George Shipperley news

George will be holding a SUMMER WORKSHOP 2011 - July 14, 15, 16
at the Peninsula School of Art
3900 County F
Fish Creek, Wisconsin
920-868-3455
For more information, visit Peninsula School of Art or contact George Shipperley

Also in the Jan/Feb issue of The Artist Magazine is a full page article showing how George paintind the included still life. A great plug for the promotion of Oil Pastels.

Congratulations to Russ

Congratulations to Russ Mackensen! One of his OP landscapes was accepted onto the Richeson 75 landscape competition..

2011 dues

I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas and holiday season with family and friends, keeping warm if you're in the colder climates! and thinking about how to get inspired for the New Year! One way to do that would be to sign up for the New Oil Spiel blog hosted by Pat Isaac. Be sure to leave comments and keep up to date on the happenings with oil pastels! Instead of the old version of the Oil Spiel, this will be a faster, more productive way to communicate with all of you.

We also have an Oil Pastel group on Facebook, hosted by Tatiana Myers, that has grown in the past few months with new members! Thanks to Tatiana and others who have opened this opportunity for other artists to learn more about our versatile medium!

News for the 2011 Members Only Show! Sennelier will be sponsoring the Sennelier Award of Excellence once again and sending their wooden box set of oil pastels (the big one!) to the chosen recipient! They have also provided an oil pastel category on their website for artists to upload images of their paintings!

2011 will be our 7th year online! Seems like only yesterday, a few of us were chatting online at WetCanvas and the idea for a Society was born! Today we can truly say that many of our goals have been reached but we still have much to do! Each year artists who have never tried oil pastels are finding what a great medium it is, entering shows and getting more recognition! Some have even captured attention in national magazines!

As you know, it's time to renew your membership! If you joined in 2010 after October 1st, your dues are already current and you do not need to pay again. I'll be posting a * (star) beside member names this year to help keep track of renewals. The information for renewing can be found on the website. A notice is posted on the front page at http://oilpastelsociety.com 

I hope all of you will continue to support the Oil Pastel Society so that we can continue to further oil pastels as a fine art medium!

News from Luba Sterlikova

One of Luba's posters made it as a finalist at the Abrau-Duro Sparkling Wine competition and will be presented at the exhibit in Moscow, December 1, 2010.
To see the posters, please go to this direct link.

http://www.lubasterlikovaart.com/id58.html

Enter your oil pastels....

Richeson75 small works (144 sq. in or less) competition.
DEADLINE is 11/30.

Best in Show is $2,000 cash plus three 1000 merchandize certificates for 1st place (one for best miniature 25 sq. in or smaller) 

AND two $500 prize merchandiise certificates.

Gallery exhibit, online exhibit and hard cover, full-color exhibit book.

Link for further info.... http://www.Richeson75.com/ 

Artist in residence program

2011 Artists in Residence Program at I-Park

Application Deadline: January 11, 2011

The I-Park Foundation, Inc., a 450-acre natural woodland retreat

in East Haddam, CT, announces its eleventh season hosting its

multi-disciplinary residency program.  Self-directed artistsâ019

residencies will be offered from May through November 2011, with

possible off-season sessions in April and December.  Most

sessions are four weeks in duration.  Residencies are offered to

creative individuals working in the following disciplines:

Visual (including Environmental) Art, Music Composition/Sound

Sculpture, Moving Image, Creative Writing and Landscape/Garden

Design.  Work samples are evaluated through a competitive,

juried process.

There is a $30 application processing fee required.  Accepted

artists are responsible for their own work materials as well as

transportation to and from the area.  The facility is otherwise

offered at no cost to accepted artists, including a basic meal

program where most, though not all, of the food is provided.

Accommodations at I-Park include comfortable private living

quarters in an 1850â019s era farmhouse and a private studio on

the grounds.  An abundance of power tools and equipment, musical

instruments and peripherals, site materials, an electric kiln,

wireless internet and library facilities are provided.

International applicants are welcome.  To defray the cost of

travel, six $750.00 grants will be offered in 2011 to

international artists whose work is held in particularly high

regard by the Grant Committee.

Application materials will be available online as of November

22, 2010.  For details, visit

http://www.i-park.org/residency.html.

In 2011, I-Park will also be hosting its third Environmental Art

Biennale as well as a summer Special Inter-Disciplinary Projects

residency.  Application and program materials for these separate

events will be available online in late December.

For more information, contact I-Park by e-mail: ipark@ureach.com

or by phone: 860-873-2468.

News from Tatiana...

Congratulations to Tatiana Myers. Her oil pastel "Awakening" has been accpted as a finalist in Blosson-II International Art Conpetition. The show premiere will be in Naples, Florida Museum of Art  in February 2011 and then it will travel around the US.

Open Studios

Pat Isaac is part of the 19th Open Studio event in the building that houses her studio.

November 20 & 21, 2010. 11am - 5 pm each day. There are 60+ artists between 2 neighboring buildings. Art for sale, demos, refreshments, free parking. Come join the fun.

