lives in the state of Tasmania in Australia. This year, Richard was one of 43 finalists in the Glover Prize - an art competition which has the biggest prize for landscape art in Australia.

The prestigious Glover Prize is the richest landscape prize in Australia. It is awarded each year for the best new (previously unexhibited and less than a year old) painting depicting the Tasmanian landscape. The winner receives $30,000 and a maquette of John Glover
John Glover Prize website

This is the artist's statement which Richard had to submit with his entry, Wholemeal Landscape, Northern Tasmania.

This drawing celebrates the strong bond between bread and the landscape.

Bread is made from grain (and water), which in this case, comes from the fertile areas of Northern Tasmania.

Bread as an object has strong landscape qualities. Its colour, structure and texture, is reminiscent of its agricultural origin and landscape surrounds.

Ancient Egyptians considered bread the “staff of life”.

In Christianity bread symbolises the body of Christ.

We consider bread and water to be the most basic necessities of our diet.

Despite modernisation, the pressures on farming and our environment, we are still able to grow our own food on rich, fertile land.

Tasmania is indeed a special place.

Glover Prize 2009 By artkleko

Richard is a retired art teacher whose artwork has always focused on the Australian landscape. At present he specialises in symbolist landscapes in coloured pencils. You can see more of his work - landscapes and symbolist landscapes - on his website and you can read more about him in his member gallery on the UKCPS website or in his curriculum vitae page on his own website.

Richard's solo exhibition in Launceston, Tasmania opens on April 4 titled "Bread". He intends to post each of 13 drawings (Baker's dozen) on his blog, one each day starting on April 5.

Note: For UK readers AUS$30,000 translates to around £14,250.

Links:

• The Glover Prize
  
• Richard's blog Artkleko’s Weblog (see side column re. member's blogs)
  
• Richard's website artleko - the artwork of Richard Klekociuk

UKCPS Members' Galleries - new pages and new pictures

108 full members of UKCPS now have a gallery page as part of the Members' Galleries section of the UKCPS website.

One of the recent new members' galleries

One of the benefits of joining UKCPS is that you can have your very own webpage in our Members' Galleries, to show your work and promote yourself, your work, shops, cards, etc. - for free.

As new members join and as existing members get their art online, the UKCPS members galleries are updated.

These are links to all the new member galleries and galleries with new pages - why not check them out?

New member galleries

• Tom Douglas - NEW
• Ann Forte - NEW
• Judith Heilbronn-Crown - NEW
• Linda Lis - NEW
• Mike Mountford - NEW

Member Galleries with new images

Other members have updated the images they use on their pages.

• Susan Goodall - NEW PICS
• Janie Pirie - NEW PICS
• Tony Prince - NEW PICS

How to get a member's gallery webpage

UKCPS membership is open to all and the members galleries demonstrate the range of artists who have chosen to be UKCPS members. You can read about professional full time artists who are selling their work and delivering workshops and people who are new to coloured pencils and still learning all they can.

All you need to do to get a member's gallery is to be a full member who has paid their annual subscription. You don't have to be an experienced artist to join UKCPS and many members join to get the support of the society in developing their knowledge and skills in using coloured pencils.

If, as a full member of the UKCPS, you also wish to show your work in the Members Galleries, please send the UKCPS webmaster

• three JPG images of your work (your images should be at least 600 pixels in the largest dimension),
  
• the size of the original pieces,
  
• a biography and and other relevant information
• contact details - including links to your website and/or blog
  
• your membership number.
  

If you are unable to supply a membership number, you will be notified of inclusion once your full membership of UKCPS has been checked.

The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists - and coloured pencils

This year the UKCPS Open International Exhibition will be held in Gallery 2 of the RBSA Gallery in Birmingham which is the home of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA). This post tells you a little bit about the RBSA, its history and current activities - plus Rachel Stirling's latest success in promoting coloured pencil art.

The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists is one of the oldest art societies in the UK.

In 1821, the Birmingham Society of Artists was formed, whose objective was to establish a museum for works of art, provide facilities for students, hold public exhibitions and extend art education in the city of Birmingham.
RBSA - About the RBSA

The RBSA played an important part in the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Sir John Everett Millais and Sir Edward Burne-Jones both served as presidents of the RBSA. Other well known presidents were Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Today there are nearly 200 Members and Associates, elected in categories of painter, sculptor, potter, printmaker, textiles, and jewellery. Members and Associates are elected once a year.

The Society also has a Gallery near the Jewellery Quarter area of Birmingham which is around 15 minutes walking distance of the main stations.

The RBSA invites non-members to enter the three Open and one Prize exhibitions which are held each year in the Gallery. The RBSA also contributes to continuing education and community art through its Friends organisation - Friends of the RBSA - which also has twice-yearly RBSA Friends exhibitions.

Promoting coloured pencil artwork at RBSA

One of the main aims of the UKCPS is to promote coloured pencils as an art medium.

Floral Design by Rachel Stirling

One of the main ways in which members can help with promoting coloured pencils is by entering their artwork in the juried exhibitions of other art societies. The more other artists see and appreciate how coloured pencil can be used as a medium for fine art, the more likely it is that they will give coloured pencils a try!

Rachel Stirling who helped to organise and run the Art Materials Live event last November, had two coloured pencil drawings juried into the RBSA Friends Spring Exhibition which ran 18 - 28 February 2009.

Upcoming RBSA art competitions include the two shows below.

• RBSA Open all media exhibition : 1 - 18 April 2009
• RBSA Prize exhibition : 28 May - 27 June 2009 (this has a grand prize of £1000)

Submission forms and further details are available from the website
Please click on the following THREE links to download the required forms: Schedule, Terms and Conditions, Labels. Alternatively, send in an SAE to request a schedule and we will return one in the post to you. The forms will need to be returned to the gallery by Wednesday 25 March.
RBSA - Home Page

Here's wishing the best of luck to any members who consider entering.

Links:

• the UKCPS Open International Exhibition
• Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
• RBSA - Art Competitions
  
• RBSA Gallery - Locate us
  

Janie Pirie becomes a member of the Society of Botanical Artists

UKCPS member Janie Pirie recently contacted us with some excellent news.

"Yesterday I heard that I have been accepted as a full member of the Society of Botanical Artists. Last June I was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal by the RHS for my work. Most botanical artists use watercolour so it is quite unusual to have someone work in pencils. Ann Swan was the encouragement – we are now good friends."

Sweetcorn by Janie Pirie
coloured pencil
copyright the artist

The above image is one of the five drawings that will be on display for the first time at the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Open Exhibition in April at Central Hall, Westminster in London. It's also one of the five drawings that earned Janie her full membership of the SBA. Janie also says: "...needless to say, they look much better ‘in the flesh’!"

You can see more of Janie's botanical art in coloured pencils on her website.

Janie runs a variety of workshops at her garden studio every Wednesday & Thursday as well as visiting art groups. She also runs workshops at The Beth Chatto Gardens and next month will be holding a 3-day course at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens.

The Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition

The exhibition runs from 4 April to Sunday 3 May 2009 and is open daily from 10am to 5pm including Sundays. Admission is free and all work is for sale.

Details of how to become an Associate Member and how to exhibit with the Society of Botanical Artists is available on the SBA website. It's worth noting that last year's exhibition had more work in coloured pencil than I've seen in previous years.

I've also had two coloured pencil drawings accepted into the same exhibition! I guess there are probably other UKCPS members who have also had work accepted. If so can you please let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing me (see the side column) and I'll look out for your work when I visit the exhibition.