Competition

Here is information about the Artists Magazine's annual competition.          

The Artist's Magazine's                  
28th Annual Art competition                 

                                                                                                     
5 First Place Awards: $2,500 each 
5 Second Place Awards: $1,250 each
5 Third Place Awards: $750 each
15 Honorable Mentions: $100 each

Nine finalists will be featured in “Competition Spotlight” inThe Artist’s Magazine; twelve finalists will be featured in “Artist of the Month” on our website; the works of twelve finalists will be offered on our website as desktop wallpaper. All winners and finalists will receive a certificate suitable for framing.
Winners will be featured and finalists’ names published in the December 2011 issue of The        Artist’s Magazine.
For more information aboutTHE STUDENT/BEGINNER DIVISION
please visit http://www.artistsmagazine.com

PLUS—all award winners and honorable mentions receive a 1-year membership to NorthLight VIP Program.

Compete and Win in 5 Categories!
All entries must be postmarked no later than April 15, 2011.

Visit http://www.artistsmagazine.com for complete guidelines and to enter online.

Interview with Stephanie Neely

Great interview with one of our signature members. Stephanie talks about her art and how she got started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSiYKOTb7kE

Congrats to Anita Gersch

Anita's painting of the dog "Sitting Pretty" was accepted into Art Show at the Dog Show on Wichita, KS and in conjunction with a very large AKC dog show. This event is now in its 25th year and runs from 3/1 - 4/10, 2011.

Anita has also been accepted into the Academy of Equine Art and the Society of Animal Artists. All of these Acceptances were based on her work with oil pastels. Her painting "The View" is in the Ex Arte Equinus 4 show for 2011. 

Great news for OPs.

Kudos to Russ Mackensen

Russ has recently been accepted into the Oil Painters of America and the International Guild of Realism. He is probably one of the only oil pastel artists in these organizations. Great news for oil pastels.

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!