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YApril 2018 website: www.thepastelsociety.org.uk sponsored by Derwent

Sheep fields, Jill Jeffrey PS

Featured Artist Jill Jeffrey, ATD, PS

Coastal path evening

wanted to earn her living as an artist/designer. Theonly avenue open to her, she says, was “exhibitiondesign, designing really exciting things like motorshow stands. But all of it, looking back, was helpfulbecause I learnt technical drawing, elevation andplan drawing, dealing with design problems andinterreacting with people.”

And what Jill really wanted to do was capitalise onher interest in theatre. Which is why she took herfolio on the bus one day to Stratford Upon Avon,walked into the production office and said: “I thinkyou need me.” Sadly, the response was: “no wedon’t, we have thousands of you queuing up towork here. But you can build us – and we need itwithin a fortnight – a 15ft high statue of JuliusCaesar.”

She accepted the challenge, working her way overthe next four years through all the RSCdepartments, before winning the Arts CouncilDesigners Award Scheme, aged 24. The prize: todesign theatre sets. A stint of teaching followed,given she had two babies to bring up, interspersedwith freelancing at Stratford, which kept her incontact with the theatre.

The mid-70s saw her working with a designercalled John Napier (Cats, Starlight Express, andother big London shows), back at Stratford wherehe was working on Midsummer Night’s Dream andthe theatre asked her to stay and set up the DesignRoom.

“It was a wonderful job,” she says, “encouragingyoung, talented designers who had studied theatre

If you look at Jill Jeffrey’s paintings, there is alwaysa touch of magic about them. A hint of MidsummerNight’s Dream, of not being quite sure what’saround the corner. Luckily, it’s precisely the effectshe is aiming for – hardly surprising given thelength of time she’s spent in the theatre.

She has been painting for as long as she canremember, deciding it was her favourite subject atschool. After taking O and A level Art in the sameyear she went straight to art college to do what wasthen a four-year course and emerged as a‘qualified art person’, or, as Jill says, with a FineArts degree from Birmingham College of Fine Art.

Why Birmingham? Well, it was near home and herfather didn’t want her to move to London. Theexpectation was that she would teach, but Jill

Anglesey farmstead Pembrokeshire harvest

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design at college but who had no experience oftaking their designs into a professional theatre.

“My Design Room became the workshop fordesigns to be developed, enabling me to followclosely the changes made by director and actors asrehearsals progressed.”

She ran the Design Room from 1979 to 1991,meeting her actor husband Peter Jeffrey there,before moving to London with him to workfreelance at the Barbican. A world tour with theNational Theatre followed in 1991, employed asArtist on Tour, and gave her the confidence to startpainting full time. “It was the most marvellous job,”she says, “and even better was that on my return,the NT gave me an exhibition of all the work I haddone on tour, and so it was a very successful firstsolo exhibition.”

Her foray into pastels was prompted by JohnBlockley, a key member of the Pastel Society, whoused to take people up to the Peak District to paintwith him. “He just kept looking at my work,” shesays, “and eventually asked: ‘why are youfrightened of colour?’ And I can remember beingquite cross with him for saying that. How dare he?”

From a subdued palate of watercolours and oils, heencouraged her to try pastels and, she realises,this changed her life. “My greatest fun now isexperimenting with all sorts of different pastels andtechniques, mixing them with water, doingeverything I can with them but it was John whostarted me on this new discovery,” she says. “I wasdeeply suspicious at the start, put one blob ofemerald or scarlet somewhere - and think - muchtoo bright. But gradually I realised it worked.”

Her favourite subject matter is the West coast ofWales and Scotland, where she relishes the dramaof the Atlantic coast, and the way that trees movewith the prevailing wind. “The feeling that the ele-ments have carved these dramatic shapes excitesme,” she says.

She aims to put an emotional slant on her art,because that’s how she reacts to landscape. “Iremember going with my mother to a very remote

RSPB birding site in Anglesey where there was alittle ruined farmstead. She was unwell and neededa quiet place to think. It was sad, but she adoredthis particular view of the homestead, and thewater, and I have painted it so many times andeach time I think of her.” And it is this emotion –over and above a straight view – that she wants toconvey.

