Shuk Susan Lee, “Whisper of Heaven”
2025 ‘Luminosity’ Juried International Exhibition,
Best in Show
Exhibitions
Southeastern Pastel Society's 2025 Fall 'Luminosity' Juried Virtual International Open Exhibition
November 1 – December 12, 2025
The SPS Juried Virtual International Open Exhibition titled “Luminosity” again demonstrates to the art community just how luminous, vibrant, and versatile this medium behaves on varied surfaces. Viewers were invited to watch the Zoom awards ceremony held Nov. 1 at 4 PM EST. We are thrilled that 192 artists residing in 23 States and in 8 countries submitted 566 artworks. Artists entered only works they had completed in the last two years. The paintings could not have been displayed in any of our prior exhibitions.
It was not an easy choice for Juror of Selection and Awards, Mark Ivan Cole, a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America and Master Circle Member of IAPS TO narrow down to 174 submissions.
As SPS contains artists at many levels of proficiency, we are on our 4th year of implementing two categories:
Master Division and Member of Excellence/Member Division. Our Master Division allows the individual to add SPSMP to their signature. The designation indicates the artist has won awards in three of our SPS shows.
Our organization has been showcasing the pastel medium for 38 years. We are grateful for our Sponsors who have supported SPS. We’d like to thank Austin Hamby at ShowSubmit for providing a user friendly exhibition website as well as working fluidly with the artists and submissions chair. Also, thanks so much to the volunteers at SPS who give their time to produce an exciting art exhibition.
We awarded over $4,300 in cash awards to 20 artists.
Juror's Comments
Always having multiple projects in the works, Portland, Oregon-based artist Mark Ivan Cole mark@markivancole.com has three main pursuits: art, music and writing. He says, “Creative expression is essential, constant, even insistent, regardless of the form it takes.” He considers himself a self-taught artist, though he has spent decades learning from and studying the works of numerous artists, both contemporary and historical. He is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and has been designated a Master Pastelist by the International Association of Pastel Societies. His paintings have been juried into local, regional and international shows and have garnered top honors. His work has been shown at the Salmagundi Club, the Triton Museum, the Art Museum of Los Gatos, and the Haggin Museum, as well as in galleries in Florida, Oregon, California, China and Taiwan. His art is widely collected and his painting “Titan” is part of the MingART Gallery’s permanent collection in Suzhou, China.
Go to his website for a complete bio:
JUDGE’S STATEMENT
What an amazing, humbling and inspiring experience it was to jury and judge the 2025 Luminosity online competition for the Southeastern Pastel Society! This was a challenge because there were so many outstanding pieces. How does one decide?
First, the focus is on the basics: composition, value, color and edges. Second, it’s about technique: does the painting show competence (or brilliance!) in the use of the pastel medium? Then it’s about impact: does the painting “grab” you? What keeps your attention? What brings you back to it? The entire show exemplifies these criteria, and the award winners stood out, one by one–as hard as it was to choose!
Good art changes the viewer. I know this show has changed me. The portraits, still life images, landscapes, abstracts and animals are now part of my personal experience. Thank you to everyone who had the courage to enter, and congratulations to those who won awards! And thank you to the Southeastern Pastel Society board for this opportunity to spend quality time with everyone’s wonderful work.
Keep painting. The world needs what you do. I’ll do the same.
–Mark Ivan Cole, PSA, IAPS-MC – October 2025
Best in Show Award, Shuk Susan Lee Whisper of Heaven
The first thing that struck me about “Whisper of Heaven” was its gorgeous luminosity, which makes it a fitting representative of this amazing show. This painting is an exquisite essay on reflections, translucence, and all manner of shadows. The result is both romantic and believable. We are brought into a wondrous world of sound, light, warmth and coolness, the ephemeral and the solid; stillness and vibration; tension, poise, and relaxation, all in graceful balance. Everywhere the eye roams, it finds some new delight. The intimacy and ecstasy invoked by this image make it compelling.
