QUARTERLY QUOTE 

A picture is a poem without words.

Horace

• The CoViD variants haven’t left us, so with winter upon us, we may need to mask up again, and/or we may need to use Zoom for meetings, especially with some of our members traveling to warmer climes. Nevertheless, let’s keep getting together!
• Hub activities have continued throughout the fall.
• Three VPS-sponsored Workshops are coming in 2023.
• A Juried Show and a Members’ Exhibition are being planned for the coming year.

 

Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF 2023 UPCOMING EVENTS:

Apr 19, 2023: VPS Board Meeting via Zoom

May 19-21, 2023: Tony Allain: “Catching Light,” Bennington, VT.

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE 

VPS: Central reconvened in November, after members took the summer off, and shared the results of their challenge to each other: paint a scene using 100 strokes or less. In their December meeting, they planned out an ambitious agenda for the coming year.

VPS: Champlain met in November with a packed agenda. First, they talked about Dawn Emerson’s workshop which two members attended, and introduced the idea of perhaps hosting a workshop in Chittenden County. Then they began preparing for the Members’ Exhibition that they will be hosting in Spring 2023. Finally, they shared the results of their challenge to each other, to paint a pastel miniature.

VPS: MidState gathered three times. In September, they shared what they had been doing artistically over the summer, as well as critiqued the Members’ Exhibition which they hosted. In November, they discussed having a local show and viewed their challenge to paint something that they had previously painted and compared the two versions. And in December, their group acknowledged their hub’s two winning members in the VPS Juried Show, as well as showed each other their response to the challenge to do a pastel using three analogous hues.

VPS: SouthEast hosted the Juried Show in Brattleboro, Oct-Nov and put on another local show in November at a local venue, also in Brattleboro, to use their hub allotment.

VPS: UpperValley found a gorgeous autumn afternoon in October to paint en plein air, trying “to catch the beauty and the drama of the day.”

VPS EXHIBITIONS

Our Juried Show (JS) for 2022, displayed in October and November at Vermont Artisan Designs in Brattleboro, VT, was a double success: it was the first time a VPS show was held in the southeastern part of the state, and three of the paintings sold!

Next year, the Members’ Exhibition (ME) will be hosted by VPS: Champlain. Due to an administrative crisis at the venue which had agreed to host us near Burlington, and their late notice, we could not find a suitable gallery in the region. Instead of canceling the ME, we decided to use an available gallery in Bennington and employ a hybrid approach with VPS: CHP coordinating all the aspects of the ME and VPS: SW assisting with the local logistics.

The JS will be more straightforward, hosted in October and November by VPS: UpperValley at the Long River Gallery in WRJ, VT. Stay tuned for all the forthcoming details!!

VPS WORKSHOPS 

Here is who we have lined up for next year’s three workshops:

Tony Allain: “Catching Light,” May 19-21, 2023, Bennington, VT;

Karen Israel: “Rocks/Water Reflections/Clouds/Sky,” Aug 4-6, 2023, East Montpelier;

Nancy Nowak: “Boats and Structures,” Sep 29-Oct 1, 2023 in Bennington, VT.

VPS BOARD NEWS

At our Annual Meeting in October, we voted to form a committee to draft a policy and procedure for a Signature Status category for VPS members, as some other pastel societies have done. This work will begin in January, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please contact Cris Kossow, who has offered to take on the task, at [email protected].

Our next board meeting will be via Zoom on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 from 7-9pm. An agenda will come out a couple weeks before the meeting, so please put this date and time on your calendar and plan to attend if you can.

As a VPS member, you are permitted to post two pastels on the website gallery. Remember to check what is up there now and update your images as you make new work. We get over 5000 visitors and 8000 visits a year, and the Gallery of Member Art gets the most traffic, so take advantage of the exposure:

https://vermontpastelsociety.com/participation-in-the-members-gallery/

Also, you can share noteworthy news about your artwork, about prizes you were awarded, about your upcoming shows, about your hub, or about other pastel items of personal interest. Check it out by going to the VPS website and clicking Member News on the drop-down menu or click on this link for submission instructions:

https://vermontpastelsociety.com/vps-member-noteworthy-news/

Don’t forget that you can also rent DVDs for free as a member. The information is on our website.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN VPS! 

With two VPS-sponsored shows in 2023 to exhibit your works, three workshops planned, and our Hubs meeting regularly, there is great value in being a member of the VPS. Please renew your membership for 2023. We stay strong because of the continual support for our organization which each of you provides. Thank you all so much!

Matt Peake, VPS President