Jill credits a number of painters, including AndrewWyeth, Eric Ravilious, John Blockley, John Piperand Paul Nash, for influencing her work but acurrent favourite is David Tress and his viscerallandscapes. As she used to with Blockley, shespends time with him twice a year. Tress is anartist, she says, who attacks his art with Stanleyknives, throwing paint at it from a great height,tearing bits off and sticking them back on again.

“Sometimes I am influenced by the fact that he haslet go entirely,” she says. “I don’t emulate him, andI wouldn’t want to, but I am influenced by that lackof conformity. Deep down I have a desire to drawand make it recognisable. And then to paint, anddestroy, paint and draw, backwards and forwardsuntil you have something that feels right. We doneed our examples of the people that we admire.”

Jill Jeffrey in her studio

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The President’s Letter

The wintery weather certainly haunted the PastelSociety’s 119th Annual Exhibition this year, such ashame after what was a promising start to theShow!

Our Private View at the Mall Galleries, however,was a huge success: 275 paintings hung in themain gallery and north gallery. Paintings includedwork from invited artist Martin Yeoman and 89 non-members’ work, of which 20 paintings were from‘young artists’ (or perhaps we might like to callthem the ‘new generation’?).

There was an increase in submissions, particularlyfrom the under-35-year-olds. We were thrilled thatRupert Maas, a leading British painting specialist,opened the exhibition. He delighted the packedaudience with his informative knowledge of thePastel Society and a huge thank you goes to himfor taking the time to present prizes and awards towinning artists. We presented Rupert with adrawing, kindly donated by Roy Wright PS andlater a book on sailing sourced by Bob Last PS.

I thank all the award and prize givers: Unison,Caran D’Ache, Royal Talens, Schmincke, FaberCastell, John Longley, The Artist Magazine, TheArtists & Illustrators, Frank Herring & Sons, HenriRoche ́ and notably the prestigious Alfred TeddySmith & Zsuzsi Roboz Award, won this year byJane Radstrom for her work titled ‘Char’, with theDerwent Award going to Simon Hodges PS for hiswork titled ‘Venice in Summer'. All of which leadsme nicely to Derwent.

Derwent, our major sponsor for the past threeyears, has agreed to continue for a further threeyears, which is wonderful. It has provided hugesupport for the Society, not only with funds but alsowith products for workshops, demonstrations, andart events during the Annual Exhibition and ThePastel Society summer workshops.

The latter are very popular and much in demand.

The dedication of the tutors is second to none.Thank you to all those members – Eiko Yoshimoto,Sue Relph, Jan Munro, David Brammeld, JennyHalstead and Michael Norman – who, whatever thecircumstances, never let their students down. Iknow it proved a difficult two weeks because of theweather.

During the Annual Exhibition, other events such asdemonstrations by Sue Relph, David Brammeldand Cheryl Culver, the coffee morning with balletdancers from the Central School of Ballet,organised by the Mall, and the 'Art Event Evening’organised by Sue Relph and Roger Dellar provedpopular draws. Well, that might have been a slightunderstatement regarding the ballet dancers: theMall Galleries hit its maximum capacity.

The dramatic weather of the second week,however, saw the number of visitors (and buyers)drop sharply. Sadly, the snow even saw off theAGM scheduled for the Saturday 3rd March. It wasre-scheduled for two weeks later, but again itlooked as if the bad weather might prevent it.Happily, some members made it and we were ableto hold a meeting. This year has been a realchallenge so far for all of us, and I thank theCouncil, Mall Galleries staff and members for alltheir support.

On a happier note I am delighted to announce thatBenjamin Hope, Martin Goold and Richard Reeshave been elected members of the Pastel Society.I look forward to ‘summer’ which, I hope, is justaround the corner!

AGBI Steward, 2018-19

Jan Munro will be the Pastel Society steward forthe Artists’ General Benevolent Institution for2018-19. She can be contacted at The Gable,Whelpley Hill, Chesham, Bucks., HP5 3RL orjanmunro2@gmail.com

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Members elected last year featured strongly in thisyear’s list of awards (see next column). SimonHodges walked away with the Derwent Award forhis evocative Summer in Venice, Melodie CookThe Artist Magazine Award for her haunting portraitSam at 19, and David Brammeld the Caran D’AcheAward for his delicate Autumn Reflections.

Of this year’s crop, Martin Goold proved the mostsuccessful, winning the Henri Roche ́ Award withhis detailed work, Mountain Town.

