American Pastel Society to honor Bill Creevy

Yesterday the 39th Annual Exhibition of the American Pastel Society opened at the National Arts Club in New York City.

39th Annual Open Juried Exhibition of the Pastel Society of America

Accepted entries usually number 170 to 200 pastels out of more than 1,000 entries. Prizes amounting to over $25,000 in both cash and pastel materials are presented at a special awards ceremony, which also recognizes the "Hall of Fame" honoree and the "Friend of Pastel" honoree, followed by the annual dinner in the gallery.Pastel Society of America

There are no images as yet of paintings included in this year's exhibition on their website as yet - however they should be posted at some point.  It seems unlikely that this will be until after the Awards Ceremony on 25th September at 4pm - which is followed by an Awards Dinner in the evening.

UPDATE:  You can now see the works by the prizewiining artists in 2011 - who are as detailed below.


To see more of their work EITHER click the link in their names to visit their websites OR click the link after their names to visit a gallery showing their work.

• Jimmy Wright - PSA Founders Award given by The Flora B. Giffuni Foundation - I think his works on paper are fabulous!
• Bob Palevitz - Jack Richeson & Co. Award
• Theresa Emmett Allison (Gallery website) - Art Spirit Foundation-Dianne B. Bernhard, PSA, Gold Medal Award
• Robert Carsten PSA CPS –The Flora B. Giffuni & Joseph V. Giffuni Memorial Award
• Tim Solliday (Gallery website) –Great American Artworks Award -“Fully Monty” Award
• Daniel E. Greene –Herman Margulies Award for Excellence
• Sangita Phadke - The National Arts Club Award
• Frederick D. Somers PSA –The Pastel Journal Award - very colourful portrayal of water
• Cuong Nguyen –President’s Award given by Rae Smith - he has step by step demonstrations of how he works on his website
• Barbara Mason –The Yang Family Award (this is the link to her blog)

In the meantime you can see 

• the top award winners from 2010, 2009 and 2008 on the Pastel Society website.  It's good to see such splendid pictures and also to see the variation in approach to the use of pastels by the award winners.  It always seems to me that's a very good indicator of a healthy art society!
• artwork by members of the society - see the section about links to individual artist pages on the website at the end of this post
• the work exhibited at the PSA members show earlier this year on the website

I've got just one small gripe - and it's one which occurs to me time and time again when I look at exhibition images on the websites of a number of societies.  It's much easier for us viewing online to appreciate the images properly  and the work done by artists if we have some sense of the image dimensions.  Otherwise tiny pics get posted next to huge pics and they both look the same size online!

It's also worth noting that on Saturday 24th September there is a Materials Fair being held between 10-4 PM.

Bill Creevy - PSA Hall of Fame Honoree 2011

It's traditional each year for one of the members of the PSA to join their Hall of Fame.

Bill Creevy - Pastels

I was ever so pleased to hear earlier this year that it's was Bill Creevy's turn to honoured as the latest pastel artist to join the Pastel Society Hall of Fame in 2011.

About time too was my initial response!

I'm guessing that others who, like me, cut our teeth on pastels via Bill's amazing book about pastels - called appropriately The Pastel Book probably thought the same! I've happily referred to Bill's book  for years as the best book about pastels - in the sense  that a very large part of it is about the different brands of pastels and how pastels work (eg 40 pages on pastel brands and another 40 pages on pastel and how you can combine them with other media.  I'd love to see Bill revise and update it.  I'd buy it again and I suspect others would too!

I understand that Bill's pastel paintings are being exhibited prominently during the PSA exhibition.  You can also see more of his work on his website.

He is also doing a demonstration on the afternoon of October 1st.

Incidentally the "Hall of Fame" is a unique American way of doing things.  UK Art Societies don't have a Hall of Fame.  The nod in the direction of elevated status is to make a member an honorary member or senior member.

In the meantime it would be great to see a virtual Hall of Fame on the website.  I gather one is planned but links have still to be added to the list of Hall of Fame Honorees.

Artwork by members of the Pastel Society

You can also see the standard of artwork by members of the Pastel Society of America by clicking on the names of members in the Members Galleries - replicated below.  These members' gallery pages also provide contact details including links to the members' websites.

• Mick Abbott
• Susan Balas-Whitfield
• Joann A. Ballinger
• Gregory Biolchini
• Brenda Boylan
• Foster Caddell
• Jacquelyn Kammerer Cattaneo
• Carol Dallas
• Diane Sweet Dean
• Ellen Dreibelbis
• Margaret Evans
• Frank Federico
• Marian Flahavin
• Kaye Franklin
• Christine Frazer
• David E. Garrison
• Eleanor Goldstein
• Linda Gross Brown
• Annette Adrian Hanna
• Mary Whigham Hargrave
• Liz Haywood-Sullivan
• Jean Hirons
• Chin-Cheng Hung
• Betsy M. Kellum
• Debby LaFogg-Docherty
• Isabelle V. Lim
• Toni Lindahl
• Gigi Horr Liverant
• Barbara Makanowitzky
• Claire Paisner
• Elissa Prystauk
• Lisa Rico
• Junko Ono Rothwell
• Gail E. Robinson Sauter
• Patricia Savage
• Eileen Serwer
• Claudia Seymour
• Rae Smith
• Patricia Tribastone
• Lorrie B. Turner
• Sibylla Voll
• Duane Wakeham
• Daggi Wallace
• John A. Wang
• Lori White
• Margaret Williams-McGowan
• Jane Wright Wolf
• Rhoda Yanow

Workshops by Pastel Society of America members

One great idea introduced by the PSA which could be replicated by other art societies is the Members Workshop brochure - Pastels Workshops (September 2011- November 2012) which is available to download online.  The 21 workshops all take place at the National Arts Club.

Maybe more art societies could do something similar?  To my mind it's one of the primary reasons for having an art society - to promote education in whatever is the focus of the society at the same time as bringing new audiences to the attention of their members.


Do let me know if you to the Exhibition - I want to hear all about it!

Information about the National Arts Club:
15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003-1796, United States
+1 212-475-3424
The National Arts Club is located at 15 Gramercy Park South (20th Street) between Park and Irving Place, on the southwest corner of Gramercy Park. (Unfortunately the National Arts Club appeared to be having a few problems with its website and events calendar when I was drafting this post - here's hoping they get it fixed soon!)