Anyone bound for Paris soon?

The UKCPS Chairman, Barbara Murray, has recieved an email from Elizabeth Patterson, a member of the Coloured Pencil Society of America [CPSA], who writes:-

"Hello Barbara,

Hope this email finds you well! I am a member of CPSA from Southern California and wanted to contact you because I will soon be arriving in Paris for a month long stay. I am hoping that I might have a chance to meet some of your members. I don't know that I will be leaving France during that time, but perhaps some of your members live there? I was in contact with Ann Massey some months ago, but it appears she is no longer an officer, hence my email to you.

The reason for my trip is a solo exhibition at Galerie Louis Carre' & Cie which is opening Thursday, Jan 26th. I would like to have the gallery send an invitation to your chapter, but do not see an address. I got the impression that your membership is spread across a rather large geographic area, so I understand if no one can meet with me or come to the opening, though I would be so happy to see ANYONE from UKCPS there, as I will know few people! This is only my second solo exhibition and as the time draws near, I am getting quite nervous about the entire prospect. I have never even been to Europe!

Many thanks!
Elizabeth"

If any of you members out there are visiting Paris at the end of January, and would like to be put in contact with Elizabeth, then email Barbara Murray at chair@ukcps.co.uk for further information.

Twitterings about coloured pencils

Did you know that there are now tweets about coloured pencils?  Yes, coloured pencils and Twitter are getting together!

Here's a List of the Twitter accounts of prominent coloured pencil organisations:

• UKCPS - http://twitter.com/UKCPS
• CPSA - http://twitter.com/CPSA_ORG
• Australian Coloured Pencils - http://twitter.com/AusCP
• Derwent - http://twitter.com/derwentpencils
• Cumberland Pencil Museum - http://twitter.com/pencilmuseum

UKCPS will "follow" other major coloured pencil organisations like those listed above and UKCPS members. 

All UKCPS members who "tweet" should feel free to:

• "follow" UKCPS on Twitter to alert us as to your Twitter account 
• suggest to us Twitter Accounts which are of interest to coloured pencil artists (leave a comment on this blog or send us a message on Twitter)
• use #UKCPS and #colouredpencils as appropriate!

Japanese coloured pencil artist wins top prize at CPSA 2010

The awardwinners for the 18th International Exhibition 2010 of the Colored Pencil Society of America are now on show on the CPSA website.

The top prize goes to Shinji Harada CPSA from Japan who won the CIPPY award and CPSA Best in Show prize of $2,000 with a still life work titled "Grapes in a Basket.

David Billingsley CPSA of Oregon came second with a view of a shopfront titled Seattle Ambience.  He won the $1,500 CPSA District Chapters Prize for Exceptional Achievement and achioeved signature status this year.  You can see a much better image of the work on David's page on the CPSA District Chapter 201 website (for Portland Oregon).  This is David's website.

A suite of prizes each valued at $1,000 were awarded to:

• Cynthia Morris CPSA (MO) for Look on the Bright Side
• Ester Roi CPSA (CA)for The Lightness of Being
• Pamela Burroughs (In) for Hannah's Bugbox
• Bonnie Auten CPSA (MI) for Labino's Tribute

Theer were a number of other prizes awarded due to the generosity of sponsors and District Chapters - details of which you can see on the Awards page.

This year there were no prizewinners from this side of the Atlantic.

This is the relevant blog on the CPSA blog Convention Recap - Top Award to Shinji Harada of Japan

CPSA Silent Auction Exhibition and Slideshow

You can now see the online exhibition of the works in the Silent Auction being held by the Colored Pencil of America  at the end of this month.

A selection of the works in the CPSA 2010 Silent Auction

copyright the artists/CPSA

Bids for the work will be accepted during the CPSA Convention week (July 27-July31 2010) in California.  Unfortunately the bidders have to be present at the final evening to win the silent auction so it's perk for those attending the convention and the best we can do is look at the work online.

If you click the image you can enlarge it to see it more clearly.  You can also choose to see the exhibition as a slideshow.

The works are typically under 10" x 8" so it's interesting to see what subjects the artists choose for smaller works and how they adapt their work - which we normally see in larger formats - to the smaller sizes.

Which is your favourite?

CPSA Explore This! 6 Online Exhibition

The online exhibition of the 6th CPSA Explore This! is now online.