St George’s College Summer Workshops

This popular series, held in late August at StGeorge’s College, Weybridge Road, Addlestone,Surrey KT15 2QS, has again been organised byCouncil Member Sue Relph. They cost £60 per dayor £55 per day if booking four or more. Reducedfees of £55 a day apply to Friends of the PastelSociety or £50 per day if booking four or more. Theprogramme is as follows:

Monday 20 August: Improving your pastel paintings, John Tookey

Tuesday 21 August: Life and portrait drawing, Sue Relph (for all levels)

Wednesday 22 August: Female figure in movement, Brian Dunce

Thursday 23 August: Landscape – pure and simple, Sheila Goodman

Friday 24 August: Contemporary still life – potsand patterns, Jan Munro

Derwent Sponsor’s Award: Simon Hodges PS

Alfred Teddy Smith & Zsuzsi Roboz Award: Jane Radstrom

Annie Longley Award: Penelope Milner

The Artist Magazine Award: Melodie Cook, PS

Artists & Illustrators Award: Felicity House, PS

Caran D’Ache Award David Brammeld, PS, RBA

Frank Herring & Sons Award: Henry Jabbour

Henri Roche ́Award: Martin Goold

The Pastel Society Young Artist Award: Rachael Kidd

The Pastel Society Catalogue Award: First prize, Jocelyn RossiterSecond prize, Minty Sainsbury

Royal Talens Award: Matthew Draper, PS

Schmincke Award: Malcolm Taylor, PS

Unison Award:Member, Sarah Bee, PS Non-member, Karen Stone

West Design/Faber Castell Award: Ian Rawling

Pastel Society Officers

President Jeannette HayesVice-President Michael NormanHonorary Treasurer Colin Murfet Honorary Secretary Jenny Halstead Exhibition Secretary Peter Vincent Membership Secretary Sheila GoodmanPublicity Secretary Melodie CookFriends Secretary Felicity HouseTrustee Moira Huntly

Award winners 2018

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David Brammeld’s Autumn Reflections

Come rain, come shine

Top: Early visitors on Private View day enjoy a firstpeek at this year’s display. Clockwise from above:Char, winner of the Alfred Teddy Smith/ZsuzsiRoboz Award and best painting by a non-Member.Rupert Maas, prior to awarding all the prizes, andSimon Hodges, winner of the Derwent Award forhis Venice in Summer

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This year’s special activities evening prompted agood turn-out of visitors – despite the weather.Members who came, including Sue Relph, RogerDellar and John Tookey, appreciated the model inflamenco costume (mid-left) and guitarist (top). AbelKesteven, who never stopped drawing, won a box ofDerwent pencils on the night. Pastel Societymembers who led workshops across the fortnightincluded Eiko Yoshimoto (left), David Brammeld,Cheryl Culver, Jenny Halstead, Jeannette Hayes, JanMunro, Michael Norman, Sue Relph and John Tookey

...visitors flocked to this year’s Exhibition

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News from Members

Seven Pastel Society Members feature in the 2017edition of The Encyclopedia of Pastel Techniques,by Judy Martin. They include Diana Armfield,Janine Baldwin, Tom Coates, Anthony Eyton,Margaret Glass, Moira Huntly and John Tookey.This updated version investigates the modernrange of materials, while explaining the multitude oftechniques in use today.

Selected members have been – and will be – fea-tured in a range of exhibitions this year.Thompson’s Gallery in Aldeburgh and the NewAshgate Gallery in Farnham have put on Springshows of Pastel Society Members’ work, while theTrent Art Gallery is planning one from 11th to 26thOctober.

The Pastel Society’s very own Sue Relph, mean-while, has again organised a full programme ofsummer workshops for the Society at St George’sCollege, Addlestone, Surrey, from Monday, 20August to Friday, 24 August. The tutors will beBrian Dunce, Sheila Goodman, Jan Munro, SueRelph and John Tookey. Further details can befound on page 5 and on the Pastel Society website(www.thepastelsociety.org.uk)

Sarah Bee is leading another packed programmeof courses this year. She will be running ‘PowerfulPastels’ from 18-21 June at Coombe Farm Studios,South Devon (www.coombefarmstudios.com);‘Pastel Painting’ from 24-27 July at Jack BeckHouse, Yorkshire Dales (www.jackbeck.co.uk) andalso from 23-27 of September at West DeanCollege, West Sussex (www.westdean.org.uk)

Bernard Dunstan RA PPRWA NEAC (1920-2017)

Following Bernard Dunstan’s obituary in the lastissue, Moira Huntly forwarded an article that he’dposted to her in 2002.

