Pastel Society of Virginia ~ Potomac Artworks

7.14.2011

Pastel Society of Virginia

NOTE: Look to the tab above for the latest on the Pastel Society of Virginia, our exhibits and membership.

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This topic gets a good number of hits here daily and, b/c our PSV website is still under construction, I will offer up some details here.

Bottom line: I wish I had a nickel each time someone told me this project was overdue or that they had wanted to create this society themselves! With everyone's help, we will fulfill the dreams we've all had for so long.

We meet to paint/critique/support on the third Thursday evening and fourth Tuesday morning at the Springfield Art Guild Community Room at Springfield Mall. In the future, we'll mix it up with some weekend and plein air opportunities. Everything is flexible and we ask for patience as we get our groove. Meeting topics will develop in time as we develop additional structure. Further, we intend to be a major stop on the workshop circuit to draw big name pastelists, b/c Virginia has been long neglected.

Our goal is non-profit status when someone steps up to pursue it. We also have IAPS membership to come. Most of us are located in Northern Virginia, so we meet locally by default; however, if others want to join us or to extend our reach to other areas of Virginia, all is in the realm of possibility. It takes many hands and not all will be mine!

For the record, I am more of a start up personality, so I like to brainstorm and see what can happen to develop possibilities. Hence, I am not the administrative, maintaining sort, so others will need to step up into positions of leadership.

Very exciting, our first exhibit will be in the SAG room and runs from August 27 through October 1. The Opening will be Sunday, August 28 from 2-4p.

Any Virginia or local dry pastelist is invited to hang; we will have over 25 slots. To share the load, all participating artists will need to volunteer during drop off/hanging, reception food/set up/clean up, reception demo, and/or pick up.

Please comment with additional questions or email me from the sidebar link. We currently communicate through several mass emails a month; let me know if you would like to be included on our email list.

Bonnie Ferguson Butler, Founder
Pastel Society of Virginia

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The Charm of en Plein Air

Much of my work is done en plein air, French for "in the open air." People often associate it with the Impressionists, but the move to paint outside preceded them by a number of decades. The trend to appreciate landscapes as a genre at all was new for the time.

Several characteristics contribute to the distinctive beauty of en plein air painting. They are generally smaller in size in order to be able to capture a scene in a single sitting. Because of the time limit and environmental factors such as the sun and shadows moving, they often lack extensive details and might appear slightly fuzzy or unfinished. Lastly, they tend to have a freshness and spontaneity which makes them impossible to compare to traditional and methodological studio work. That said, my own studio work tends toward the same feel as en plein air, which then identifies my overall style: softness with an edge.

My aim when painting en plein air is for alla prima paintings, which roughly translates for me as "what happens outside, stays outside." It adds another level of difficulty to the work.

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7.14.2011