First Place Award, Cameron Hampton, American Portrait, Dad
Every picture tells a story, and this one tells many more. We sense the importance of the well-worn photograph, and wonder why Dad holds it up like this. The artist honors every detail with unflinching honesty and acceptance. There is so much character here, despite the inscrutable deadpan expression. We know those are hardworking hands. The artist’s choice to partially depict the “No Trespassing” sign reinforces the stolid emotional tone. The reflected colors in the white tee-shirt are magical, lending a liveliness to this otherwise solid and seemingly immovable subject.
Second Place Award, Chingwen Tsai, Take Your Time
This double-portrait is a sensitive depiction of how shared experience and values connect the past and the future. Both subjects express love as befits their respective ages: the man with his well-worn body and hard-won perspective, and the young, inexperienced boy whose recent injury grants him patient empathy for his elder. Both subjects show signs of have been cared for by someone else. The title is thought-provoking: who is speaking to whom? How does the message change when we reverse the speaker and the listener? The technical mastery of the medium accentuates the emotion, eschews all distractions, and allows the mind and heart to go deeper.
Third Place Award, Jeff Slemons, Traffic Jam Blues
Sometimes everything comes to a halt. The only things that move in this image are the lively marks of color. What a great use of pastels! While the title, the image and the style are whimsical and playful, this is a solid painting in every way. The drawing is impeccable. The atmosphere and depth are clear. The viewer can even feel the shifting temperatures as the eye drifts from sunlight to shadows, and from the foreground to the distance. We get the feeling that whatever mobility these vehicles once had, it’s all gone but the memories. Even so, in their overgrown resting places, with their oxidized, fading paint, they’re still beautiful to explore.
Exceptional Merit Awards
Exceptional Merit: Landscape, John DeSprain, Desert Dusk
This painting captures the experience of kismet, those moments in which everything aligns. Light bursts through the frame shaped by the cactus, and the immediate foreground becomes mere suggestion. The depth here is so clear. The shapes are organic, balanced and properly varied in size and position—nothing seems repetitive or redundant. The painting inspires further exploration with every viewing. The changes in temperature really make this one vibrate, despite its stillness.
Exceptional Merit: Portrait/Figure, Teresa DeSeve, In HIs Realm
“In His Realm” is one of the most painterly treatments in the portrait/figure category, and yet every aspect of it is readable. The expressive marks imply an intimate understanding of the reader, leaving the details to the imagination of the viewer. The use of color is bold and effective. Masses and main shapes are solid and recognizable. The mark-making is marvelously strong—even vigorous—and yet from a distance, the image appears photographic. We can feel the strength of his arms, the slight tension in his hands as he holds the book in position, fully immersed in the experience.
Exceptional Merit: Still Life/Floral, Carole Elliott, It’s a Shellabration
The clarity of this image is remarkable! The pearlescence of the main shell captures the attention immediately, and the eye follows the flow to find other delights in the glass and elsewhere. The fully abstracted background and the dark shadow cast by the strong side-lighting boldly establish the perspective. The refracted image of the starfish is so clear that we can feel the wetness of the water in the goblet. The artist shows tremendous control of textures, from the shiny shell to the dull sand dollar.
Exceptional Merit: Animal/Wildlife, Patrick Dodde, Silent Watcher
This kingfisher portrait has so many textures. The beak, the eye, the feathers, the claws, and the bark of the tree are deftly and masterfully rendered. While visible in close-up, the marks serve only to enhance the realism of the object. Subtle tricks ensure the eye understands the order in which the elements overlap, and none of those tricks are overused. The main focus is on the colorful wings, the eye and the beak, and everything else supports that beautifully.
Exceptional Merit: Abstract/Non-Objective, Debora Lee Stewart, Reflections Through Time
At first, this appears to be a limited palette, but further inspection reveals it to be more subtly complex. Many different layers of depth can be found, depending on the eye’s focus. We see one layer when we focus on “blue,” another when we focus on “ochre,” and yet another when we focus on “mark-making.” Each aspect enhances the others to create a remarkably three-dimensional experience.