The first pastels that really made me see what themedium was capable of were the late ones byDegas, and for some time I tried to emulate themethod – the full texture given by repeated fixingand re-drawing, in Sickert’s words “like the surfaceof a cork bathroom mat”. It didn’t matter a bit to methat the repeated fixing tended towards a generallowering of tone; I liked the rich, dark. mottledsometimes muffled quality. One layer of warmhatching over a layer of cool colour gave, ifsomewhat laboriously, the kind of broken colourI liked, and re- drawing was a continuous process.I still love these results but no longer have theenergy to pursue such a laborious method.

I was lucky to find just the book I needed at just theright time: ‘Degas a la recherche ́de sa technique,’by Denis Rouart, of the family who were Degas’friends in his later years. It has never beenpublished here, and I attempted a translation to getthe last drop out of it. It became a sort of bible, theequivalent of a cookery book for the studio. I learntin it of Degas’ own invention of a fixative, a recipethat he never apparently passed on to anyone.I wonder what was in it, and whether it was reallyany better? I have a suspicion that all fixatives aremuch the same.

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Antony Williams Workshop at St Georges

The Pastel Society extends a warm welcome toBen Hope, Martin Goold and Richard Rees, whowere all elected as members at the annual meetingfollowing this year’s exhibition.

Compared with 2017, there has been a fall in thenumber of new members this year, but as thePastel Society’s President Jeannette Hayes pointsout, this is more likely to be a factor of the votingprocess itself than in the calibre of those whohoped to join. Indeed, it’s to be hoped that thosewho missed out this year will try again in 2019.

The threesome are very different in the type ofwork they produce. Ben Hope draws directly fromlife, both in the studio and outside, as evidenced bythe work that he supplied for this year’s exhibition:‘New Mediums’ and ‘Grandma’s Teacup’ (see page12).

Working in this way, he explains on his website(http://www.benjaminhope.net/), “results in marksthat are reactive, and for me, it is the best way tocapture what it feels like to be with the subject. Ialso create much larger studio paintings based onsmall plein air studies. In these I try to recreate theenergy and atmosphere of the smaller work usinga more complex layering of paint.”

Ben took an unconventional route to a career infine art by originally studying Mathematics andPhysics, culminating in a PhD from Cambridge,and painting largely only in the summer breaks. Hehas been painting full-time since 2011, with his‘Teacups in the Financial Times’ selected for theRoyal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2013.

The work of the other two new members is incomplete contrast. Martin Goold’s ‘Mountain Town’and ‘From The Castle Tower’ illustrate the city andseascapes that he is drawn to. Martin explains hisphilosophy on his website (http://www.martin-goold.co.uk/artist/). “Experience of place is centralto my artistic activity,” he says.

“The encounter with natural and urban landscapesets in motion a myriad of associations andprompts, subsequent work bringing into playreferences and trajectories that reach beyond thedepiction of appearance.”

His work on page 12 illustrates how he feels that“atmospheric conditions tune the character ofenvironments.”

“I favour muted twilight, nocturnal light andvaporous air,” he says. “I find the dissolving ofrecognisable form through the action of naturalelements profoundly suggestive of the frailty offoothold. Moments of transition that mark thepassage of time have special importance in mywork.”

The final newcomer to the Society, Richard Rees,is a master of many trades. In fact, he has beenpainting and drawing for over 40 years in a varietyof media including watercolour, oil paints, pen andink, oil pastel and pencil.

He is self-taught as an artist but as an architect hasbeen drawing and illustrating his own work sincehis university days. In 1984 he became aprofessional illustrator and Fellow of the Society ofArchitectural Illustration (SAI), and in 2015 becameits chairman.

On the Society of Artists in Architecture(http://www.socaa.co.uk/artist/r ichard-rees)website he talks about his current work. “Differentsocieties and traditions develop unique patterns ofsettlement and I have been interested in thesesince I started designing masterplans at thebeginning of my career.

