Dustbuster News

Stay tuned  for the upcoming possibilities to learn and grow as a pastel artist. Whether you are just starting in pastel, have been working in pastel a while or are a master in Pastel, we plan to offer creative challenges and inspiration for all levels of artists. In the future, we hope to have new opportunities for  signature members and master pastel artists as well.

I know you will be glad to be a part of our pastel community of learning and sharing.  We hope to offer new techniques, experiences, and increase our artist community camaraderie. United we stand with pastels in hand! 😀

We are a non profit organization run completely by volunteers. We invite you to be part of the innovative SPS support team as a chair person or committee member. Please notify me if you would like to join our team of pastel artists to help us achieve our goals this year.

We need an Exhibition chairman with committee members, and a Membership Chairman.

Please contact Connie Reilly at president@southeasternpastel.com

Thank you for being part of SPS!

Connie Lynn Reilly

SPS President & Founder

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!

In keeping with the expansion of our pastel society – we are thrilled to announce that we have created a Facebook group exclusive to members.  Members will receive a communication via email inviting them to JOIN.  Just by joining the private group, they will receive 10% Dakota Pastel Coupon!

Exclusive to SPS members across the globe, this new group will be a wonderful way to further engage, connect and support one another in our journey as artists.  Our mission will focus on creative content that inspires, educates and keeps you informed.   We will launch our first experience in February called “Paint and Grow w/ Nancy Nowak.”  This monthly activity will be a wonderful opportunity to gather painting insight with the personal guidance and encouragement from a master level member of our Southeastern Pastel Society.  We encourage you to join when you receive the link early January.   As a further bonus, just for joining, you will receive a 10% discount code for any purchase at Dakota Pastel!

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

Things are gearing up for the biggest pastel party on the planet in Albuquerque, New Mexico! The IAPS 14th Biennial convention is open for registration on the IAPS website: www.iapspastel.org.

Highlights at the convention are educational demos and classes, the big trade show (or as we like to refer to it as “The Candy Store”), Welcome Reception, Pastelworld Exhibition, Paint Around, Friday Night Fiesta, and the Saturday night banquet. The atmosphere is very friendly and supportive with great camaraderie! You are guaranteed to make new pastel friends from all over the world!

Convention Dates: Tuesday, June 21 through Sunday, June 26th 2022

January 4, 2022 Registration will open for Workshops and Demos at 12 noon EST. Be sure to review the convention schedule showing workshops and demos, events and activities on the IAPSpastel.org website.

If you have any questions, please contact Red Weber at: contact@iapspastel.org

I know it was not easy at times, confusing at best, but as we all learned to use Eventbrite to register for programs and workshops this past fall, fewer and fewer people had issues joining the programs. Here are some tips and pointers for going forward that should make it easier.  First, think of Eventbrite as Ticketmaster and it becomes less confusing.  Second, be patient!

Eventbrite and Zoom have rules—follow those rules to have a successful experience!

• You must use the same email that you registered for the program to sign on
• Make sure you have the latest version of Zoom
• Always click “Join via Zoom” not JOIN NOW

• Be Patient! Do not give up. Remember everyone is trying to log in at the same time.
• You are not having issues signing in to the program if you are in the “Waiting Room” and the message is that the host will let you in soon.  This just means that the Zoom Team, Program Chair and Presenter(s) are still working on some technical issues.  Unfortunately, this might meant that we start up to 5 minutes late. Be Patient!
• Try the method that Mary Kathryn used to join the program. (See below)
• Email zoomevents@southeasternpastel.com if you have tried everything and still cannot get in.
• If you are having issues joining the online event go to this link for support:  https://www.eventbrite.com/support/articles/en_US/How_To/join-an-online-event?lg=en_US

One of our members shared with me after the December program how she was able to join after initially having problems. Thank you for sharing, Mary Kathryn!

“For my user name, I typed in the email address that I signed up for the meeting with. (I did not have an Eventbrite account under that email, however).  Rather than establishing a new account with that email, I clicked on the link that said “Send me a login link.”  They sent me a link then to the Zoom session.  Hope that makes sense.”

Please share your experiences logging into future programs so that we can continue to help other members.

       FYI: Registration for future programs will open the day after the current month’s program and close at 12:00 the day of the program.

Terry, Cheryl and the rest of the Zoom Committee

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”