Pencil Arts Society Annual Exhibition - Selected Artists and Award Winners

The very first Online International Juried Exhibition of the Pencil Art Society went live today.  It has a dedicated website so that over time it will build up a history of the exhibition. I wish all art societies were this well organised!

Best in Show - Bianca Eva by Cristina Iotti
19.7″ x 23.6″
NFS
Graphite & Coloured Pencil on unknown paper

• You can see the Gallery of 60 selected images online.  The works in this exhibition have a lot in common with the UKCPS and CPSA exhibitions in terms of subject matter and stylistic approach.  The exhibition certainly includes some excellent work from a technical perspective. 
• The Juror was Bob Ebdon - the Founder of the UK Coloured Pencil Society in 2001
• I'm listing all the 35 juried artists below with links to their websites.  Entries came in from all over the world including Canada, the United States, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain! 
• This is a page about the awards - also listed below.  The Pencil Society decided that they would limit the number, in order to showcase only the best of the submissions. Prismacolor, Canson, Derwent, Curry's and Dick Blick are all sponsoring the exhibition. The combined value in cash and art supplies of the prizes offered prizes is over $1800 CAD .

The aim of the Pencil Society is to demonstrate to the world the best of what pencil can do.

This is a dream come true for all of us. Such a response from our members! So much beautiful work! We were blown away by the entries we received, and our juror Bob Ebdon had a very difficult time choosing which would be included in the show. Alexandra Bastien, PAS Exhibition Chair

Those interested in pencil art will want to note that there are two categories of artwork in the Gallery:

• 100% Pencil Works: for drawings that consist of solely graphite pencil, solely charcoal, solely conté, solely coloured pencil (used dry or with solvent) or solely watersoluble pencil (used dry) — used separately or in combination with each other.
• 50% Pencil Mixed Media Works: for drawings that consist of at least 50% of ANY of the five PAS-accepted pencil media — solely graphite pencil, solely charcoal, solely conté, solely coloured pencil (used dry or with solvent) or solely watersoluble pencil (used dry) — used separately or in combination with each other AND with 50% any OTHER media.

The Pencil Society Online Exhibition 2013 - Awards

Best in Show $500 cash prize. Plus Free Entry to the 2014 international exhibition and one year free membership

• Bianca Eva by Cristina Iotti (see the image at the top of this post) Christina is an Italian artist working in coloured pencils. You can see more of her portfolio of carefully worked cross hatched artwork on her website

First place $325 product (sponsored by prismacolor) Plus Free Entry to the 2014 international exhibition and one year free membership

• Share the burden by Alexandra Bastien A graduate of the School of Fine Arts of the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal, Alexandra is also a signature member of both CPSA and UKCPS and has won numerous awards.

Other Places and Honourable Mentions

• Second place: Working Horse Team by Leonie Bell New South Wales, Australia 
• Third place: Model Soldier by Susan E. Poole UK 
• First honourable mention: Falling into Place by Arlene Steinberg
• Second honourable mention: Exposed by Darlene Jordan Pfaff
• Third honourable mention: Spring's Sentry by Lissa Rachelle Robillard

Excellence in Drawing 

• Indiana Barn by Diane Wright (Diane Wright Art Journal)  Diane has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of Northern Iowa and lives in Mitchellville, Iowa.  She includes a number of tutorials on her website and links to them in her blog.

Special recognition for the use of pencil with mixed media

• Blue Eyes by Christine Karron  Christine was born and raised in Estonia and now lives in Alberta in Canada.  She attended the Willy-Brandt School in Art and Design while living in Germany.

Master Pencil Art Status

The first artists to receive Master Pencil Artist Status (MPAS) were Sheona Hamilton-Grant, Denise J. Howard, Karen Hull and Wendy Thompson.

Selected Artists

Thirty Five artists had work selected for the exhibition.  I've highlighted my personal favourites below with a comment.

Two works

• Carolyn Bain – Ontario, Canada
• Alexandra Bastien, CPSA, UKCPS Silver – Quebec, Canada
• Nancy Bélisle – Quebec, Canada
• Leonie Bell – New South Wales, Australia
• Pierre Blanchette – Quebec, Canada
• Kathy Dolan – Ontario, Canada
• Tanja Gant, CPSA – USA  I love both the composition and technical execution of Speak no evil. This artist has an incredibly light touch and real finesse - which is a skill I'd commend to others who work in pencil
• Kim Hamby – USA
• Sheona Hamilton-Grant, MPAS – Germany (Black on Grey on White) 
• Sharon Hester – Florida, USA
• Denise Howard, CPSA, UKCPS, MPAS – California, USA
• Karen Hull, MPAS – Australia (Karen Hull Art) 
• Darlene Jordan-Pfaff – Canada
• Christine Karron – Canada
• Louka Kurcer – Quebec, Canada
• Manon Leclerc - Quebec, Canada
• Mary L. “Rusty” Parenteau – Arizona, USA
• Andrea Placer – New Jersey, USA
• Julie Podstolski – Western Australia (juliepodstolski)  I love the juxtaposition of old and new in Rear View.  I always feel I can tell when an artist has been working on a theme for some time - and I wasn't in the least bit surprised to find more excellent drawings of modern day geishas on the artists website.  Developing a theme and a suite of work is such a good way of persuading an gallery to show your work
• Susan Elizabeth Poole, ASGFA, UKCPS – United Kingdom
• Lissa Rachelle Robillard – Canada (Co Founder of the Pencil Art Society)
• Adolfo Fernandez Rodriguez – Spain
• Arlene Steinberg, CPSA – USA
• Wendy Thompson, MPAS, CPSA – USA
• Erica Walker – Canada
• Diane Wright – Iowa, USA (Diane Wright Art Journal) 

One work

• Allison Fagan, CPSA – Ontario, Canada  I loved the idea of a riot of colourful shirts. The technical execution looks like it might fall a little short but the impact is really strong. For me it would have been even better if done much bigger - at least life size.
• Kate Ferguson – Victoria, Australia (Kate Ferguson)
• Cristina Iotti – Modena, Italy  I can concur with Bob's choice of Best in Show.  Bianca Eva is a very worthy winner - and nice to see Best in Show go to a mixed media work!
• Judith Angell Meyer – Colorado, USA
• Alison Philpott – British Columbia, Canada
• Daniela Rioux – Manitoba, Canada
• Sue A. Seggeling – Illinois, USA
• Virginia Tupper – New Brunswick, Canada (Virginia Tupper)

It seems to be that the Society has been very well organised and is to be congratulated for getting such a good response to its first exhibition.  Here's hoping they go from strength to strength.