Dustbuster News

Sharing your news with SPS members has become easier than ever!  We have an entire page of our new website dedicated to your artistic accomplishments, workshops, events or publications.  Basically, anything that’s happening in your art world can be shared with other members.  Use the Share News Link in the Box above or within the Members Only area when you log in with your user name and password.  You don’t even have to wait for a specific date/deadline.  So, what are you waiting on?  Please share!

SPS continues to evolve as part of the global renaissance of the pastel medium.  We have become a sought-after community of pastel artists and Southeastern Pastel is actively creating new benefits for our members who are from around the world.  All benefits are made entirely possible through our member volunteer team. There is no better way to get engaged with the SPS society whether you’re new to pastel or an established artist.  We strongly encourage you to join our team and help further distinguish SPS as a premier pastel society.

One of our most recent volunteers says “though only 1 month new to SPS, myself and another new member volunteered for FB Admins of our new Private Group.  Mind you – we had no previous experience as a social media admin – but with the support of other SPS members we were able to help build and launch our new Group!  Best of all, it has allowed me to immediately start getting to know the leadership and engage with our fellow master pastelists – what a great way to truly become part of the Society!”   Allison Woodward, FB Administrator

Our most urgent needs include: Exhibitions Chair & Team Members, Social Media Administrators, Publicity Chair, Communications Co-Chair & Zoom/Eventbrite Co-Chair.  Don’t let the titles daunt you! Key criteria are strong organizational & communication skills, willingness to volunteer and sharing your passion for pastels.  To learn more about these opportunities and  to join our amazing group of volunteers, please contact Anne Spivey at vpresident@southeasternpastel.com

Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/workshop-exploring-abstraction-in-pastel-presented-by-debora-stewart-tickets-242989828117

Debora Stewart is a master pastelist with the Pastel Society of America and a member of the master’s circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies.  Debora is the author of Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media and a series of videos for Northlight on abstract pastels.  Debora has taught workshops and judged pastel exhibits throughout the US.  She has received awards from The Pastel Society of America, Pastel Journal magazine and International Artist Magazine.  Debora has shown her work throughout the US and has been invited to exhibit in China and France.  Debora’s pastels and abstract paintings are represented in various US galleries including Huff Harrington Fine Art in Atlanta.  Debora lives with her husband and miniature schnauzer in Iowa.

Exploring Abstraction in Pastel workshop

Debora will teach artists how to discover possibilities for abstraction in a variety of ways.  The first day of the workshop will focus on distilling abstract compositions from photo sources and other references. Participants will create thumbnail compositions and create color studies which will then be turned into larger pastel paintings.  Other topics for the day include ways to loosen up and work more intuitively.  On the second day of the workshop Debora will focus on mixed media techniques with pastel and abstract realism of florals and faces.  Included in this session are ways to create your own sanded surface with clear gesso, underpainting and other materials to include with pastels.

At the conclusion of the workshop artists will have a good understanding of how to find inspiration for abstractions, ways to work intuitively and loosen up and how to incorporate abstraction into more realistic subjects of their choosing.

Materials needed include:

• 1 sheet of sanded paper like Uart for day one
• 1 or 2 sheets of Rives BFK paper 175 gsm or watercolor or mixed media paper
• Generals compressed charcoal
• A minimal selection of hard pastels
• Artist quality soft pastels
• Rubbing alcohol
• Brushes
• Backing board and masking tape
• Liquitex clear gesso (or Golden ground for pastel or similar)
• Fluid acrylics (your choice of colors)
• Water bucket
• Paper towels
• Hair dryer

Can we say, “WHEW!!?” The process of creating a new website began almost a year ago when Terri Whitesel and Anne Spivey spent (lots of) time learning about the current functionality of the original website (which was amazing in its day to say the least) and then investigating the countless options available to meet the needs of our growing organization.  We knew with the growing virtual  environment we needed to act fast. Terri no longer was able to help with the website and fortunately, Anne listened to Cheryl Tryon who suggested that she reach out to Sandie Terry for help. Sandie came along in the nick of time to help make our dream of a new website become a reality. Anne and Sandie’s partnership turned out to be the perfect ‘marriage’ and quickly resulted in gaining an unanimous vote from the Board to begin web development in the early Spring. We are very proud to say that we were able to stay on track and hit our target of going Live in early Fall despite some very real technical snafus along the way (no need to go into the details).

We would be remiss if we didn’t send out a huge shout out to all of the people who helped to make this new website a reality: The Board Members, Terry Metzler, Cheryl Tryon, Becky Postell, Tomasyn Breazeale, Terri Whitesel, Nancy and  Don Nowak.  The biggest thank you goes to Luiz Varanda at Reason Labs, Anne Spivey and to our Web Administrator, Sandie Terry.

More about Sandie, our Web Administrator :

Sandie followed a career path in technology but geeks do love art!  She leveraged books and workshops to learn more about art, composition and pastel techniques.  As with most artists, she has a strong desire to portray the beauty in this world in a way that stimulates the emotions in others that she felt when viewing the subject.

Her paintings are found in private collections in Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado and New Mexico.  She has also  had the honor to place in a local art shows, juried into national exhibitions and received an Honorable Mention in Southeastern Pastel Society’s 2020 International Juried Exhibition for her painting “Dad’s Hug”