Karen Leeds studio toru

Sonoran Arts League presents its  "14th annual "HIDDEN IN THE HILLS" Art Studio Tour"            Two Week-ends (6 Days)         November 19th, 20th & 21st         November 26th , 27th & 28th             Friday, Saturday & Sunday            Hours:  10:00am to 5:00pm  Greetings!  The working studios of Karen Leeds & Bela Fidel will be Studio #26 for six days in the "Hidden in the Hills" Art Tour sponsored by the Sonoran Arts League.  This year we will be four artists, one studio. We are pleased to have Joan Waters and Jane Nassano as guest artists. The show begins Friday November 19th week-end and continues the following week-end after Thanksgiving.   DIRECTIONS TO STUDIO  This year's  "Hidden In the Hills" showcases the creations of 145 artists in 45 private working studios nestled in the hills and vales of the beautiful Sonoran desert throughout North Scottsdale, Carefree and Cave Creek.  Visit the official web site to preview artists and customize your own tour on-line.   MORE INFO HERE  DEMONSTRATIONS ...  Bela, Jane, Joan and I will be demonstrating silk painting, oil pastel and soft pastel, acrylic and the ancient art of encaustic (hot wax) on Fridays & Sundays.  In addition, Joan will be discussing her inspirations and how she creates her compelling metal scuptures.  Last year our informative & entertaining demos drew large crowds.   HOLIDAY GIFTS  & REFRESHMENTS ...  Besides our larger works of art, we will have small original treasures suitable for stockings and holiday gift giving. Please come enjoy refreshments and drink, and browse through our galleries. We will have official show directories for other studios available on site free of charge.    Karen Leeds  www.karenleeds.com Acrylic * French Dyes/ Silk * Oil Pastel   "Art is where I go to explore and to express;   it's where I lose my self, but find my way.  In a world that grows more complex by the moment, I yearn for simplicity and clarity - the way light falls upon a leaf or leans against an abstract symbol.  I strive to understand and to integrate my experiences and perceptions through color, texture, shapes and forms."  LUMINOUS    Acrylic, 60 x 48 Bela Fidel www.belafidel.com Oil * Encaustic * Mixed Media    "Discussing my manner of working reinforces the knowledge that I am an artist in love with the very process of creating. Some of my work is carefully pre-planned, whereas other work is a direct result of impulsive, creative intuition".  "My Zen Series aims at showing the elegance of simplicity, the richness of colors and the depth of minimalism."        STAND BY ME      Oil,  24 X 24 Jane Nassano  www.janenassano.com   * Soft Pastel "To create art is part of my purpose in this life.  I see compositions for paintings everywhere I look and colors in places that no one else sees.  When I see something that is visually pleasing to me, it makes me happy and I'm honored to be able to capture and share this with the world."     PERFECT ROSE,     Soft Pastel,  53 x 53     Joan Waters www.joanwaters.com  Metal Sculpture * Acrylic * Mixed Media * Public Works "My work explores the ambiguity and dynamic qualities of metal, as I turn flat, hard, industrial steel into organic textures and forms that seem to shift and move as they reflect light. I use welding tools, hammers and grinders in the same way one would use traditional artist tools.  I also create large abstract paintings and public projects from my Tempe, AZ studio." FIREDANCE 1,    Welded Steel / Patina / Enamel,   27 X 35 X 3

News from Shelley Schoenherr

Shelley's oil pastel "Rosie's Gaze" has been accepted into the publication of Strokes of Genius 3 which will be published October of 2011. Congratulations!

Rosie is currently on exhibit in the History and Genealogy of the Williams County Library, Bryan, Ohio. Shelley has a solo exhibit of her oil pastels and pastels now through the holiday season at that location. (40 originials and 75 photographs).
She also received an HM for her pastel "Rain on the Hill" in the Pastel Journal's Pastel 100 this past season.

Q&A

Question:
    I am trying to find out what the ingredients of oil pastels are, and if they are suitable for vegans. Vegans do not use any animal products, including beeswax. I have found some ingredients on the web, but they are not specific about the type of wax. Do different types have different ingredients?  I do hope you can help.


Answer:
   
    Mineral wax, (okoezite) mineral oil and pigment. are the basic ingredients in sennelier oil pastels. There have been rumors of things like safflower oil in sennelier oil pastel products, they use this oil in there paints. However I have it on very good authority that they do not use safflower oil in oil pastels. They do in some of there paints.

Beeswax in particular would be a bad choice for oil pastels because of its rather hard nature. Some of the cheaper oil pastels do use this wax. If i where trying to stay outside of the realm of animal  products.. My choices for oil pastel would be sennelier, Caran d'Ache, or holbein. in that order. Again the information in this regard that I have from the chief chemist at Caran D'ache affirms that they use a mineral wax, and oil in there products as well. Though I am not certain with Caran D'Ache what mineral wax they are using.

Other interesting waxes for oil pastel are carnuba wax - this is natural plant based wax. There are no current forumalations of oil pastel I know of that use this though. There is a manufacture that I can not mention at this point in time that is doing some research based on this wax in regards to oil pastel.

Robert Garrett

Oil Pastel Society Memership Administrator   
    

Members Show

Be sure to check out our Members Show. Click the link on our home page www.oilpastelsociety.com. Bill Creevy was this year's judge and he will be our first Honorary Signature Member to the OPS. Bill's painting style is representational and he is at home in still life, landscape and figure painting. His favorite medium is simply drawing, but has extensive knowledge of both pastel and oil painting. He is the author of "the Pastel Book" which has a section on oil pastels.
Sennelier will be giving us the 120 boxed set of oil pastels for next year's show. Their Award of Excellence will be added to our awards and they will have a link from the Sennelier site to the OPS.