Welcome to the Blog Of CPSA DC210 San Jose

CPSA District Chapter 210, San Jose, CA

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Highlights of November 2015 meeting

Our November meeting actually happened on Halloween (October 31), so chapter president Denise Howard dressed accordingly, thanks to Paula Greer who lent her hat!

Recognition

We recognized several members for service and accomplishments:
  • Gemmaa Gylling, as she steps down as our chapter webmaster
  • Ranjini Venkatachari, as she steps up to be our chapter webmaster
  • Mike Purdy for inclusion in Ann Kullberg's upcoming "CP Cats ans Dogs" book
  • Mike Menius for Honorable Mention in CPSA ArtSpectations
  • Gemma Gylling for her podcast interview by Sharpened Artist
  • Explorations in Colored Pencil IV winners: 1st place Gemma Gylling, 2nd place Denise Howard, 3rd place J.Y. Chang 
  • Denise Howard for 3 pieces in OA Small Works Invitational in St. Louis
  • Denise Howard for 2 pieces accepted in Coastal Arts League’s annual juried show in Half Moon Bay
  • Denise Howard for 4 pieces in SVOS Invitational in Los Altos
  • Maryann Kot for Honorable Mention in the Pleasanton Art League All Member Annual show

Old Business

Our biennial election results were unanimous, so our chapter officers for November 1, 2015 to October 31, 2017 will continue to be:
  • President: Denise Howard
  • Vice-President: Maria Lemery
  • Secretary: Mike Purdy
  • Treasurur: J.Y. Chang
  • Membership: Maryann Kot
Andrea Myers gave an update on the plans for our first-ever "drawing retreat", which will bee at The Sequoia Retreat Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Felton, during March 2016.  Several members have expressed an interest, but of course expense is a concern, so the more who sign up, the cheaper it will be!

Our two-day Ann Kullberg portrait workshop is April 16-17, 2016 at the Bothwell Arts Center in Livermore; don’t wait to sign up, because it is advertised on her website and her workshops fill up fast!  Here’s the workshop description.  To register, click here and select Livermore/Pleasanton from the popup list.  Anyone is welcome, it is not restricted to CPSA members.

New Business

We discussed the possibility of hosting an upcoming CPSA national convention.  The last time we hosted was 2010, and since only so many of the 22 chapters are in locales with facilities that can properly accommodate both the International Exhibition and the convention, our turn will come up again soon.  The consensus was, yes, let's offer to host!  So Denise will inform national, and we'll see if they have a year in mind.  The next couple of years' sites have already been determined so we don't have to do anything more now.

Denise reminded everyone that annual national and chapter membership renewal is now due, as it runs from November 1 to October 31.

Two significant show entry deadlines are coming up:

Presentation

Shone Chacko is an incredibly good scratchboard artist from San Jose.  He recently won Best in Show at the Cupertino Food & Wine show, which included $1000 cash award.  We were fortunate to have him introduce us to his favorite medium!  His wife and two kids even helped him set up.  He brought several examples of his work; he said the best ones are in a show in San Jose right now, but these looked pretty darned good to us.  Scratchboard is very complementary to colored pencil because of its extreme attention to fine detail and the fact that you can use colored pencil to colorize a scratchboard drawing.  Shone brought sample scratchboards and scratch tools for everyone to take home and try out, compliments of Ampersand, the maker of the boards.  He showed us the wide variety of tools he uses, from special scratchboard tools, to steel wool, to tattoo needles, to surgical scalpel blades.  Most of these things he finds for sale cheap on Amazon!  There are special inks made by Ampersand for colorizing scratchboard; he prefers these over Derwent Inktense pencils, which are known for their saturated color and water-solubility.  Just a tiny drop of ink, diluted with a lot of water, covers a large area.  After scratching an area, he mixes the color on a plate and applies it very sparingly with a brush, then waits for it to dry completely before scratching more. For the demo he started a drawing of a cat, beginning with its eye; the board was about 8”x10” and he said that if he was doing it on his own (not demoing) he could complete it in only a couple of hours!  He also displayed a work-in-progress of a leopard that is about 20” x 30”, the largest piece he has done to date.  It is mostly finished even though he estimated he has only spent 30 hours on it so far.  The speed with which such detailed work can be completed raised a lot of eyebrows among our group that is so used to the slowness of colored pencil!  Although the scratching sound can be a little too similar to fingernails on a chalkboard for some folks to handle, I think there will be some scratchboard experiments at our next “show and tell”….
Scratchboard artist Shone Chacko demonstrates his process
Shone starts with the eyes

Here are a couple of photos from "show and tell", when we learn what everyone else has been up to with their pencils, what problems they've encountered, what techniques they've been trying, etc.!

