APRIL 2008
 

Trish Harding, President

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Vice  President, 
Amanda Houston's Message and Past President,
Steve Hill's Farewell Message

NPS

President’s Message April 2008

Digital, digital, digital!  What a world we live in.  A big thanks to Penny Chadwell for her digital expertise at the Spring Meeting.  It looked like everybody was engaged in the presentation and hands-on program.  The NPS is blazing the way through the world of digital entries.

Sherwood Smith has promised to present a more in depth look at getting your images digitally ready in 2009 and we are so looking forward to that.  Details will be coming later on that.  Thanks, Sherwood!

*Summer Meeting will be a blast!  Anacortes during the Annual Anacortes Art Festival and the NPS Signature Show at Scott Milo Gallery!  Lots to see and do!  Come Friday for the Signature Show Reception, stay for Art Fair on Saturday and Sunday and paint, mix and mingle!  There is so much to do that no general meeting or organized paint out is scheduled.

International show deadline is April 19.  Get your entries into it NOW.  This is a very reputable venue at American Art Gallery and you won’t want to miss this opportunity.  Remember Sherwood or Penny will help you with your digital questions to enter.

Paint en Plein Air as often as possible!  Speaking of which….Lopez Island Paint Out 2008 is scheduled 9/16-9/22.   More information please go to http://www.nwps.org/Paintout.htm .  Also all NPS members have been invited to participate in the 3^rd Annual Downtown Bellingham Paint Out (PAPO 08) in August as well as Bellingham’s La Bella Strada earlier that month. 

I am inviting you all to participate in a very exciting show that we have planned for the next Member’s Show 2009.  Some of you were at the Spring Meeting and have heard about it already.  We will call it the Outside the Box Show.  We are interested in a show that “gives us the permission” to paint more adventurously, whether that means more abstract, looser, using the pastel in a new and exciting way or whatever.  Our goal is to have an extremely exciting and new feel to it.  We have been noticing that the shows, although filled with great work, are looking the same time after time.   SO START NOW.  Put that new idea you’ve had germinating for so long to work for this show.  No more painting conservatively so that you are juried in.  Take a chance, dance a new dance!

Our juror will be Wade Marlow from the Blue Horse Gallery.  I am confident that he will use his extensive art background and over 30 years gallerist experience to curate a fabulously Outside the Box Show at the Blue Horse for us.  We need as many entries as possible for an exciting and adventurous show.  Blue Horse is a beautiful gallery recently remodeled and enlarged, has an eclectic reputation for showing only high quality regional work and promotes artists of all disciplines and tastes.  Blue Horse Shows are well advertised and promoted and very well attended.   We have just confirmed up the dates and a prospectus is in the making.  Watch for that prospectus on the website.

            That brings me to the WEBSITE!  Jennifer Evenhus has worked really hard on the website.  It is really user friendly and beautiful and packed full of information.  Please use it!  Spend some time just to browse around it.  Many of you will find that it is a great place to tell others about your shows, workshops, awards, news, links, etc…All the information that is available about the NPS is on the site so go there first, however, don’t ever hesitate to email me with any questions that you can’t find answers to.

            Winter Olympics ideas are not pouring in…Any suggestions on how to take advantage of potential art collectors flooding up the I-5 corridor to the Vancouver Olympics are welcome at trish.harding@studioufo.net .

             I am really happy to be working with such a huge group of talented people and appreciate all the hard work that is done by you all on a regular basis.

Thank you,

Peace, Trish Harding, NPS president

 * On August 1, 2 and 3, 2008, the streets of Anacortes will fill with outstanding juried booth artisans, first class fine art exhibitions, an international selection of foods, music in multiple venues, working artists and creative activities for the entire family. Pre-Festival activities begin July 25th with the opening of the Art at the Port fine art exhibition.
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Scroll down for
Steve Hill's farewell
message . . .
 

Hello from Oregon.  That’s probably why most of you haven’t met me, but there will be plenty of time for that in the coming year or two.

Steve Hill so graciously persuaded me during our last paint-out on Lopez Island to officially become more involved and while I’m relatively new to the art world and to this group, I hope you’ll find I can bring a wealth of knowledge to the group. Before I decided to devote some time in front of the easel some 4 years ago I was working for large global apparel corporations (like Nike and L.L.Bean) designing new products and then building and running new businesses for them. In fact, my last stint at Nike was to help start Nike.com’s ecommerce efforts. While I cherish my creative painting time now, I also enjoy working and organizing larger groups, brainstorming and trouble shooting solutions and bringing organizations to their next level.  In general, I’m intrigued to stimulate more participation from Oregon and Southern Washington as our North West region covers a lot of ground.  More ground than most are willing to travel.

