2023 11th Online Juried Exhibition
Pastel Artist.CA is pleased to release its 11th Online Member Juried Exhibition. This exhibition is open to PAC members to showcase their work and includes the work of member artists from across Canada.
Thank you to our jurors: Evalynne McDougall, Andrew McDermott and Elena Selitsky
Award Paintings
AWARDS & SIGNATURE STATUS RECOGNITION
Awards
Grand Prize: Denise Nonomura – Well Worn
First Place: Masoud Habibyan – Lost in the World of Dreams
Second Place: Suzanne Proulx – Symphonie d’hiver
Third Place: Brenda Matsen – Bighorn
Honorable Mentions
Roberta Combs – Green Lake Blues
Kerri Fisher – Hoopoe
Paul Gillam Down – Towards Grandmother’s Old House Governors Island
Ingrid vanReenen – Scotty
Members Earning Signature Status
Achieved PAC Status
Keri Fisher
Paul Gillam
Patricia McKeen
Julie Poulin
Louise Renee
Lorraine Roberts
Viviane Trubey
Min Xu
Achieved MPAC Status
Suzanne Proulx
Susan White
Online Exhibition Gallery
Jurors' Comments
Evalynne McDougall, Andrew McDermott and Elena Selitsky
Evalynne McDougall, MPAC, NPS, PSWC-DP, SCA, PSA
Thank you for the opportunity to be one of the jurors along with Lena Selitsky and Andrew McDermott for the 11th Annual Member’s Online show. As always, jurying graphically reminds me of the tenets such as composition, design, value and so on that are so important to artists in producing their works. And it is a reminder that stays front and centre for many months after the jury duty is completed. With that in mind, I was pleased to see, in my initial scan through the entries, the high quality of work submitted . Remember too though, especially if you are an entrant, or at least relatively new to art competitions, that even the best artists sometimes make unfortunate judgements.
Given everything an artist must keep in mind to make a painting “work”, by far the most important tenet is composition – the story being told. To me, everything else is a derivative of, or acts in concert with, composition. Generally if there is a flaw in the painting, such as shapes, colour, value, temperature, focal point etc. it is grounded in the artist’s initial decision(s) about the overall design of the piece. Maybe there is too much or too little information, or the perspective is wrong, or the decision about dividing up the paper is off, or the colour/value doesn’t reflect the story being told. All of these must work together for a truly successful painting. It’s an artist’s job to interpret and compose what they see not necessarily minutely copy.
I would like to add a couple of other practical points that are relevant to artists, as they can make or break an entry: The camera is a wonderful device that truly makes life easier, but it has some common pitfalls: It cannot correct perspective – this is especially relevant to figure and some still life – where, for example, a hand, foot or candelabra might be the wrong size or shape. It also cannot correctly “frame” the photo the artist takes to enter, and as we all know, photos have to be crisp and accurate for the jury.
In addition, grids are an asset in doing an accurate drawing, but one must be careful they don’t become part of the final piece.
And finally, artists who enter shows should be aware that there is some controversy about how, where, what size, and if, one’s signature should be.
Congratulations to all those who had their submissions accepted, and congratulations to the award winners. Also, for those who were not accepted, congratulations for trying. I encourage you to keep entering shows until you do get accepted. After that it’s easy. Again, thank you for the opportunity to jury. There is no better way to improve one’s own craft than to be required to scrutinize others’ work.
Andrew McDermott MPAC
coming soon
Elena Selitsky MPAC
I was surprised, humbled and delighted to be invited to be a juror for 11th PAC Annual Member’s Only Online Exhibition. First of all, I want to thank everyone who submitted their art for the show! I know it takes courage! This was my first experience in such a role and I learned so much. To see the submissions from the juror’s perspective was not an easy task, especially knowing that despite the merits of so many good entries, some would have to be rejected. I found this very difficult, as I know myself that receiving a rejection is often so disappointing.
But rest assured, even rejection brings with it a valuable learning experience for us as artists, and we begin to develop a more critical eye of our work to improve our work for an acceptance in a future show.
When I juried the entries, my first consideration always places importance on the drawing skills demonstrated by the artists. This is so important, particularly for artists working in realism. I also looked for an absence of overworking the pastels, preferring to see the freshness and vibrancy of the mark making rather than too much blending and layering on the paper. Pieces that were overworked, presented a dull and flat interpretation of the subject matter. And finally, I looked at composition, which I was very pleased to see so much of the work in the show takes this into consideration. I would like to congratulate all the award winners, participants and those working behind the scenes to make this show happen.