“I find the medium, oil pastel, a very expressive onefor bringing out the vibrancy of a place and the waythat buildings stack, merge and form into town-scapes. The sharp, at times semi-abstract tech-nique helps to demonstrate the way we read atownscape and how attractive these arrangementsare to us.”

Three new members for the Pastel Society

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One of the bits of good news to take from thePastel Society’s Annual Exhibition – quite apartfrom the standard of entries – was sponsorDerwent’s confirmation that it would renew itspartnership with the Society for another threeyears.

The Derwent Award, a cheque for £1,000, goes toits artist of choice – on this occasion to SimonHodges for his work Venice in Summer, while italso awarded a cheque in the same sum to IanRawling for Cheese on Toast, a very popular work.I caught up with Mike Stranders, Derwent’s VicePresident & General Manager and Nuala Henry, itsBrand Manager, after they’d toured the exhibitionand were about to debate their choice.

Mike admitted that “It’s been really tough. They’reall so fantastic. We’re trying to be objective, too,and not go around trying to find the ones that mighthave been drawn with pastel pencils – let aloneDerwent ones. Or an artist that we necessarily

know or have commissioned in the past.”

Venice in Summer had already prompted a numberof appreciative comments from visitors, whoclapped the winner. It will also, hopefully, mark thestart of three more fruitful years of partnership withDerwent as the company looks to the future.

Derwent is part of ACCO, the largest officeproducts company in the world, worth $2bn andlisted on the New York Stock Exchange. But whilemany office products categories are in slow decline– with society placing more emphasis on digital andless on use of paper – the arts are relatively stable,so Derwent is looking to invest in this area more.

It is a company that’s proud to be British, whosestory begins in the heart of the Lake District withthe discovery of graphite in the Borrowdale Valleyand the birth of pencil making in Keswick. One ofits claims to fame is that, when known as theCumberland Pencil Company, it made top secret

Derwent announces sponsorship renewal

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Pencil kits with a difference

pencil kits for WWII RAF pilots in case they wereshot down over enemy territory. On snapping themin half they revealed a miniature compass and silkmaps of Germany. In the modern era, though,Derwent, wants to be progressive and become aglobal brand whose roots are in the UK rather thanbe known, says Mike, as a British company thatjust happens to export.

He will be trying to grow the business by leveragingthe strengths of the parent company, with itssubsidiaries in all major world markets, and stayingabreast of global trends. Derwent has strongmarket share in the UK and other English-speakingcountries. “We’re in a really exciting period as wecontinue to expand internationally. With our productinnovation and British heritage, we have a lot tooffer consumers and retailers alike.”

There is also a continual process of new productdevelopment going on in the Lake District, spear-headed by Derwent’s not so secret weapon: itstechnical director, Barbara Murray. As Mike is keento relate, she has been in the business for nearly50 years, and is a unique resource because, apartfrom being both a chemist and a technician whoknows everything that there is to know aboutpencils and manufacturing, she is also an artist.“She’s also chair of the UK colouring pencil societyand does a lot of drawing and painting herself, sobringing the two together helps us meet the needsof the artist while understanding the technical side,”he says.

So what could this mean for the future in terms ofDerwent’s relationship with the Pastel Society?Well, Mike is playing his cards close to his chest,but admits that pastels as a category is of interestto the company. “There are some extremely strongbrands that have been out there for dozens if not Stranders & Henry with Venice in Summer

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hundreds of years, like Sennelier, Rembrandt andSchmincke,” he says. “Then you have Unison inthe UK as well. We have Derwent pastel pencils,and were we to break into the pastel category, we’dhave to find a way that is completely unique andthat no one else has because the rest are sostrong.”

It sounds like interesting times for new productdevelopment up in the laboratory at Derwent.Maybe Pastel Society members and friends couldtake a tour of the Keswick factory at some pointand help with any testing required?

Don’t forget to visit our website at www.thepastelsociety.org.ukPrinted by Petaprint, 16 College Street, Petersfield GU31 4AD Tel 01730 262450

New members display their work

On this page, works by three artists newly elected to membership ofthe Pastel Society. Clockwise from top left: Richard Rees ‘One NewChange from Tate Modern’ and Burford; Ben Hope ‘New Mediums’and ‘Grandma’s Teacup’; Martin Goold ‘Mountain Town’ and ‘FromThe Castle Tower’. See also page 8.