Merit Awards
Merit: Landscape, Kenneth L. Keith, Entering New Mexico
We can feel the heat. We can even feel the massive weight of the sandstone. The air itself is alive. The mark-making is confident and assured, without stiffness of any sort. The bold values are well- balanced. The impact of this painting is immediate and strong.
Merit: Portrait/Figure, Arianna Squicquaro, La Conversione dell’Innominato
Everything about this painting has been thought through and carefully executed. The reflected colors are wonderful throughout. Edges are sharp, and soften when depth is needed. We are immediately drawn to the intensity of the expression: so direct and compelling. Then the eye wanders, led from one object to another, wondering about the story behind them all…and yes, there is a story.
Merit: Still Life/Floral, Jeri Greenberg, Fall Heat
Bold, bold, bold! This painting explores the richness of both saturation and chiaroscuro. “Heat,” indeed! That hot red is enhanced by yellow and orange, and accentuated by cool blues and hints of green. The mark-making is strong and exciting. For a still life, there is almost nothing “still” about this.
Merit: Animal/Wildlife, Chun Yi Tsou, Embrace of Dreams
The viewer’s focus is directed to the faces of the two subjects, particularly the eyes. Those elements are finished to a fine level while allowing the rest of it to be looser and more suggestive than representative. We find ourselves quietly wondering about the titular “dreams” of these two.
Merit: Abstract/Non-Objective, Laura E. Pollak, Flourescent Minerals
While this is clearly abstract, it suggests an actual physicality, with depth, mass, heat, cold and movement. The immediate attraction is the light emanating from what looks like a molten waterfall, and the composition leads the eye upstream behind it to a series of apparent cascades. Once that flow is established, the eye begins to explore the solid structures around it, finding wonderfully suggested details. There is a lot to explore.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mention: William Schneider, As I’d Like You To Be
This painting is so full of character and beautifully rendered in loose, confident strokes. The hand on the chin, the closed lips, the side-eyed gaze and the ignored stray lock of hair all speak to the subject’s internal dialogue. Lost and found edges are brilliantly chosen. The vignette style works perfectly to keep our focus on the thoughtful subject.
Honorable Mention: Andrew McDermott, At Work
Certain key bits are spelled out with strong, clear marks, while everything else is marvelously implied in this scene of people getting the job done despite the weather. Key, well-placed marks set the perspective. Every element appears effortlessly rendered, and yet we recognize it all. The variations in the edges is remarkable. The range of colors belies what first appears to be a dreary day. Wonderful. One can almost hear the city.
Honorable Mention: Alexandra Wozniak, Matinee Morandelle
Oh, the light! The atmosphere is the star here. the artist uses the whole toolbox of techniques to dazzle us: lost edges, a strong light source (remarkably large), color shifts, temperature shifts, silhouettes and reflected colors. The sweep of the foreground keeps the eye moving, as do the three main trees. The inclusion of the poles and power lines gives this a depth that would have been diminished otherwise.
Honorable Mention: Cathy Dement, Bear Necessities
While the fur is carefully rendered, it maintains its coarsely matted appearance, avoiding any stiffness. The nose enforces the third dimension—not a simple thing when there is this much detail already. The reflections in the eyes are clear. We half-expect this bear to blink at any moment.
Honorable Mention: Karen Elizabeth Margulis, Whisper
Lovely, subtle color play. The ethereally blended layers in both the sky and on the ground give the air a lightness that complements the rich, dark colors of the closer trees. The subtle grays of the background trees establish the depth beautifully. All this allows the foreground details to stand out. The shapes are varied, and casually but properly positioned for balance.
Honorable Mention: Anne Gee, Waterton Canyon II
All for the love of color! This is a marvelous example of a landscape in which the colors have been gleefully pushed, while rendering a completely believable scene. The values work, the temperature choices work, and all the elements fit in a pleasing composition. This will light up a room.
