Newsletter ..Volume 3… September2016

Editor's Notes

This will be a short newsletter this time folks! So pull up a

chair and relax a little and mark your calendars for all the upcoming

events.

Personally I don't know where the time goes as they say, my month has

flown by: and it seems time just slipped out the door at my house.

I hope you are all safe and dry after the recent heavy downpours Austin

has experienced. My biggest irritation is my lovely studio sprung a leak!

Ugh! However that's nothing compared to the poor folks in Louisiana and

other parts of the States, we all pray for a quick recovery for them all.

One thing I found, (and if you want to make lemonade out of lemons) is:

that a pastel on Sennelier paper spritzed with rain, I discovered it actually

made a great texture on the surface!

Now I wonder if I could get this effect if I tried?

Hmm, worth a try I think.

Thanks for listening, now on with the newsletter.

Rae

ARTIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT..

Char Eppright

APS Interview with CHAR EPPRIGHT

APS …….in a few lines please give us your brief bio

CE…. Since 1980 I have exhibited in shows and galleries around Texas and New Mexico. I have had the privilege of painting many prominent people; among those are the retiring district court judges for the Travis County Bar Association, the Texas Supreme court and the Texas Court of Appeals.

I also enjoy painting the Native American Indian as well as children’s portraits. It was during this time that I had a studio on Burnet Rd where I painted and taught classes.

Then grand babies came along and I let the classes go but I truly loved teaching and all of my students. Some of my students and I formed the Austin Pastel Society. I consider this an accomplishment of which I am very proud.

APS ……Is pastel the only medium in which you paint? Which genre do you prefer to paint? And how would you describe your style of painting

CE….Other than pastels, I also work in oils and recently watercolor. In my earlier years I studied the old masters and for a long time I painted portraits in the style of the old masters using a controlled palette and a verdaccio under painting with glazing.

(Verdaccio is an Italian phrase meaning “greenish first.” It is a form of underpainting with values that are a gray-green. When dry, a combination of glazes and opaque paint are then applied to the first layer)

Today I am painting alla prima and in a more loose style. I am not painting as many commissioned portraits now because I have found them too constraining. I want to paint more for myself and experiment.

APS…. Can you give us a visual of your studio? How many days a week/month do you paint in it?

CE… I don’t get to paint nearly as much as I would like, because life seems to get in the way right now. Once an artist, always an artist.

However an artist must also spend time doing jobs other than painting, jobs that must be done to promote our passion.

So to answer your question, I get in my studio almost 5 days a week, sometimes it might only be to clean up some of the mess I’ve made.

APS….What is your painting process? Do you prefer to work from life, or photos or both?

Do you prepare preliminary sketching, tonal maps etc, before you start a painting?

CE…. I prefer to paint from life but it often turns out that I also must use photos that I have taken, especially when painting children.

It can be difficult enough to get a photo of a 3 year old, much less a quick sketch. In a complicated piece with many subjects I might need several

sketches and a tonal map. At times I have even used a grid in order to get perspective right. Value studies are also very helpful before starting a landscape or still life.

APS…. a) Do you feel another artist/s has influenced you on your artistic journey?

b) Do you still go to workshops etc, to keep up the momentum?

c) is there a favorite workshop artist, book or video you can recommend to members and why?

CE…When my children were 8 and 6, I had their portraits painted in pastel by Austinite, Rose Wong, who I met at Fiesta.

As I watched her paint, I had an overwhelming determination to learn how to paint portraits. When I first started classes I studied the basics with Austin artist, Joan Salvant, once a week for four years.

It was a great foundation.

I then took several years with off and on workshops. Frank Covino of Vermont was one of these workshops.

Learning to under paint in verdiccio taught me a lot about value.

Recently I have studied with Richard McKinley and our own Rae Andrews using watercolor and have found it intriguing and challenging. So yes, I still

love to go to workshops and IAPS as well. It keeps me stimulated and excited about my art.

I have a library full of favorite books and videos that I pore over.

The other day a non-artist friends ask me what latest “popular” book I’ve read, and I told her it was Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist and she looked at me really funny.

APS….what can you tell the members who are busy housewives or mothers, but desire to also be an artist? How can they fit this activity into their lifestyle?

CE….Art is something anyone can do anytime even if it is just 30 minutes a day. Pastels are probably the easiest medium to squeeze in 10 or 30 minutes and come back to it later. Carry a small sketch book in your purse at all time.

APS….How important to your career is marketing your art on the internet or through other channels?

CE….When I did portraits most of my work was word of mouth and I did pretty well; but that was before there was so many opportunities on the internet.

Now, I don’t paint as many portraits, like Sargent; I felt it was a drag which repressed my creativity, so now I mostly paint for myself.

I have much more freedom to experiment and try new things. Maybe I will get back into the gallery scene when I feel like I have some pieces I am happy with.

APS….when did you first realize you wanted to be an artist?

CE….I must have been about 11 or 12 when someone gave me a paint by number. I thought I was Rembrandt when I finished. Ha, ha!

