August 2013 Meeting Highlights

J.Y. Chang, Nenette Santos, Marian Gault, Linda Huffman, Denise Howard, Betsy Jones, Mike Purdy.
Not shown: Christopher Swetlin

Another great meeting!  We met at the Palo Alto Art Center on Saturday, August 17.  It's such a nice facility, we wish we could meet there all the time.  We welcomed three new members who were also attending their first DC210 chapter meeting: Nenette Santos, Marian Gault, and Betsy Jones.  Nenette Santos lives in San Francisco, so thanks to her, our chapter designation (San Francisco) is no longer ironic because we finally have a member there!  Marian Gault is a professional calligrapher who blew us away with her beautiful script, and we hope she'll give us a demo someday soon of how she combines calligraphy and colored pencil drawings.  Betsy is perhaps best known as the admin for the very busy Colored Pencil Artists and Lovers group on Facebook, but she's also the new national CPSA Public Relations Director.

We had lots of recognition to dole out!

•  J.Y. Chang, Denise Howard and Betsy Jones for their acceptances in the UKCPS International Exhibition
• J.Y. Chang and Denise Howard for achieving CPSA signature status
• Denise Howard for winning the Dixon Ticonderoga Award for Exceptional Merit for her Tree of Character in the CPSA International Exhibition
• Gemma Gylling for organizing another terrific CPSA convention--her last as national Convention Director
• Chris Swetlin for Honorable Mention in the Pacific Art League's "Figures and Faces" juried exhibit for Girl with a Bubble, which he had included in his demo for us at the June meeting
• Chris Swetlin for 3 pieces in the Pacific Art League's "Water Media on Paper" juried exhibit, going on this month
• Maryann Kot on becoming the new director of the Livermore Art Association Gallery

Our chapter show, "Explorations in Colored Pencil II", is coming up in only three weeks, so we discussed some logistics.  Big "thank yous" to Chris Swetlin for volunteering to hang the show, take it down, design the printed materials and round up some of the reception refreshments, and to Linda Huffman for donating $50 toward the purchase of refreshments.  This will be our first opportunity to display our new chapter banner!  Entries have started trickling in, but of course we know how artists work: most of them will probably arrive in the last two days before the deadline of August 23!  The entry form is downloadable from the Calendar page of our chapter website.

Right away after our show ends on October 6, the Livermore ArtWalk is on Saturday, October 12, so we discussed some details for that event, too.  We'll have the same great booth location as last year. Denise will provide her canopy, print racks and table. The deadline for signing up to participate in our booth is August 26.  The entry form is downloadable from the Calendar page of our chapter website.

Our biennial officers' election is coming up in October.  If you're a member of DC210 and would like to run for any position, or nominate someone else for a position, let Denise know so the  name can appear on the ballot.  Linda Loder has decided to step down after 11 years on the board (including 9 as our previous president), so the vice-president position will be open.

We already have a date and venue for our November meeting:  Saturday, November 16 at Emil Villa's Hickory Pit in Livermore.  Watch the Calendar page of our website for program details as they develop.  Thank you to Henrietta Haines for arranging this!

Everyone who attended received a "schwag bag" from the CPSA national convention, full of great samples of papers, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, and new products.  These were extra bags that were left over at the end of the convention and since Denise drove to it, she was able to bring back quite a few.  The remainder will be up for grabs at the November meeting!

Denise read aloud a recent blog post by Ann Kullberg, "Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged...Unless They Ask Nicely" and some of the comments that were posted in response to it.  It's about how presentation matters very much when entering artwork into shows, whether we like it or not.  A timely topic since our chapter show is coming up right away!  We talked about how we prepare our own work for various situations.

We briefly discussed "When is a colored pencil drawing not a colored pencil drawing?" but we will revisit it again at November's meeting since we were running out of time.

"Show and Tell" is always a delight--it's so much fun to see what everyone is working on, and works that have been posted online always look sooooo much better and more full of life in person!  Thank you to everyone who brought something and for sharing your cp problems.