Dustbuster News

Volume XXXII, Issue 4 July/Aug 2021

Letter From the SPS President

I can’t believe that June is almost over, “time flies when you’re having fun!” I think that there is a lot of truth to that and especially this year. Things are opening up.

People have had their shots and are ready to venture out. I spent some time in Ocala Florida with family and to deliver paintings to a new gallery space at the Juniper General store. I went horseback riding, even took a lesson to improve my skills, ate out, went shopping, floated in the pool, all those things that hadn’t been doable for so long. We didn’t go anywhere that was crowded and spent time outside, so never felt the need to wear a mask, although I kept one with me. Got to drive through WEC, the World Equestrian Center. The price tag for this is in the billions of dollars, WOW!

The attendance at our meetings continues to grow. May’s demo by artist Jaqueline Meyerson, was a huge success. Our website committee, headed by VP Anne Spivey, has been hard at work researching what we need to do to make our website more current and easier to navigate. I have been pleasantly surprised at the numbers of new volunteers offering their services. Some of these people are longtime members who lived too far away to attend meetings until we went virtual. Micah Goguen and Debbie Anderson are our new as program and workshop chairs. Orit Reuben has joined the Publicity committee. Sandie Terry has joined the Website committee. These are just the latest volunteers and hope I didn’t miss anyone. One of our biggest needs is for computer savvy people, this is an ongoing need, no matter what we do to the website. Volunteers are valued and we will train you, we don’t allow our volunteers to fail.

At this time, I would like to thank Ronnie Often for all her years of service to SPS. She was Treasurer for many years, then took over the membership position. Ronnie is moving and needs to concentrate on that right now. Marilyn Kleinhans has taken her place.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer, having some new adventures and of course painting! Be thinking about our online show as the time will be here before you know it. Tony Allain is the juror, and he will be teaching an online workshop. Details and signup available soon. In the meantime, just paint!

Welcome!

First, we would like to introduce our new Program Chair, Micah Goguen and our new Workshop Chair, Debbie Anderson. Both artists reside in Macon, Ga and will be working together in the upcoming year to bring some innovative and exciting changes to SPS.

Micah teaches many mediums, including pastels in weekly classes with students. Goguen also teaches workshops around the Southeast, using pastel in traditional and experimental fashions. Mixed Media approaches, that rely heavily on pastel, allow Micah to explore and test the boundaries of where the medium can go. Micah is an educator for vendors, allowing him to network and learn from many different artists. We look forward to seeing how his skills move SPS forward.

Debbie is a non-conformist, impressionistic artist and she likes to challenge the obvious. Her paintings are representational in appearance, with a strong emphasis on subtle value changes, marked by intense color. Anderson recently retired after owning and operating her own gallery, in which she taught pastel to a variety of ages and experience. Debbie values connection and enjoys getting to know people. We are happy to have Debbie as the ambassador to our workshop artists and help communicate the richness of our future offerings, both online and in person.

SPS Programs Update

All programs will be VIA Zoom until further notice.

Monday, April 12th – “Spring Show and Tell”

We enjoyed getting to know our members better by featuring and sharing a slide show of member’s artworks. Many of you put yourselves out there and gave the option for feedback and comments from the group.

Debbie Anderson, Like Deer in the Night

Monday, May 10th - Jacqueline Meyerson, “An Easy Approach to Painting Glass and Transparent Objects with Pastels”

A Special thank you to Jacqueline for sharing her knowledge on layering her way to realism. We watched her process start to finish on creating a still life with a glass vase. Her insight on process and product was very interesting.

Jaqueline Meyerson, To the Colors

June - August

We will be taking a break from Program meeting for June, July and August, but look forward to seeing you in September with Debora Stewart.

September

September Program with Debora Stewart:

Experiencing the environment and expressing these moments in time through mark making and color allows Debora to capture what she finds to be beautiful in life. Join us for a demonstration of her process and find out how she gathers inspiration.

Debora Stewart, Red Tapestry

SPS Workshop Update

We are moving forward with our upcoming Fall Workshop with Juror, Tony Allain. “CREATIVITY UNTAMED: From sketch to Frame!” This 2-day workshop is Virtual and will be held October 16 and 17th through Zoom.

Allain is an award-winning painter and instructor residing in Scotland. He has a passion for landscape, wanting to share his vision of the world with those around him. He prides himself on capturing the effects of early morning or late afternoon light. Tony is not interested in pure representation but rather responding to the moods and atmospheres generated by landscape. He believes the most precious thing we have as artist is our visual language.

Registration info coming to our website soon!

Tony Allain, Boat Yard

SPS Publicity Update

Terry Metzler, the previous Publicity Chair, is now the new Zoom Chair. The two new Publicity Co-Chairs are Cheryl Tryon, the previous Program Chair, and Orit Reuben. SPS is thrilled to have Orit as a new Board member and anticipate her creative ideas for publicizing our society. She is a very talented artist and her painting “A Place of Prayer,” won the Bill Creevy Memorial Award in the SPS 2021 20th International Juried Exhibition. Cheryl is creating a call for entry ad for the fall Pastel Journal to announce our SPS 2021 Online Juried Exhibition. Orit is developing a flyer about the exhibit and workshop that will be emailed to members. The flyer can be downloaded so members can print it out and share with colleagues, plein air groups, etc.

Cheryl Tryon and Orit Reuben, Publicity Co-Chairs

SPS Membership

(The leadership of the SPS would like to take a moment to wish a fond farewell to longtime member Ronnie Offen as she moves on to a new chapter in her journey. Thank you for your service to our organization, we will miss you but wish you much luck in the future. Below is a Farewell message from Ronnie to all her friends in the SPS.)

FAREWELL TO ALL:

After 30 years in Atlanta (almost to the day), Chris and I are returning to the DC area–Reston, VA, to be exact. For over 25 of those 30 years, I’ve been a member of SPS. I would like to thank everyone for their support and friendship through the years, especially the 15 years while I was Treasurer. More recently, I would like to thank Ron Pircio for his patience and help while I was Membership Chair. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not thank Mikki Dillon and Martha Bator. They contacted me shortly after my arrival in Atlanta, told me about this wonderful organization and encouraged me to join. I’ve learned so much from so many of you and I truly appreciate it.

Thanks for the memories, and AU REVOIR!

– Ronnie Offen

Member News

Artistic Accomplishments by our Members

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Member Workshops & Events

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Member Publications

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