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VERMONT WATERCOLOR SOCIETY
| December 2013 |
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HUBS
Hub news can be found in the new "HUB NEWS" section in the main body of the newsletter. If you have Hub related questions please contact Pamela Dexter,Director of Hubs:
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Facebook
If you are a Facebook user and a current VWS member, please consider joining the Vermont Watercolor Society Facebook group. This is a place for members to share their work, and information about shows and events. Click here to join.
We have also created a Vermont Watercolor Society page. This is a public place where VWS will share announcements and other information. Members are welcome to share their work and announcements on this page as well. Please share the page with your friends.
Newsletter Submissions
All member events , workshops and show announcements should be sent to :
Newsletter article deadline is the 20th of each month.
Please put "VWS NEWSLETTER " in your title. Thank you!
Submissions must be fully written and spell-checked with accurate punctuation in order to be included. This saves our volunteer editor much valuable time so that she can return to painting.
If you have images, please send them in JPG format as an email attachment. It is extremely helpful if images are labeled with a file name related to the content.
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
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Mark Nielsen
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Happy Holidays Everyone!
Respectfully, Mark Nielsen
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Museum of Fine Arts Boston Field Trip
John Singer Sargent Watercolors Exhibit
John Singer Sargent Bus Trip is FULL with 55 excited members, family and friends! We will tell you all about it after December 19. If there are another 55 people who really want to see this show and CAN go January 9th send me an email, claudiaec@yahoo.com, and I will book another bus!
VWS Spring Meeting
Mark your calendars for April 27, 2014. More details coming soon. Questions? Email claudiaec@yahoo.com.
Framing & Matting Guidelines for All Shows*
Mats: sole or top mats will be white or off white. If a bottom mat is used, it may be white, off white or colored. Filets may be used. Mats are not required for all paintings, but if you are not framing your painting, archival spacers must be used.
Frames: frames must be sturdy, in excellent condition, and must be professional quality. They must have picture wire attached to the back from which to hang the painting.
The following are not acceptable for VWS shows:
- Float frames
- Table top frames
- Damaged frames or frames that are disjointed at the corners
- Saw tooth hangers
- Duct tape, masking tape or other non-professional-looking materials used on backs of frames.
- Sloppy construction as seen from front or back
Persons accepting paintings at drop off are instructed to not accept paintings if they do not meet these guidelines. Thank you for your cooperation.
*Occasionally there are special shows where other guidelines apply, which will be described in that show's prospectus and/or other communications. Otherwise, the above guidelines will apply to all VWS shows including hub shows.
This information can also be found on the VWS website:
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VWS
WORKSHOPS AND PROGRAMS
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VWS DVD LENDING LIBRARY
VWS has created a lending library. Videos may be previewed on Creative Catalyst http://ccpvideos.com. The current list includes:
Chen-Kee Chee
Saturated Wet Technique
Tony Couch
Painting Barns in Watercolor
Carl Dalio
on Color Power
The Path to Visualizing Energetic Color
Linda Kemp
Negative Painting Techniques
Mark Mehaffey
Painting a Dramatic Landscape in Watercolor
Birgit O'Connor
Waves, Water and Clouds
Ann Pember
Painting in the Flow of Watercolor
On High Plate Illustration Board
Soon Y Warren
Vibrant Watercolor Techniques: Water
Frank Webb
Using Your Head, Heart & Hand
Donna Zagotta
The You Factor:
Powerful Personal Design in Opaque Watercolor
If interested, email Claudia. She will send the video with a self-addressed envelope for return after 2 weeks. Please open the package carefully so that we may re-use it. Suggestions for additional videos to Claudia, claudiaec@yahoo.com. Donations for this program are welcome.
JOHN SALMINEN
June 23-27 2014
Realism Through Design
John Salminen is coming to Vermont June 23-27, 2014 and If you haven't signed up yet this is the time! Send in your deposit so you don't miss out on an unforgettable experience with an exceptional internationally renowned artist. Even if the style of Johns artwork might be intimidating to you let this be a challenge to get you thinking and seeing your process differently. I am so excited to have someone of this caliber coming to teach us. This has been 3 years in the making and you just don't want to miss it. Just start setting aside a bit of money now in the "ART EDUCATION" piggy jar and by April 29 you could have it all! Questions? Email claudiaec@yahoo.com.
