QUARTERLY QUOTE
“I enjoy painting, but the most fun for me is thinking about what I want to do. Mostly it’s fiddling with an array of objects until they form a pleasing composition. I usually let out an audible ‘wow’ when I get to the place I want to be.”
Brennie Brackett

It’s summer and the VPS is sizzling;
We have two workshops scheduled, and as far as exhibitions, we have one done and one to come;
Regional hubs are doing lots of things;
And we’re only half way thru the year!

Continue reading below for more details.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:
May 17-July 7, 2019: Juried Show, White River Craft Center, Randolph, VT
July 29-August 2, 2019: Richard McKinley Workshop, 4 Corners School House, East Montpelier, VT
September 2019: Members’ Exhibition, TW Wood Gallery, Montpelier, VT
September 21-23, 2019: Jacob Aguiar Workshop, Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT

VPS REGIONAL HUBS UPDATE
Our regional hubs continue to meet regularly, with VPS:SouthEast, VPS:MidState, VPS:Champlain, and VPS: SouthWest being the most active ones, at least as far as being reported through Hub Happenings. If other hubs are doing things, please let Judy Albright know so she can share your activities on Hub Happenings with the whole membership. Ideas and opportunities your hub finds interesting offer options to other hubs as well!

Remember that one of the responsibilities given to hubs is to help with exhibitions when the venue of the Juried Show or Members’ Exhibition is closest to their hub’s central city or cities. Just to remind everyone, they are:

Burlington/St Albans for VPS: Champlain,
Montpelier for VPS: Central,
White River Junction for VPS: Upper Valley,
Brattleboro for VPS: SouthEast,
Middlebury/Rutland for VPS: MidState, and
Bennington/Manchester for VPS: SouthWest

Those duties include receiving the pastels for the show, hanging the show, hosting the reception, providing images of the reception for social media, and being present at take down for artists picking up paintings. The Point Person for the hub will be informed a couple months ahead of time that your hub will be hosting the show. As a hub member, even though you do not happen to have a painting in the show, it is still part of your hub’s job to help with the show, so please make yourself available to your hub’s Point Person for any or all of the tasks asked of you.

VPS EXHIBITIONS
Our Juried Show will hang until Sunday, July 7 at the White River Craft Center, in Randolph, VT. We used an on-line submission platform, Online Juried Shows (OJS), for our Juried Show this year to eliminate some of the many hours of work it takes to put on such a show. Our jurors, Jacob Aguiar and Christine Ivers viewed over 90 paintings and had to narrow their selection down to 25 works to hang in the intimate exhibition space. Special thanks go out to Laura Winn Kane for coming on board as Exhibitions Co-Chair with Susannah Colby to help make this year’s Juried Show a reality. And a hearty thank you should be given to Katrina Thorstensen for organizing the reception for VPS: Upper Valley! It was a very festive, well-attended event, with a colorful and humorous judge, David Frances, picking out the 5 prize-winners from the twenty five excellent and deserving paintings.

Our Members’ Exhibition (ME) is coming soon, during the month of September, at the TW Wood Gallery in Montpelier, VT. Thanks to the many members who responded to our survey, we have added and modified the categories for this year’s awards. Our goal for the ME has been to showcase the range of experience and diversity of pastel painting in our VPS, so the awards are meant to reflect that. As such, anyone with 5 months to 5 decades of pastel painting experience should feel welcome to submit a painting or two (depending on space) and have their love of pastels celebrated by viewers and eyed by our judge, Mickey Myers, Executive Director of the Bryan Memorial Gallery. So stay alert for all the details in an upcoming email. And speaking of hubs, please note that VPS: Central will be the host hub for the 2019 ME!

VPS WORKSHOPS
The Richard McKinley Workshop, July 29-August 2, 2019 has three (3) openings. Any one interested in learning from this excellent teacher, can email Joyce Kahn at [email protected]

The workshop for September 21-23, 2019, with Jacob Aguiar at Taraden, 183 Park Street, North Bennington, VT, is full, but new names can be added to a waiting list should current registrants need to drop out. Contact Linda Masten at [email protected]

BOARD NEWS
As a reminder, if you want your image changed in the VPS Website Gallery, please use this link: http: https://vermontpastelsociety.com/policies-procedures/.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED PARTICIPATION IN THE VPS!
We are who we are from the effort, energy, and enthusiasm that you all give to our organization. Keep it coming, as you keep on pastel-painting!

Matt Peake, VPS President