Paula Greer is trying an underpainting of graphite with a Duralar overlay for color.  Note her candy-corn fingernails, for Halloween!
Winifred Scott tried a Yosemite landscape on sueded mat board

Next meeting


Our next meeting will be Saturday, February 20, 2016, same time, same place.  The program is still TBD but since we didn’t have time to view the DVD of the 2015 International Exhibition and Explore This! 11 on Saturday, we will include it for the February meeting.

Monday, September 7, 2015

"Explorations in Colored Pencil IV" Award Winners

The opening reception for our chapter show, "Explorations in Colored Pencil IV" was held Friday, September 4, 5:30 - 8:30 PM at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto.  Attendance was huge thanks to PAL's Anniversary Show reception at the same time!  Many more people were exposed to the versatility of colored pencil than we normally could have reached.

Our awards judge, Cathy Zander, announced the following winners:

1st Place and $100: Sunshine at the Windowsill by Gemma Gylling, CPSA
Sunshine at the Windowsill by Gemma Gylling, CPSA

2nd Place and $50: The Three Graces by Denise Howard, CPSA, CPX
The Three Graces by Denise Howard, CPSA, CPX

3rd Place and $25: Ribbons of Color by J.Y. Chang, CPSA, CPX
Ribbons of Color by J.Y. Chang, CPSA, CPX

Honorable Mention: Bush Lilies by Mike Purdy, CPSA
Bush Lilies by Mike Purdy, CPSA

Honorable Mention: The Lion and the Mouse by Marian Gault
The Lion and the Mouse by Marian Gault

Honorable Mention: Critically Endangered, Amur Leopard by Gemma Gylling, CPSA
Critically Endangered, Amur Leopard by Gemma Gylling, CPSA

Here are a few photos from the reception.  The show runs Sept. 4-24, so see it while you can!






Mike Purdy, Andrea Myers, Mary Adamson, Vivi Leon

The Pacific Art League

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Ranjini Wins Award of Distinction in 2015 CPSA International Exhibition

Congratulations to CPSA DC210 member Ranjini Venkatachari on winning an Award of Distinction for her piece Genealogy in the 23rd annual CPSA International Exhibition!

Genealogy by Ranjini Venkatachari

Highlights of August 2015 Meeting

What a meeting we had on Saturday, August 22!  Our longest one ever, but so worthwhile.

We had two guests who drove all the way from near Pismo Beach to check us out. I think we made a good case for them to join our chapter rather than the Los Angeles chapter--either direction is a very long drive for them.


Old Business

Maryann Kot summarized the plein air outing at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore in July.  Five people attended and had a great time drawing, particularly since there was a special bonsai show going on.

We are still looking for a volunteer to redesign our chapter brochure. 

Mike Purdy gave an update on our 20th anniversary celebration at Campo di Bocce on Sunday, October 18 at 12:30; we will meet there for lunch and bocce ball.

Mike also gave an update on “Explorations in Colored Pencil IV” at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto.  The reception is on Friday, September 4 from 5:30-8:30 PM and we will present the awards at the same time the Pacific Art League presents the awards for its other, bigger, Anniversary Exhibit, around 6 PM.  Come, and bring family and friends!  No RSVP is needed for the reception, just show up and meet a whole lot of other artists and patrons as well—Pacific Art League always gets a large turnout for their first-Friday receptions.

Maryann Kot gave an update on our booth plans for the Livermore ArtWalk Saturday, October 10, 11 AM - 5 PM.

Vivi Leon gave an update on Paws in the Park, September 27 in Pleasanton.  Our chapter will not be an official presence there, but several of our members along with some non-members will have a booth, selling pet-related artworks (originals, cards and prints) and donating some or all of their sales to the local animal shelter.


New business

We passed around a get-well card to sign for outgoing membership chair Linda Huffman, and welcomed her appointed replacement Maryann Kot.  Maryann has jumped into the role with both feet!

Our next meeting will be Saturday, November 14 at the Bothwell; the presentation is TBD.

Officer elections are coming up in October!

Big news: our 2016 workshop presenter will be Ann Kullberg!  Yes, she of “Colored Pencil Portraits Step by Step” fame, and publisher of CP Magazine, “CP Treasures” volumes I, II and III and more upcoming books.  Mark your calendar for Saturday and Sunday April 16-17 at the Bothwell.  Ann will present her two-day portrait workshop.  Cost $235.  The minimum number of registrants we need is 14, the maximum is 24.  All registration will be handled through Ann’s website, not ours.

We talked about the idea of having a “drawing retreat” sometime next spring, and there seems to be a lot of interest in it as well as a couple of great suggestions on where we might have it, so we will start looking into this.  The idea of a “retreat” is to go somewhere away from the distractions of job, family, cell phones and commitments, and just enjoy focused drawing time with similarly-minded people.  This is an idea I heard about from some other chapter presidents at the convention this year, and they all said it’s one of their members’ favorite events!