Beginning in 2009, the CPSA Explore This! exhibition became a juried online show. This change was made with the hope of allowing artists to display their work to a broader audience. By encouraging the exploration of materials we hope all artists, colored pencil artists or not, will be inspired to enter their artwork in this exhibition.
CPSA - About the Exoplore This! exhibition

These are the links to:

• the award winners
• information about the juror Barbara Grazul Hubbard
• the exhibition 
• the list of participating artists and title of their artwork 

The exhibition continues until 31st January 2011

Julie Douglas wins CPSA award

Jeff George has won the Best in Show at the CPSA 17th International exhibition for the second time - and two years running! His work Life and Death is in an unusual panoramic format ( 8.5” x 32”) but that's not its only surprise which I won't spoil by revealing on this blog. I'll just suggest you look very carefully as it's very difficult to see in the size posted on the exhibition gallery site. You'll get a better view of it on his website.

Interestingly I happen to know that this work got rejected last year - but only because only one work from each member can be successful in going forward to the final exhibition. Which means in 2007 he entered two works both of which have been judged best in show in successive years.

Click this link to see all the works which won awards at the exhibition

Top award for UKCPS member

UKCPS Member Julie Douglas won $1,000 and one of the top awards - the Staedtler Award for Exceptional Merit - for Boy on a Swing.

Boy on a Swing
Julie Douglas (Ireland)
coloured pencils 15.7 x 10.2"
copyright the artist

You can see a bigger version of her work on her website - click the image to see the big version.

Julie studied graphic design and illustration and worked for 12 years as a successful illustrator working with top advertising agencies and design groups. She has also illustrated books for publishers such as Penguin, MacMillan, Mitchell Beazley etc. She now teaches art in Ireland.

Prior to this award she has also won the Association of Illustrators Award on two occasions and her work on an American Express brochure won a New York Advertising award.

You can read more about Julie on her UKCPS gallery page - but I'll be asking her to reveal more in an interview for this blog in the near future.

Julie Douglas in 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition

Congratulations to UKCPS member Julie Douglas who, for the second year in a row, has had one of her coloured pencil portraits accepted into the Annual International Exhibition of the Colored Pencil Society of America.

Last year Julie's picture, "Dappled Son", won a $500 Award for Outstanding Recognition at the 16th Exhibition in Seattle.

Boy on a Swing - by Julie Douglas
coloured pencil
copyright Julie Douglas

CPSA yesterday announced the successful entries - in Artists and Artwork Selected for the 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition - 2009. The exhibition is being held in Atlanta Georgia between July 9 - August 29, 2009 at the Jacqueline C. Hudgens Center for the Arts.

If any other international UKCPS members have also been successful please let me know and I'll add your names into this post.

CPSA Explore This! 5 Online Exhibition

The CPSA Explore This! 5 Exhibition and catalogue are now both online and available to view.

CPSA changed arrangements this year so that the exhibition is only online. This means that the exhibition will now run online all year until January 31 2010. It also means that the Society does not have the expense of an additional exhibition space to fund and the exhibitors do not have to fund the cost of carriage of framed art to and from the exhibition.

There are a number of pages on the CPSA website which relate to the The Explore This! exhibition. The navigation menu runs along the very bottom of the page on most pages. These are:

• The Explore This! 5 Exhibition Title/entry page
• The actual exhibition
• Details of the various awards and Award winners
• An exhibition catalogue of all the works in the list of artists. This provides details about the dimensions, the media and support used and the price of the work.
  
• More information About the exhibition
• and information About the Juror - Gwen Chanzit

There are some innovations in presentation of the exhibition online which are worth noting.

• Each award winner now gets a mini profile and a link to their website. It's very nice to be able to put a face to a name, learn a bit more about the artist and to able to see more of their work.
• The online catalogue is really great for anybody viewing online. Information about dimensions is particularly valuable as a digital image can so easily misrepresent size and this information has not previously been provided.
  
• People wishing to purchase an artwork can contact the artist via the Exhibition Director. This means that all exhibitors have an opportunity to exhibit their work on a very reputable website and sell their art online for the next year.
  

Who's in the "Explore This" exhibition?

As previously announced, as from 2009, CPSA's Explore This! exhibition is to be annual and online only with all entries being digital images. This meant that the exhibition became a much more affordable proposition to enter for anybody previously concerned about the cost of shipping work over to the USA and back.

The Exhibition Artwork will go online and the Award Winners will be announced on February 1, 2009.

In the meantime you can check out whether you can recognise any names of UKCPS members in the listing of accepted entries which was published this week.

