UKCPS Member on LAC

UKCPS Member Julie-Ann Maguire has written a piece about her experience working on drafting film for the London Art College Blog. It can be found here. Thank you for that Julie-Ann and I wonder if any other UKCPS members would like to share their experiences of working on this surface.

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

Stonehenge paper

It is starting to look as though our long wait in the wilderness is over, and Stonehenge paper is now available in this country. Legion Paper has done a deal with Global Art to stock Stonehenge in the UK, and one of their biggest customers is the Jackson's Art catalogue.

Now hold on! It doesn't mean they have any yet! I have been keeping an eye on both the Global Art and the Jacksons websites, and see no signs of Stonehenge yet. This might mean they have not got around to updating their websites - shame on them! - or it might mean they are waiting for supplies to arrive. Either way, I think that if enough people pester them , they might be persuaded to pull their fingers out!

Meanwhile, one of our members, the celebrated artist Tim Fisher, well to know to many of us for his articles in Leisure Painter magazine, has managed to get his hands on some, and is offering Stonehenge at a very good price direct from his art materials site. So head over there if you are in desperate need.

And watch out for the next issue of Talking point, which should contain a couple of sheets of some other papers for your your consideration, that are available now in this country, from RK Burts, some Fabriano 5, and Canaletto papers. Enjoy!

CP work in the news

"Primulas" Bob Ebdon 17cm x 21cm

First published "Leisure Painter" March 2008

Just a heads up that some coloured pencil work can be seen in a couple of places at the moment.

First, there is an article in the current (March) edition of "Leisure Painter" magazine that shows some ways of getting dark tones using coloured pencils. The article shows a step-by-step of a primula, using a colourway approach, grisaille, and complementary colours to get darks. Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but yes, the author of the article is me.

Then the makers and distributors of Stonehenge paper, Legion Papers, have just added a gallery to their site which shows several artists who use Stonehenge paper as their preferred support. There are a couple of UKCPS members showing work in this gallery - Arlene Steinberg and, yes, sorry, its me again!

To avoid ALL posts being about me, please get in touch with anything that you would like me to include in future blogs - any exhibitions, awards, galleries visited where CP work is on show - anything of interest to the membership in general, please tell me about it.

Current activity

OK, so it looks as though I might be able to do this. I will try to update as often as I can with anything that I think may be of interest to our members.

Today the yahoo discussion group has been talking about different surfaces, including Art Spectrum Colorfix and Tim Fisher's Fisher 400 papers. We have also been introduced to the amazing art of Ester Roi, and I have added her to our links pages.

The Executive is still debating the merits of some members having an online subscription only, and trying very hard to come up with some helpers, especially as our Local Groups organiser has now left the post. They are also preparing for the UKCPS stand at the NEC Art Live show coming up on November 8th-11th. Please do try to get along to this and say hello if you can. Our printer is now working on the next issue of Talking Point which will contain a small Christmas Present courtesy of Legion Papers.

Some more of our members are taking up the Mobtal offer of membership for a year of this Art Portal WAP oriented website - but not enough! And I know there are still 400 or so of our members who do not have their own page on the site. Please get in touch with me so we can show what ALL of our members are up to!