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CPSA District Chapter 210, San Jose, CA

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Highlights of February 2014 Meeting

Our February 22, 2014 chapter meeting was at Emil Villa’s Hickory Pit in Livermore. Members and guests attended from as far away as Valley Springs and Dixon.

As usual, our members have been busy!
  • Mike Purdy: Acceptance into “Explore This! 10”
  • Mike Purdy: Tombow Award for Excellence in “Explore This! 10”
  • Chris Swetlin: Honorable Mention, Annual Members Exhibit, Pacific Art League
  • Denise Howard: articles in TTP, April issue of CP magazine, and summer issue of UKCPS Talking Point
  • Denise Howard: featured in March “Talk Art” episode
  • Denise Howard, butterfly kit for Ann Kullberg
  • Gemma Gylling, acceptance into two national shows—one wildlife-themed and one dog-themed
We now have a PayPal account, which enables easier membership renewal via our website instead of having to mail in a check. We’ll be able to use this for other purposes in the future, such as show entries and workshop registrations.

Our “Explorations in Colored Pencil III" will be at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto in September!

Final plans are set for Gemma Gylling’s two-day workshop April 12-13!  The workshop will run 9 AM - 3 PM each day.  For lunch, folks can either bring their own, or they can order from a menu from nearby Mr. Pickles sandwich shop and Denise will go get the food while they keep working.  (Lunch is not included in the cost of the workshop.)  We will limit the workshop to 28 attendees due to space considerations and Gemma’s desire to be able to give individual attention.  Gemma brought a copy of the step-by-step booklet that each attendee will receive, which will enable them to confidently complete their project at home if they can't finish it during the workshop.

The next meeting will be Saturday, May 3, location TBD but will be somewhere between San Mateo and San Francisco.  Prismacolor representative Shelly Minnis will be in San Francisco that weekend and we are coordinating to have her give us a presentation!

We briefly discussed the 2014 member survey results.

We talked about the possibility of having a plein sir “drawing day” at an area garden.  Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore not only welcomes artists but hosts art events and has enormous spreading oak trees for shade.  We will check into setting a “drawing day” there in late May, before it gets too hot.

We also talked about a possible museum outing. 

Door prizes were won by being the first to correctly answer impromptu questions!  Two of them were “Name a brand of colored pencil that does not start with the letter ‘P’”, and “How many members does our chapter currently have?”  Nobody was able to answer “What year was our chapter founded?”  (1995) or “Who was the founder of our chapter?”  (Shirley Dominiak)

Denise Howard presented “Colored Pencil on Dura-Lar Drafting Film” complete with a handout.  She showed how she sets up to draw on it with a tape “hinge” along one edge to enable flipping it over to draw on the back.  She demonstrated how drawing on the back can intensify or modify the color on the front, and how no outline is necessary on the film.  Her finished piece “A Private Conversation”, of a hen and rooster, will be featured in the summer issue of the UKCPS’s “Talking Point” magazine along with a full article she wrote on the topic.  She sent everyone home with a small sample of Dura-Lar and a challenge: try it, and bring your result to the May meeting!

We had great participation for “show and tell”!  Some finished pieces, some works in progress.  We all got constructive advice or learned something. 

Gemma brought her copy of “Strokes of Genius 5” which includes one of her drawings, and Denise brought her copy of “CP Treasures, Volume II” which includes drawings by both her and Gemma, for everyone to look through.

Several items in the swap meet were quickly claimed.  The remainder will be donated to an elementary school.  We decluttered our shelves, benefited each other, and benefited a school to boot!

See you all at our next meeting on May 3!








Mike Purdy a Winner in Explore This! 10

Mike Purdy's "What's for Supper?" has won the Tombow Award for Excellence in Explore This! 10.  The award includes a $300 product voucher.  This was Mike's first acceptance into the annual Explore This! juried online exhibition, which encourages the use of other media along with colored pencil, as long as the work is predominantly colored pencil.  "What's for Supper" is colored pencil, black india ink and dry pastels.  Congratulations, Mike!

What's for Supper? by Mike Purdy