CPSA - Explore This! 6 now online

The online exhibition of the 6th CPSA Explore This! is now online. This is the Colored Pencil Society of America's exhibition which allows the use of coloured pencils with other media. As of last year, it became an online exhibition only - which lasts all year.

These are the links to:

• the award winners
• information about the juror Barbara Grazul Hubbard
• the exhibition
• the list of participating artists and title of their artwork

Ester Roi won the The EXPY Best of Show Award and the Prismacolor Award ($2000) for her work 'Above and Below'. Ester has been somebody who has recently been pushing at the boundaries of how coloured pencils can be used with her invention of a portable, electric drawing board called “Icarus Drawing Board”® (patent pending) for wax-based media (the Icarus Drawing Board), Ester also has a rather unusual approach to working practices in her studio! See My Art Studio: Part 1

Selected entries combined coloured pencils with watercolour, acrylic, gouache, ink, oil pastel, pastel, graphite, marker pens and metal leaf. Media supports included sanded travertine stone, a mahogany panel, wood and gesso. Collage was also used. The major change I noticed in the exhibition was that this year, there's more use of oil pastels in conjunction with coloured pencils.

The main thing I always notice though is how different subject matter and treatment is compared to artwork in different media in the UK. While there are several examples of excellent technique, to my mind Ester's work was one of a few which could easily be shown in London