The unique feature of Explore This! is that all entries must have some element which breaks the rules of the CPSA International Exhibition

Finally, CPSA have also announced that the 2010 CPSA Convention will be in Santa Clara County in California - just south of San Francisco. Further details are available on the CPSA blog (see below).

Links:

• CPSA Explore This! prospectus
• CPSA list of accepted entries
• Colored Pencil Society of America News - Announcements for Explore This! 5 and 2010 Convention/Exhibition

The Japan Colored Pencil Society

Late last year, UKCPS received news from Takako Ikuta in Japan. Some of you may recall Bob Ebdon writing about her in his sign-off post back in September 2008.

....finally - back to our very first exhibition. This took place at Patchings Farm in 2001, and our very first AGM was held there on a Saturday. The following day I got a call from Patchings - a lady had turned up for the AGM, she had come a long way, and would I like to meet her. It turned out she had come a VERY long way - it was Takako Ikuta, from Japan. I was delighted to meet her, brought her home for tea, and have kept in touch ever since. I was very excited to get an e-mail from her just this week to announce that she has formed the Japan Colored Pencil Society. Now look what we done!

• In September 2008, Takako founded the Japan Colored Pencil Society. It has 22 members.
  
• The society now has a website - the address is http://j-cps.org.
• JCPS also held its first exhibition in 2008 and exhibited the works of all those who applied. You can see a gallery of the first exhibition on the website and you can see photographs of them hung here.
  
• JCPS are also planning to hold a second exhibition in November 2009.
  

It's very interesting to note that some of the artwork is using coloured pencil at the same time as adopting the subject matter and compositional style of traditional Japanese artwork of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

About Takako Ikuta

Takako Ikuta UKCPS CPSA is a coloured pencil artist and author who has exhibited with both UKCPS and CPSA, was awarded signature status with both societies in 2004 and 2005 respectively and has won prizes and commendations at the annual exhibitions of both societies.

Which I think I'm right in saying makes her unique in the world!

CPSA 17th Annual International Exhibition - Call for Entries #1

The Colored Pencil Society of America has called for entries for the 17th Annual International Exhibition 2009. In this post I'm going to provide the links to where you can find all the relevant information is posted on the CPSA website and blog

Then - in my second post later this week - I'll highlight some of the aspects you need to make a special note of if you would like to submit work to this open exhibition.

Remember - you don't need to be a member of CPSA to submit work to this exhibition!

The Prospectus and Exhibition Information is now posted on the website as a pdf file. The prospectus includes specifications for show entry and workshop and convention information. It's an 8 page document and needs to be read very thoroughly.

Here are the key dates for next year's calendar or wall chart!

• Closing date for entry: 11:59 p.m. (Mountain Time) 31st March 2009
• Notification of selection: 2nd May 2009
  
• Period for shipping artwork: 17th - 24th June 2009
  
• Final jury and awards selection: 1st July 2009 (telephone notification begins 2nd July)
• Exhibition dates: 9th July to 29th August 2009
• Convention dates: 29th July - 1st August 2009

Venue: The Exhibition will be held at the Jacqueline C. Hudgens Center for the Arts 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Bldg. 300, Duluth, Georgia 30097.

Arrangements for the exhibition and convention are hosted by District Chapter 107 Atlanta.

The Juror: Graham C. Boettcher. He is The Wm Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama

These are the relevant pages on the CPSA website which it's a good idea to bookmark:

• 17th Annual International Exibition and Convention
• Frequently Asked Questions about Exhibitions
• Frequently Asked Questions about Framing

Digital Entry: All entries must be digital and these are some documents which can help you with your digital entry.

• Step by Step Entry Using the CaFE system
• Preparing Your Digital Image Using Photoshop
• Questions Specific to Digital Terminology

Finally, this is a link to yesterday's post on the CPSA News Blog - 17th Annual CPSA Exhibition - It’s Time to Prepare Your Entry! Deadline March 31, 2009.

Do let me know if you have any queries before the next post.

CPSA exhibitions - If you'd like to see one/enter one.....

CPSA - 16th Annual Exhibition

After a spate of posts about coloured pencil exhibitions, if you've ever wondered what ALL the artwork in the CPSA exhibition looks like - you can find out!

There is an opportunity to see all the CP artwork that was exhibited in CPSA's 16th Annual Exhibition in Seattle this summer on a DVD. The CPSA are producing a DVD of all the exhibition pieces which it states will be viewable through both TV and computer monitors provided both have access to a DVD player.

CPSA are also taking overseas orders. Please note the DVD will not be available until February 2009.