 
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Burlington/St. Albans Hub News
Burlington/St. Albans Hub Holiday Show
December 10 - January 31
1 Main Street, Burlington
Opening Reception - Friday, Dec. 20th 4:30 - 6:30 PM
Portrait Painting with Robert O'Brien
Robert O'Brien taught a 1-day watercolor portrait painting workshop at Black Horse Art Academy on Pine Street, in Burlington, on November 23. This event was organized by Charles Norris-Brown and the Burlington/St. Albans Hub.
Life Drawing/Painting
These sessions, which started as a hub activity last fall, have expanded and now are open to other artists in the community. Any artist can attend these sessions which now meet in the upstairs classroom at Black Horse Art, 277 Pine St., Burlington. There is a model every Wednesday night from 6 - 9 PM, and every Sunday afternoon from 2 - 5 PM. Participants must register in advance by contacting Black Horse Art Supply at: 860-4972. Charles Norris-Brown is organizing discussion sessions for the VWS members who attend these sessions. You may work in whatever medium you wish, and there is no instruction.
Hub Volunteers
Our hub is still in need of greater volunteer participation for both hub and full VWS activities. We'd love to have a volunteer (or two) to coordinate painting pickups and dropoffs, organize carpools to various activities and other small tasks. Without volunteer efforts, there will not be any activities, as VWS is an all-volunteer organization. Please let me know what you are willing to help with, and if there are other events that you'd like for our hub to offer. (email: Lynn.Cummings@uvm.edu)
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Each month we feature a VWS member in this newsletter. This month we welcome:
Maurie Harrington
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Round Barn, Waitsfield
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Crescent Bay B&B
South Hero
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Plein air painting is my passion. This past year has been dedicated to painting, painting, and more painting. I decided that in 2013 I am going to focus on doing more art work. What have I been doing all these years??? Its about time to do something that I really love and want to continue to grow in the art world. So, I resigned from many of my usual shows, galleries, art boards, volunteering, fund raisers, etc. This is going to be a productive year. Three years ago, I participated in the Plein Air Festival in Jericho, Vt. and I have continued to be a part of that great show. My trips to France are the most productive. A group of artists rent a house for several weeks. We go outdoors and paint all day, everyday. It benefits all of us by our nightly critiques on our recent works of art. Another wonderful fine art show is "Vermont and Beyond". This show has been going on at the Weston Playhouse for many years. Recently, I participated in the Art in the Round Barn in Waitsfield. This past summer I had a show at the Fisk Farm in Isle LaMotte. I have been the Art Director for the past fifteen years. Its a magical place where many musicians and artists gather for concerts, workshops and shows. During July and August I exhibited my work at the Snow Farm Winery in South Hero. Its a great place with wonderful views. The wine is exceptional!
I spend my time (when not traveling) between Killington and North Hero. The best of both worlds. My artistic inspiration comes from the beauty found in Vermont, the magnificent views of Mount Mansfield that I see from my window at our summertime waterfront house in North Hero, as well as the beauty of Killington covered in a blanket of snow.
A project that I have been thinking about and hope to accomplish is called "Paintings for Patients". I have accumulated so many paintings that I would love to donate them to local hospitals, retirement homes, etc. providing I could get a sponsor or framer to frame my work which would hopefully hang on the walls. I have donated many paintings to hospices located in Connecticut and New York. I have shown my work through the Burlington City Arts at Fletcher Allen Healthcare. Several years ago I had a show at Dartmouth Medical Center. My work is also in St. Albans at Northwestern Medical Center. I think that looking at art is a healing experience.
Another recent endeavor is "House Portraits". It has been a great challenge for me to work outdoors in all kinds of weather to complete a watercolor painting of someone's house, garden, boat, etc. One painting often leads to a neighbor wanting a watercolor of their house. Commission work is sometimes difficult but is rewarding to see a happy client. There is never an end to exploring new ways to paint plein air.
The Vermont Watercolor Society has played a large roll in my life as an artist. Congratulations to all the creative people who have kept this organization running for so many years. When asked by people watching me paint "How long did it take you to do this painting?" my reply is "All My Life".
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Lefferts Pond, Chittenden
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An Unexpected Conversation
- Amanda Amend
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LaPlatte River by Canoe
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Recently a conversation with Mark Nielsen unexpectedly drifted to the intersection of art and spirituality. Mark asked me whether and how spiritual practice and artistic practice overlap or intersect for me, and as our conversation evolved, he invited me to write this article, perhaps to open an interesting conversation among us.
Do your art and spiritual practices intersect? For me indeed they do, in deep ways. When I am immersed in a painting, it feels like creativity is flowing through me, rather than coming from me. It seems as if my job as an artist is to open to this flow, to look inwardly for guidance as to how the painting will evolve, even to the details of what is the next technical step.