Other

Folks who tried out the Strathmore 400 Series Colored Pencil paper samples I provided at the last meeting reported back on what they thought of it.  Opinions seem to be mixed; a couple of folks liked it and its texture and weight just fine, while a a couple of other folks complained that it doesn’t seem to want to take more than 2-3 layers of pencil, is a little too thin and has a harsh texture.  What did you think?  It just goes to show that everyone’s preferences are different!

Six members of CPSA DC210 have submissions in CPSA national’s ArtSpectations online exhibit!  Paula Greer, Mary Young, Mike Purdy, Andrea Myers, Janki Chokshi, and Mike Menius.  Ranjini Venkatachari, who is the national exhibitions director, reports that there were more than 480 entries this year, including several international entries.  Judging is in progress and winners will be announced in September.  See the online show here:  https://cpsa.fluidreview.com/p/

Ranjini also reported that the prospectus for Explore This! 12 will go online September 15th. The juror is Holly Koons McCullogh, the director of Curator of Exhibitions, Greater Reston Arts Center.

Ranjini was not present because at the same time as our meeting she was giving a 90-minute demo at University Art in San Jose.  She told me a couple of days before that there were 35 people signed up for it and 20 more on the waiting list!  This is great news—it means folks are very hungry to learn more about our favorite medium.  Ranjini will be teaching a workshop at the store on Saturday, September 12; contact the store to sign up.  She is also having a solo show at the Lindsay Dirkx Brown Art Gallery in San Ramon September 1-29.

I will be teaching a half-day “Vibrant Realism with Colored Pencil” workshop at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, Sunday, Oct. 11 1-5 PM; see its listing here:  http://www.pacificartleague.org/workshops

Maryann Kot has a new drawing class starting in September at the Bothwell Arts Center in Livermore, “Basic Drawing: Focus on Nature”.  This is in addition to her “Basics and Beyond - Colored Pencil”.  For more information about both, see here:  http://www.livermoreperformingarts.org/bothwell-arts-center/camps-and-classes.html


The Fun Stuff

Maryann Kot presented “Finishing Your Artwork” and provided a summary handout.  There was discussion about framing your work yourself vs. having a framer do it, and also about final fixatives (the consensus seems to be that Lascaux is the best and Krylon is to be avoided), and how to sign your work (discreetly).  Maryann also talked about the importance of UV protection for artwork and lightfastness, and showed her copy of the CPSA’s Lightfastness Workbook, which is available for free to all CPSA national members.  She showed an original drawing of hers which had changed dramatically due to sunlight exposure only a couple of hours per day but over a few months in a gallery due to the use of non-lightfast pencils.  She said she threw away about a third of all her pencils after referencing the Lightfastness Workbook.

There were quite a few “Show and Tell” pieces!  We have so many talented members!  Some of these pieces will be in our chapter show in Palo Alto next month, and others will be at Paws in the Park.


Silent Auction

Earlier this year, former CPSA DC210 member Eleanor Perry passed away at age 88 and directed that all her art supplies be given to our chapter.  We offered a minute of silent gratitude for her generosity.  She was remembered from the late 1990s as a librarian who lived in Castro Valley with no close family, who did beautifully detailed colored pencil work.  Even her obituary mentions her CPSA membership:  http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/insidebayarea/obituary.aspx?n=eleanor-perry&pid=174466505  We decided earlier this summer that the best way to honor her wishes would be to have a silent auction of her supplies at our meeting—members would get some great bargains and the chapter would receive the money, win-win.  I think everyone who placed a bid went home with some kind of happy bargain!  We’re going to think of something worthy to do with the money in Eleanor’s honor.

The few items which received no bids—mostly older pads of paper and tubes of paint were donated to the local high school art program. All in all, we hope Eleanor Perry would be pleased with the disposition of all her art supplies.

Organizing some of the silent auction items.  There were two long tables-full plus the bench behind and a side counter!

Many great colored pencil books

So many items!

Later in the day, bid sheets abound!

Maryann talks about “Finishing Your Artwork"

Maryann talks about framing options with the examples of her original piece that she’s holding vs. the giclee print of it on the easel.


Sunday, June 28, 2015

Mary Young Wins Both 1st and 2nd Place

Congratulations to DC210 member Mary Young on winning both 1st Place and 2nd Place in the Drawing category at the Vacaville Art Gallery's 38th Annual Juried Show!

It's turning into a busy, rewarding summer for our members!

Life Is Good, 8" x 11" by Mary Young
1st Place
The Ring/String Magic Trick, 8"x8" by Mary Young
2nd Place

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Phil Dean wins his first award for colored pencil

Congratulations to DC210 member Phil Dean of Livermore on his first award for colored pencil work! He entered four pieces in the Alameda County Fair Art Show and all were accepted, and this one won an Honorable Mention. We expect it is the first of many awards to come!