This post End of 16th Annual Exhibition - Order your DVD of the show on their blog Colored Pencil Society of America News outlines what to do if you're interested.

Reminder

If you have been intending to submit work for jurying into CPSA's new online exhibition Explore This! 5 this is a gentle reminder that tomorrow (15th November 2009) is the deadline for online entries.

See Remember Deadline of 11/15/08 for Explore This! 5 Entries! for a reminder of and links to all the details.

CPSA invite contributions to Explore This! 5

Entry to the CPSA Explore This! 5 exhibition in 2009 is open to all living artists over the age of 18 regardless of geographical location.

Coloured pencil artists are likely to be interested in changes that CPSA have introduced to their Explore This! exhibition, which encourages artists to explore the use of coloured pencil in combination with a range of materials. You can read more about these in:

• Invitation for Explore This! 5 now available on the CPSA's new blog Colored Pencil Society of America News (see link in right hand column)
• the prospectus for the exhibition on the CPSA website
  

Key points are that:

• as announced on this blog at the end of August (CPSA Blog plus changes to CPSA Exhibitions) the Explore This! exhibition will in future be annual and online only
• all entries must be digital images submitted via the CaFE website
  
• all entries must have some element which breaks the rules of the CPSA International Exhibition
• acceptance into three shows within a 10 year period will earn a new signature designation, called CPX, for a CPSA member/artist
  
• the top three winners in Explore This! 5 will be invited to ship their work to the 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition for display

All questions relating to the exhibition should be addressed to Paula Parks, CPSA Exhibition Director. Deadline for entries is November 15th 2008.

So Long, Been good to know ya...

Takako Ikuta "On a Monday Morning"

It seems appropriate that my last post should take me right back to the beginning of the Society - but more of that in a moment! First, as you will have gathered, a very worthy replacement for the managing of the UKCPS blog has been found in Katherine Tyrrell, who I am sure will do a much better job than me. She will introduce herself in the next post. My health is still not good, but initial investigations have shown that I do not appear to have the heart problem I thought I may have. When your father dies aged 45, you tend to worry over these things! My biggest problem at present though is that I am depressed and have not put pencil to paper fruitfully since last June. I don't know when or if I will do so again.

Anyway, before I ride off into the sunset, just time for a few things, starting with congrats from me to our President Ann James Massey SWA, KA, CPSA, UKCPS and member Jean Canter PPSGFA, UKCPS, both of whom have been juried into the ING Discerning Eye exhibition. Then I have just seen a copy of the CPSA magazine "To The Point", which contains pieces by myself and Katherine that the CPSA used to comment on the recent discussions about use of photos. Which I do not intend to get drawn into again. Talking of drawing, the October edition of Leisure Painter magazine (out now) contains the third in my series of four articles, this time about using tools such as a blender, embossing tool and the Derwent eraser.

And finally - back to our very first exhibition. This took place at Patchings Farm in 2001, and our very first AGM was held there on a Saturday. The following day I got a call from Patchings - a lady had turned up for the AGM, she had come a long way, and would I like to meet her. It turned out she had come a VERY long way - it was Takako Ikuta, from Japan. I was delighted to meet her, brought her home for tea, and have kept in touch ever since. I was very excited to get an e-mail from her just this week to announce that she has formed the Japan Colored Pencil Society. Now look what we done! When their website is launched - hopefully next month - I will ensure Katherine features it. At present they only have 22 members, but they are up and running. I remember what that feels like, and wish them all the luck in the world. Well done Takako - I hope you know what you have let yourself in for!

Thanks to all who have helped make this Society what it is today, to all who have supported me personally, and I leave you with a song:

Of all the money that ere I had, I spent it in good company
And of all the harm that ere I've done, alas was done to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit, to memory now I cannot recall
So fill to me the parting glass...

Goodnight and joy be with you all.

CPSA Blog plus changes to CPSA Exhibitions

Thanks, as so many times before, to Katherine Tyrrell for a heads up on this one.

The CPSA has made announced details of its calendar for 2009, launched a CPSA blog - we beat them to that one folks! - and announced that the "Explore This!" mixed media with CP exhibition will in future be online. It is easy to see which way the CPSA is moving, and the reasons should be pretty obvious also. Probably something the UKCPS needs to consider?

I should also note here that I have resigned from the Executive of the UKCPS - with my ongoing health problems, I am afraid I could no longer take the hassle. I never intended this to be a life sentence anyway. So please, if you have any comments about UKCPS policy, or matters that you would like to raise with the Exec, this is not at present the place to do so. Please use the yahoo group, or e-mail direct.