In my senior year of high school I did portrait sketches of my group of friends as part of the decor for a senior party. The portraits were a big hit, or so I thought. It encouraged me and I wish I still had those.

APS…. What would you recommend to a new artist, to boost their confidence and learning? For instance, YouTube, Internet, workshops, books, DVD's etc.

Are museum trips a necessity for the artist?

CE….All of those things you mentioned are very helpful.

Another thing I thought of is to find an art buddy who would go out and paint with you, and also for critiquing each others work. It is better to paint from life rather than photos, especially in the beginning.

The camera is never better than your eyes, so don’t depend on photos. There is a group, Plein Air Austin, that meets weekly. Another group is called Urban Sketchers Austin, on the internet. Check it out. Art museums are a definite plus.

APS….Can you give members any hints on following their own artistic dream?

CE….Don’t give up. Paint, paint and paint some more!

Our thanks goes to Char for her candid and informative answers.

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ON THE HORIZON..

We have some exciting things coming up for APS members.

MINI WORKSHOPS in the works…

LINDA DELLANDRE

Website:LindaDellandre.com

Known for her use of light and color this talented artist and teacher is

tutoring the first mini workshop for APS members.

Date: September 25th 2016

Time: 12 pm-3.30 pm

Place: Georgetown Library

Cost: $40

Subject: LANDSCAPE.

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn from this talented teacher for

such a nominal fee.

Registration is done through the Austin Pastel Society website

through PayPal or checks may be mailed to :

APS treasurer

Pam Hickl

Post Office Box 874

Bastrop, TX 78602

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RAE ANDREWS

Website: raeandrews.com

Date: January 22nd, 2017

Time: 1 pm-3 pm

Place: Georgetown Library

Cost: $40

Subject: ANIMAL PORTRAITS ON VELOUR PAPER

A multi prize winning artist Rae owned art galleries and an art school in

her past life in Australia and Hawaii. She is known for her use of

movement, color and drama in her imagery.

A teacher and practicing artist for over 50 years Rae works in many

mediums and with a variety of subjects.

If you want to be freer in your approach to painting pastels, this

workshop might just be the ticket. Velour paper is a fascinating substrate

on which to play, especially for portraits!

Don't wait to register, join us asap!

Registration is done through the Austin Pastel Society website through

PayPal or checks may be mailed to :

APS treasurer

Pam Hickl

Post Office Box 874

Bastrop, TX 78602

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AH..MUSE..ING Author Rae Andrews I recently had the pleasure meeting Karen Margulis at IAPS. KAREN has a wonderful blog in which she helps other artists with their pastel adventures. She is very forthcoming with her information, and I can highly recommend her blog. I contacted Karen a few days ago, to ask her permission on copying some of her articles into our newsletter. She was all for it, so here are the first of many tips Karen has on her blog, who by the way conducts workshops all over the country. Well worth it!

www.karenmargulis.com

A Tip for Painting on a Textured Surface

'Fall Discovery' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis

I almost gave up. I applied the first few strokes and looked down to see my

beautiful pastel was now half of its former glory....in just a few strokes! I

didn't know if I could put myself through the agony and expense! But I

was excited to work on my very heavily textured board so I needed to

figure out a solution.

The surface was a piece of Pastelbord from Ampersand. It was an old and

very bad painting but the board deserved a new life. For this remake I

wanted to try some heavy texture. I knew the pastelbord would be able to

take any abuse. I found a container of acrylic ground for pastels by

Golden and with a cheap brush I applied the ground right over the

painting. The ground liquified the pastel turning it a lovely shade of

brown (not). It was a very rough surface!

The first pass with the large Unison pastels

I knew I didn't want to waste my softer pastels on this experiment so I

searched through my pastel stash and uncovered a box of pastels that I

had labeled 'darks'. They were dark and quite ugly....black and brown for

the most part. Some of them were huge. I recalled getting a set of large

unisons on eBay but not liking the colors. Now they were perfect! It really

is funny how my perception of 'ugly' has changed over the years.

My box of spare darks

The big fat Unisons were a better match for the surface but I still was not

happy. The pastel was sitting on top of all of the grooves. I took a piece of

pipe foam and rubbed in the first layer. That was it! The next layers went

on top of the grooves but this time there was something underneath. I just

kept building layers in this manner until I was finished.

The texture was definitely an interesting challenge. I highly recommend

this kind of surface if you want to get away from painting too much detail.

The rough surface does not allow fine detail! I was able to achieve a

suggestion of detail though and that was a lot of fun!

building up layers of color

Tip: Start the painting on a rough textured surface with medium to hard

pastels and consider rubbing in the first few layers.

Try a New Pastel Technique

'Firefly Summer' 9x18 pastel ©Karen Margulis

available $175

I went through a pastel dusting stage a few years ago. Everything was fair

game for a dusting of pastel. It was a great technique for wildflower

meadows and snow. After awhile it became too much and I stopped

dusting. Today I was reworking an old marsh painting (above) and

decided that it might benefit from some firefly dust! It was a lot of fun to

dust. Maybe I will revisit the technique in other ways.

