UKCPS International Exhibition

Regular readers will be aware that arrangements are well underway for the society's International Exhibition at Methodist Central Hall in London. A number of companies and organisations are now coming on board to sponsor and promote the exhibition, and these include:
Colorfin LLC http://www.panpastel.com/ will be providing 'goody' bags of Pan Pastels as prizes for the Highly Commended Award in the Mixed Media section of the exhibition.

Jackson's Art Supplies http://www.jacksonart/fp_jacksonsuk.php will be providing £25 Jackson's Gift Vouchers as prizes for the Highly Commended Award in the Open (pure CP works) section of the exhibition.

and ExaClair Limited, UK distributors of Clairfontaine products, http://www.exaclair.co.uk will be providing packs of their excellent Pastelmat Paper.

The society is extremely grateful for the support given, and I would ask members and other readers of this blog to reciprocate by supporting these companies when purchasing art materials.

Alan

Tiffany Budd - Exhibition success!

Many UKCPS members will be familiar with the works of Tiffany Budd, http://www.tiffanybudd.co.uk/ and will wish her well with her current exhibition held at Newlands House School in Twickenham. The school has a brand new art gallery called 'the Vinery', and they asked Tiffany if she would exhibit some of her pencil drawings in order to raise the awareness of pencil as a medium for their art students.


Say's Tiffany: "The Head of Art was most interested in my glass and realist work, and I have some 'Fractured' work in it too. They also wanted some pictures to sell to pupils and parents, so for this I did some drawings of ballet shoes and marbles. They have been selling like hot cakes!! "


Tiffany has also sold some botanical drawings, and one of strawberries. The exhibition runs until the 29th January 2011. See also the link to Tiffany's own blog from this page, and the Members Galleries on the UKCPS site.

New Blogmaster - an introduction

Greetings viewers - my name is Alan McMahon, and, in a [rare?] moment of madness, I have volunteered to undertake the role of Blogmaster for the UKCPS. Many thanks must go to Liz Ridley, the previous occupant of this seat, who has worked hard and done much juggling of her spare time in order to keep the blog going whilst also acting as UKCPSWebmaster.

This is my first blog - ever! so I hope that regular readers will forgive me my errors and omissions in the coming weeks as I seek to settle-in to the new role.

That's me above, and I apologise for the 'orrible mug-shot , but it was the only half decent picture I could find! Please don't use it to scare the kids!

Alan

UKCPS Open International Exhibition 2011

2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the UKCPS and we want to make the 2011 exhibition a bigger and better celebration of both coloured pencils and our Society than ever before. Generous sponsorship by Faber Castell’s UK distributors, West Design, means that we have the opportunity to have a much larger event in a prime location, opposite Westminster Abbey in London. The venue is the Methodist Central Hall which some of you may know from the Botanical Society’s exhibitions. As well as being conveniently placed and easy to reach at the heart of London, the venue has sufficient space for the Society to do much more alongside the Annual Exhibition to celebrate coloured pencils and our Society’s tenth birthday. The event is a three-cornered one;

• Faber Castell, themselves celebrating their 250th anniversary, will be displaying their full size pencil sculptures and a range of products for sale
• Speight of the Art Foundation will be running workshops for children
• UKCPS Annual exhibition.

There is a full programme of workshops, details of which can be seen on the website, and we also want as many demonstrators as possible and people who could help out, supervise the “have-a-go” facilities and act as stewards. Helpers may sell their goods, with commission to the Society.

Members, please apply to Pat Heffer (exhibitions@ukcps.co.uk) if you are able to offer help in any way - the more helpers we have the less the load for individuals.

Everyone start thinking now and preparing your innovative coloured pencil masterpieces and note there will also be a separate mixed media class (predominantly coloured pencil work). Full details and entry forms are now available on the website.

Workshop at the Workhouse

A short while ago, Lesley Sharman held a successful coloured pencil workshop at the Ripon Workhouse Museum. This was her first try at teaching and it obviously worked as she has been asked to do it again and full details of future events can be seen on the website.

Here's Lesley's report of the event in October.

Eight people attended (the maximum number that I’d decided on), who came from far and wide. One lady travelled over 70 miles to attend after spotting the event on the Workshops page of the UKCPS website, another came from 60 miles away, and two were from about 20 miles away. They were all keen to try out something different from the usual watercolour painting classes and some specifically wanted instruction in using coloured pencils.

As everybody was new to CP I started with the basics, explaining about equipment and techniques and let them experiment with different types of pencils and papers. The afternoon was taken up with following step-by-step instructions for three different-coloured bell peppers which I had prepared.

Derwent very kindly sponsored the event, and I also explained about the Society and handed out flyers, so hopefully we may soon have some new members from up North.

To my relief, the day was a great success and everybody went home happy and proud of what they managed to achieve.

I had very positive feedback and I recently repeated the workshop. The lady from 60 miles away returned with five other people from her local art group, and they have asked for more. I now have a waiting list of people wanting to learn about coloured pencil, so I think this might well be the start of my running regular workshops in Yorkshire, building on the first one to cover different subjects and techniques. Watch this space!

Richard Klekociuk - Drawing Prize

Our international member, Richard Klekociuk, in Tasmania, Australia won the Drawing section of the 23rd Cradle Coast Rotary Art Exhibition at Ulverstone, on Tasmania’s Northwest Coast.

Natural Graffitiscape

60 x 40 cm. Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils on Canson pastel board

copyright Richard Klekociuk

As Richard said in his blog:

This year’s exhibition attracted 250 entries vying for 10 prizes featuring painting, drawing and mixed media.

I was fortunate to win the same section last year, and was thrilled to win it a second time.

In this drawing I ‘dragged’ the natural marks and colours of the rocks down, across the lower half of the composition. I like the balance of realism and abstraction.

You can see more of Richard's work on his recently updated gallery page at the UKCPS website and his own website.

Steve Ormerod visits W Yorkshire Local Group

As reported in an earlier post, Steve Ormerod gave a demo at the UKCPS West Yorkshire Local Group in Baildon.

Steve Ormerod prepares to start his demo

Group organiser, Roy Lorrain-Smith, reports:

Twenty members and friends of the West Yorkshire local group had a treat last night (10 November 2010). Coloured pencil artist Steve Ormerod came to Baildon to give a demonstration of his way of working. He brought with him a selection of his completed coloured pencil works and talked about them, explaining how he had achieved various effects -- or where he now feels he went wrong, and how he would tackle such problems now.

He talked about various ranges of coloured pencil, notably Derwent Drawing, Graphitint, Inktense and Coloursoft, showing how he worked with them to achieve many different features, from backgrounds through flesh tones to highlights, and working both dry and wet with all of them (water soluble or not). He did not hesitate to use other media such as pastels with pencils. "I use all sorts of things to get the effects I want," he said. And showed how, with erasers to improve texture, and the wrong end of a paint brush for whiskers -- animal or human. We could also see that one at least of his palettes had been promoted from making ice cubes in someone's freezer, and he revealed that as revenge one of his best watercolour brushes had been briefly commandeered by the pastry cook.

He was informative and witty, and the evening was a great success. We all had great fun.