One of my first landscapes was a scene on the LaPlatte River, a place only accessible by canoe. At one spot on that river the trees lean in from each side and are reflected in the mirror-like surface of the water, making a diamond shape which seemed like a portal into beauty and light. I wanted to capture the sense of entering another world through the intersection of the physical and its reflections, but I had no idea how to do so. I closed my eyes and went into a trance-like state, and I asked for inner guidance on what would be my first step. In a few moments, a picture appeared in my mind of the first wash. That same process took me step by step through to the finished painting. A great watercolor? Perhaps not, but it was a great experience in painting from the inside out, which is the process I still rely on even as my knowledge and skills grow.
What is your process like? Do you have tools you use to bring you to a creative space? My daily spiritual practice includes using a chant-like song called the HU song. It's a mantra, pronounced like "hue", a sound that is chanted or sung in many spiritual traditions to focus and calm, to take you to the innermost, highest part of yourself which then intersects with your spiritual essence. If you are interested in trying something like this you could try the HU, or you could sing or chant any word that for you is spiritually charged like Spirit, Christ, Buddha, any word that elevates you. Don't worry, this isn't a pulpit, but we'd love to hear any of your experiences with how you deepen your creativity.
Please send comments to Amanda Amend, amanda.amend@gmail.com.
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Welcome New Members
- Dale DiMauro
- Nancy Leavitt-Reibel
- Betsey Schedler
- Nan Schwartzman
Lynn Cummings
Lynn Cummings will be at the UVM Holiday Bazaar Wednesday, December 4, 9 - 3. Free and open to the public. Stop by for holiday shopping - fine arts, crafts, food, holiday ornaments, etc.
Lynn Cummings' Solo Show
Dostie Brothers Framing - December 6 - January 31
308 Pine Street, Burlington
Opening Reception - Friday, January 3, 5 - 7 PM
Helen Day Art Center Show
December 1 - December 31
Lynn Cummings has paintings in this show
Opening Reception - Friday, December 6, 5 - 6:30 PM
Workshops/Classes
January 9, 9 AM- 3 PM, "Watercolor Collage", Black Horse Art Academy, 277 Pine Street, Burlington. Email: lynn.cummings@uvm.edu for more information.
January 30 & February 6, 12:30 - 3:30 PM, "Painting Snow", Charlotte Senior Center, Charlotte. Call 425-6345.
Linda Di Sante
My submission, "Beloved", was juried into the Small Works Show at The Bennington Center for the Arts to be held May 11 through December 22, 2013. Check out their website:
Barbara Pafume
Barbara has had two paintings accepted into the Bryan Gallery for the Shades of Fall Exhibit which opens Nov. 8th - Dec. 29th.
Colette Paul
Colette Paul had paintings juried in the following exhibits: The 39th Alaska Watercolor Society National Juried Exhibition at the Anchorage Museum, Rasmussen Center, Anchorage AK; the Hawaii Watercolor Society 2013 International Open at Art at Mark's, Honolulu, HI; L'Internationale d'Art Miniature, 7th Edition, Presbytere St-Nicholas, Centre de Diffusion des Arts et du Patrimoine St-Nicholas, Levis, Que, Canada; the International Society of Acrylic Painters 6th Signature Member On-Line Show; Rag Dolls, Robots & Rocketships International Exhibit, Foundry Art Centre, St Charles, MO; and the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society 2013 Fall Exhibition, Kenan Center Gallery, Lockport, New York.
Colette was selected for the 2014 Fletcher Allen Health Care Vermont Artists Calendar for the month of January.
Sarah Rosedahl
Sarah is busy with holiday art and book signing events:
Cheshire Cat Artist of the Month and book signing, Friday December 6, 4PM-8PM
Richmond Holiday Festival, Saturday December 7, 9AM-3PM
Sweet Grass Gallery book signing, Sunday December 8, noon-2PM
Champlain Islands Farmer's Market, Saturday December 14, 10AM-2PM
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"Betty White" by Sarah Rosedahl
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It is very exciting to have Holbein, USA as a VWS Partner. Being a Vermont based art supplier and full time supporter of arts and the artists who make them, it is a perfect fit for both of us. Please get to know Holbein and support them not only because they are one of our partners, but because they are a world leader in colors and mediums for artists. The Landgrove Inn is the premier, all-in-one lodging, dining and fun space in which to create, exhibit and learn. Check out the 2010 workshop schedule at Landgrove Inn, or call 802 824-6673. Tom and Maureen Checchia, owners. |
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