This Saturday I will be giving a workshop for CPSA DC115 titled “Evoking Mood with Neocolors and Colored Pencil”, and I’ve got an area in my studio filled up with all my prep materials.  Like laying out pieces prior to a show, it’s always fun to see everything all at once, together.  Here’s a few snapshots:

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Last week we attended the CPSA 18th Annual International Exhibition at the Art Museum of Los Gatos, California.  This was my fourth acceptance into the annual show, but my first time attending the convention earlier in the week so that I could see the entrant’s slide show and participate in the silent auction.  I was really impressed by the quality of all the entries, and it was also very interesting to see the second piece submitted for artists who were accepted (you can submit two, but if accepted, only 1 is chosen).  Having not been to the gallery yet at the time of the slide show, it was also fun to try and guess which of the two pieces were accepted, for artists that I knew were in the show.  The slide show is presented in the much the same way that the awards are during the banquet; a reader projects the work on a screen, reads the title, artist’s name, and artist’s location.  I think it’s great that everyone who submits gets to have their work viewed and recognized.

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Today I received notification of acceptance of “Opaline Dreams” into the North Light Book “Strokes of Genius 3: The Best of Drawing”, scheduled to be released in October 2011.  I’m really happy to be accepted – I love this series of books, and routinely flip through them for inspiration.

The Silent Auction pieces are now posted on the CPSA website, and available for perusal.  What a great collection of small works – I want them all!  This year I’ll actually make the show early enough to participate in the silent auction, so I’ll get a chance to place some bids.  Now, the problem is narrowing it down!  You can view the pieces here.

I’ve thought about writing a post about this before, and had some reservations, but it’s something going on in my life right now, and something I had some good news on today, so I thought I would write about it.  I takes a little bit of storytelling.

In 1985, I got together with a couple of friends after school for a game of football.  It was a half-day of school, we had an actual field to play on, and it had just rained, giving us some nice, muddy ground – all in all, perfect.  In the course of the game, I got whacked in the eye.  The injury caused the lens and iris of my eye to fill up with blood, and I lost vision in my left eye.  After a week in the hospital, my vision slowly returned.  It took another month before my pupil undilated. After assorted follow-ups, the eye doctor said that everything was fine, but that 20 years from now, I may have some problems.

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Today the list of accepted artists for the CPSA 18th Annual International Exhibition was published on the CPSA website, and my submission, Opaline Dreams, made the list.  Woo hoo!  The exhibit runs July 22nd to August 20th at The Art Museum of Los Gatos, California, with the artist’s reception on Saturday, July 31st.

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April may bring showers, paving the way for May flowers, but it also is crunch time to meet a series of annual art deadlines.  These past two weeks have been a flurry of activity.  I just finished my CPSA Silent Auction piece, Citrine Dreams, and I’m working on matting it now.  Two weeks ago I had giclee proofs printed of Bend and Crescendo, burned a CD, wrote an artist’s statement, and sent it off in the mail to Vera Curnow; this is the 20th anniversary of the Colored Pencil Society of America, and to commemorate, CPSA is creating a book.  All signature members were invited to submit two pieces for the book.  If all goes well, it will be available during convention week in Santa Clara.  Today was the drop off for the Wilkes-Barre Fine Arts Fiesta, an annual local juried art show, and I submitted Opaline Dreams.  Coming up on May are two submission deadlines which I took care of this weekend also:  The Artist’s Magazine 27th Annual Art Competition (May 3) and the book Strokes of Genius 3: The Best of Drawing, Fresh Perspectives (May 1).  Last year I was a finalist in the Artist’s Magazine competition, with Crescendo, and my name appeared in the December issue.  This year I submitted Opaline Dreams.  For Strokes of Genius, I went all out (did I mention that I really want to get into this book?), and submitted Bend, Crescendo, Cascade, Opaline Dreams, and Wrapped.  Wrapped was an unusual choice with that grouping, but it looks a little more like something drawn than painted, so I included it in case my other work is too painting-like for the book’s requirements.

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Finished!  Time to complete was 9 days, probably around 30 hours.  After coating the piece with fixative, and letting it dry, I did some color correction throughout, and then final detail work.  I always try to avoid using black until the very end; it’s my trump card for values, and once I play it, I can’t go any darker.  You can see how the hair has more definition from where the blacks were introduced.  I’m happy with how it turned out – I really wanted something softer, which worked with the waxiness of the Neocolors, to have a more painterly feel to it.  Now I just need to mat it with a backing and place it into a plastic sleeve.  If you like it, you can bid on it at the CPSA Silent Auction, which is July 29th at the 18th Annual International Exhibition in Santa Clara, California.

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Just about done!  Tomorrow I’ll hit it with a coat of fixative, then do a few tweaks and further color correction.