I am continuing to maintain this blog and the website, but these posts will become vacant at the AGM in October, so anyone interested in taking these on, please make yourselves known to the Exec.

CPSA Results and UKCPS Success!

Julie Douglas "Dappled Son"

Many congratulations to Julie Douglas for becoming, to my knowledge, the first UK based member of the UKCPS to win an Award in the annual CPSA exhibition. Julie's picture, "Dappled Son", won a $500 Award for Outstanding Recognition - well done Julie! You can see the rest of the prizewinners here.

Julie actually flew out to Seattle when she heard that she was an award winner, so I am hoping that she will tell us all about it when she returns.

Bob's bits

Another of those blogs where I just lump a few little things together to make a posting! I am conscious that I have not posted in a while, but will only disturb your in-tray if I really feel I have something of interest.

First a reminder that you should be working on your entry for our next Exhibition, entries due to Pat Heffer before July 9th, and the sooner the better as far as Pat is concerned. If you need an entry form, you can download one from here.

You may be interested to see the list of successful entrants for the next CPSA Exhibition, which is here. Perhaps what is most interesting is the long list of artists, including the past three winners, who have not been successful this year. It just goes to show that in the end this is all a matter of opinion.

Next, apologies for the fact that the UKCPS site was out of action for several hours today. I have yet to recieve an explanation from our hosts GNHosting, but at least it is up again as far as I can tell now.

Finally, a request for artists to support a worthy cause where they can. The UKCPS has a policy of only providing links from our site to other sites that have specific CP content, so when this site asked for a link I had to say no. But what they are doing is very laudable, and it would be well worth any of you clicking through and just checking out what they are trying to do. They also offer some good advice on protection of images - The Animal Artists Protection League tries to monitor the web for unlawful use of its members images. And they have a great logo!

Call for Entries for CPSA

Alistair Howie "Palm House at Kew"

Time to get your pencils out again. The call for entries has just gone out from our sister organisation, the Colored Pencil Society of America, for their main exhibition in 2008. All of the details can be found on the CPSA website, and further useful comments and analysis can be found in Katherine Tyrrell's Making a Mark Blog, so I don't really need to repeat that all here, just point out a few features.

1. Entry is Open to all, as long as you are alive and over 18!
   
2. Entry is by digital submission - there are quite complex restrictions on this, you may need to be a bit computer literate to sort this one out. If you need help, I will be glad to do what I can.
3. The definition of what kind of image is permitted has changed over previous years - they have really tightened up on copyright issues, and now insist that it must not be copied in any way from another artists work (including photographers), even from copyright free sources, or under licence, and must also not have been completed with help from another artist, in a workshop, for example.
4. We - by that I mean the UKCPS - have never had a prizewinner in this competition - so it is about time we did! In fact, as far as I am aware, only two of our members who are not US based have ever been accepted into the CPSA exhibitions - Takako Ikuta, who is a Japanese member who actually entered our first ever exhibition and travelled over here to see it, was one, and Alistair Howie from Bristol was the other. Their prizewinning entries to our first ever exhibition can be seen here, Alistair above and Takako below.
5. It can be a very expensive business sending work over and back if you do get accepted. There is a very real risk of damage or loss - several US artists have discovered this to their cost sending work to the UKCPS exhibitions. Work has to be framed and mounted to CPSA specifications, and then VERY SECURELY packed. Our own noble ParcelForce may also - apparently at whim - decide that it does not want to send your package if it is too big, leaving you at the not-so-tender mercies of UPS or Fedex. Please do not let this put you off, but check with me first that the way you want to send work will be OK. Wrapped up in a towel and brown paper - I kid you not! - does not do the job, believe me.
6. Best of luck!
   

Takako Ikuta " On a Monday Morning"

Milestone passed

Just a reminder of the very first issue of our newsletter, "Talking Point", issued July 2001. I printed about 50 copies of that myself on my HP deskjet, with the front page picture by Hilary Buckley, and the lead article reading "Welcome - to the Society of your dreams!". It is beginning to look like those dreams are more than being fulfilled - thanks to the membership surge at the NEC, our membership has well passed the 500 mark. For the first time ever, over 560 people will receive copies of the latest "Talking Point" due out in December. Congratulations to all who have made this possible. Based on population size, we are now "bigger" than the CPSA!

Of course, with size, comes problems, and our members will be aware of many requests for help from the AGM last October. A letter setting out what we are asking for in more detail will be inserted with the newsletter - along with a small gift to make the request more palatable.