Have you tried the dusting technique? Here is an older blog article that

describes the process. Enjoy!

'Blowing in the Breeze' 16x20 pastel ©Karen Margulis

I love trying new techniques with my pastels. Dusting has become my new

favorite technique to use and I am having fun discovering new ways to

'dust'. Dusting isn't a new technique to pastels. Bill Creevy talks about it in

his book 'The Pastel Book'. Degas used the dusting technique in his work. I

was playing around with dusting at the same time that Richard McKinley

posted about it on his Pastel Pointer blog. Richard gives a wonderful

description of the technique HERE. I am still experimenting but this

painting is an example of how I used dusting.

Tools for dusting with pastels

Glassine paper and a rolling pin make dusting easy

For this painting, the pastel dusting comes at the finish. When the painting

is almost done and just need some final touches I lay it flat. I choose the

pastels (colors and values) that I think will give me the effect I want. I am

using Jack Richeson pastels to dust because they are large and not too soft

and crumbly and the colors are very vivid and rich (I also got them for a

great deal so I don't mind shaving them into dust!)

I shave my pastel using the side of a palette knife. I vary the pressure to create fine dust to chunks depending on what I would like.

I mix colors and vary the fineness of the dust to create more interest.

To set the dust I simply cover the painting with glassine paper and roll it with a pastry rolling pin. I like the size of the pastry rolling pin. I get better control than with any other tool.

For this painting my dust got too thick and I covered up too much of the painting. It's easy to get carried away! But it was actually a good thing. I took my palette knife and drew back into the dust creating stems and grasses. Cool!

Thank you Karen, it's always a great pleasure to read your blog!

**Members can contact Karen directly through her blog if they have questions.

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***And lastly in this section….This is just a small aside for the newsletter but a link I have found helpful in the past. You might check it out and keep it in your files. http://artistshelpingartistsblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-you-can-use-social-media-to.html ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Calendar..

***Bastrop Art Conference..September 16-17th 2016

http://www.bastropfineartsguild.com/news-and-events/lost-pines-

regional-arts-conference/

APS members Enid Wood will be doing a small Pan Pastels workshop

September 17th 2017 in the afternoon from 1:30 to 4:30 and a free demo on

Saturday morning, Sept 17th at Art Connections, 908 Main Street in

Bastrop, from 10am until noon.

APS member Janis Ellison will be teaching a pastel workshop at the

conference as well.

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Rae's trip to Costa Brava Spain is this week! Adios Everyone! Next

newsletter we can tell you all what a great time we all had and how well

my students did!

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The New Orleans Art Association is scheduling a national show in

March 2017.

The New Orleans Art Association’s 2017 National Art Show at the New

Orleans Academy of Fine Arts Gallery in New Orleans is scheduled for

March 4-30, 2017.

Judge/Juror Auseklis Ozols, Founder of the Academy, will award $2,500

for 1st place, $1,500 2nd place, $500 3rd place plus honorable mention and

additional merit awards.

Acceptable media is limited to paintings and drawings. The deadline entry

is December 15, 2016.

Entry fees are $45 for non-members and $35 for members for up to 3

entries.

An additional 2 entries may be made at $10 each. The prospectus and

submission is available at www.showsubmit.com.

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SOLO SHOW BY APS MEMBER

“Wide Open Spaces” a solo exhibit by Joycelyn Schedler

Joycelyn Schedler's “Sotol Vista”, 13 3/8” x 15 3/8”, on UArt 320.

Artist’s Reception: Friday, September 2, 2016, 5p - 8:30p R.A. Green Mercantile, 1022 Main St., Bastrop, TX 78602 Exhibit Dates: 9/2/2016 - 9/25/2016 A trip to Big Bend National Park inspired these paintings of vista views, flora and fauna. Originals and prints available for sale. Please join Joycelyn for the Artist Reception in conjunction with Bastrop First Friday Art Walk. Many stores host other artists, serve snacks and stay open late. Makes a great date night! Eat out, stroll downtown Bastrop, see art, buy art.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… *** The 2017 IAPS Convention will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico,

June 4-7 2017..For more info go to the IAPS website:

iapspastel.org

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From APS Member Sherry Fields

Dear awesome over 50 pastel artists

The Old Bakery call for entries for 2017 will be due on September 6. I

offered to coordinate our entry so if you are over 50 and would like to

participate let me know this week.

Just e-mail me your name for now. Later you will need to submit a short

bio and a a sample of your work, but for now just your name so I know

there is enough interest.

The Old Bakery is a lovely space and they take care of hanging and we can

host a reception if we wish.

I hope you will participate. And many of the artists who have shown there

have had sales.

Sherry Fields

skfields@austin.rr.com

512-695-7807

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That's all folks!! Happy Painting,

Rae

***Our next General APS Meeting is September 25th at Georgetown

Library .

***Don't forget to send all new items to Rae… rae4art@aol.com