When I’m painting, I enjoy capturing the local agricultural landscapes and the water ways of the San Juans, where my husband and I have just purchased a “fixer”vacation home. I am a member of the Portland Plein Air Society and sit on the board of directors of  The Valley Art Gallery, a local gallery in Forest Grove, OR. I’m beginning to teach workshops this year and am currently represented by 3 other galleries in both Washington and Oregon.  The Oregon outdoor art festivals dictate my painting calendar and when I’m not painting for shows, I’m working part-time, leading green construction projects for my husband’s construction and development company, raising two young sons, and managing the biggest remodel of my life, an old rambling hunting lodge 40 minutes west of Portland. Once it’s done, I hope to host meetings, workshops and paint-outs on our 30 breath-taking acres.  I look forward to meeting and painting with all of you in the coming year. You can view my work and bio at www.amandahouston.com

All the best.  Amanda Houston

www.amandahouston.com

amandahouston@verizon.net

503-310-8099 cell

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Northwest Pastel Society
Past President
Steve Hill
Winter 2008

Dear NPS Members

Pant, pant, gasp, gasp . . . it only seemed like a few weeks, not 2 years - so much has been accomplished! We collectively changed nearly every way the NPS functions by creating new benchmarks in the whole communications process. We now have the very best web site anywhere, especially for a volunteer-run organization, which efficiently organizes our group activities, keeping new events continually posted and maintaining a living history as we move forward. Certainly, this web site “lives and breathes” like no other (go ahead - check-out a few of the big national sites to just compare) and is absolutely loaded with information pertinent to our society, and especially educational material for anyone wanting to learn anything about pastels. We have also digitized our entry systems for shows, through the skills and expertise of Penny Chadwell, Jennifer Evenhus and the collective efforts of the entire board to make it happen. Beth Brooks (second VP & International show chair) has enlisted Sherwood and Judith Smith to further refine our original system, set-up by Penny last August for the member’s show, and you can bet all of this will become yet another NPS benchmark for others to follow.

How do we all keep-up with all ‘this stuff’ spinning around? The absolute key to on-going successful communications with our NPS organization is this: It’s YOU!!   

It only works when YOU use it and YOU must visit the site frequently and participate by becoming ACTIVE!!! I feel a certain pride, as do the rest of the board members who slaved over ‘this stuff’ for the past 2 years - we all want you to become a more successful pastel artist and a more active NPS member. Think of the web site as your extended palette, the one that has all the colors you’ve always needed . . . and you didn’t even have to buy them. Just be sure to use it!

The second biggest accomplishment is yet to come. We now have two very gifted new leaders running the show. Trish Harding, Bellingham, Washington artist, as new president, and Amanda Houston, Oregon artist, as vice president. Both of these ladies have very impressive lists of credentials as professional artists, educators, motivators, group leaders, and most importantly, are just down-to-earth very creative and nice people! They both have big plans for the NPS, including out-reach to areas beyond Seattle (i.e., Bellingham and Oregon) through special events like paint-outs and exhibits, including ideas for exhibits during the 2010 International Winter Olympics (Whistler and Vancouver, B.C., just over the border from Bellingham) to name just one.

To me, this is the ‘no brainer’ part of our name, The Northwest Pastel Society, but something that has seemingly eluded us for the past 25 years, despite efforts by many to foster membership in other states. We now have a golden opportunity to re-stake our turf via the web site and start including more and more NPS events around the Northwest. I was really impressed, visiting John Knapp (former NPS web master and pastelist living in Walla Walla) last summer and observing how he has been doing regular bi-weekly painting sessions at his studio with eastern Washington members . . . for years, now. It’s a testament to his faith in the group dynamic and one he shouldn’t feel so lonely doing. I know others in our group meet regularly, as well, for the same reason and It’s o.k., for any of you out there, anywhere, to start tapping into this resourceful group and get things going in your own neighborhoods, too. It’s also o.k., to let everyone else know about it through our web site and there are many members out there willing to help.

“Ask not what your pastel society can do. . . “  ok, enough said, just get involved, stay involved and happy painting!

It’s been a pleasure to serve as president for the past two years.

Steve Hill, Past President

Northwest Pastel Society

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