QUARTERLY QUOTE
Why not spend time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don’t learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!
Laurie Halse Anderson

The Winter Solstice has signaled a return to longer days, with more hours of light for painting;
We have our Members’ Exhibition opening in a matter of days,
Regional hubs are continuing to thrive;
And we have a new Vice President.
Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
Thursday, January 16, 2020, 5-6:30pm: Reception for the Members’ Exhibition of the VPS with the Pastel Society of NH, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, 4th floor main hallway.

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
In the last quarter, 4 of 6 hubs have met once, and one hub has met twice. Many hubs are using a challenge-prompt, asking members to do, in the intervening time, an abstract painting, or painting a bold landscape on a black surface, or painting in color from a black and white reference. Many hubs are taking advantage of local venues to exhibit their pastels. As for using hub money, one hub paid a workshop presenter to come to them, and another hub used their money for purchasing tickets to MASSMoCA and The Clark, for a visit in early January.

VPS EXHIBITIONS
Our Members’ Exhibition (ME) for 2020 features something new: Susannah Colby, our Exhibitions Co-Chair, has coordinated this year’s exhibition with the Pastel Society of New Hampshire to make a really big show. We will be having about 120 works from 60 artists lining the expansive hallway in a large institution where hundreds of people will walk through to view them every month. As in our last ME, we will be awarding prizes in five genres (landscape, waterscape, still life, figurative, and abstract) and in five elements of composition (color, value, line, shape, and texture). Plus, the same two new categories will be kept: a Judge’s Choice and the People’s Choice. The judge this year, recommended by PSNH, will be Mary Eselin, a professional artist with gallery representation in several VT and NH galleries. Our goal for the ME has been to showcase the range of experience and diversity of pastel painting in our VPS, so the awards have tried to reflect that. Come see our VPS members’ works along with our neighbor pastel society’s paintings. You won’t be disappointed.

Our Juried Show will be in November 2020 at the Southern Vermont Arts Center.

VPS WORKSHOPS
Alain Picard will offer a combination of workshops in East Montpelier, VT: The Painterly Landscape, August 17-19, 2020 and The Painterly Portrait, August 20-21, 2020. Artists can sign up for one or both. Details will follow in February.

Lyn Asselta will offer a workshop October 2-4, 2020, at the Taraden Art Barn in North Bennington. Stay alert for details coming to you near the end of March.

BOARD NEWS
As you may recall, our board has 10 members who serve 2 year staggered terms. Every year, therefore, 5 members’ terms are up, and we hold elections, usually at the Annual Membership Meeting. This past November, at that meeting, Grace Cothalis, her Vice Presidential term up, wanted to step down, and she ran for one of the Member-at-Large positions, leaving the VP spot vacant. As we had no candidates to fill that position, we asked our hubs for volunteers. Mark Grasso, of VPS: SouthWest offered his candidacy, and he was elected in an e-mail meeting vote on December 19, 2019.
We still need a Secretary to record the minutes of the two board meetings and one annual membership meeting that occur every year. Please let us know if you want to serve the VPS by being on the board as our Secretary.

Members Gallery
As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the devoted support that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on mark-making in pastel!

Matt Peake
VPS President