Atlanta Georgia -- Here We Come!

If you haven’t made your reservations for the 17th Annual CPSA Convention, now is a great time to do it. CPSA reserves a block of rooms in order to obtain a special convention rate--$129 + tax. This rate allows up to 4 people in a room--such a deal! Once the block of rooms is gone, the rate goes to the hotel’s regular room rate. By filling the block of rooms we are able to get meeting rooms at a special rate as well. Do a favor for yourself, for CPSA, and for the hotel and make your reservations as soon as possible. Deadline for the convention rate is July 6th. The block of rooms is currently 85% booked. Registration for Convention Events can be done on line at http://www.cpsa.org/MEMBERSHIP/ConventionRegistration.html

ROOMMATE SERVICE
If you are interested in sharing a room with another convention attendee, please let Cheryl Cox know (finance@cpsa.org). She will put you in touch with others who have contacted her.

ACCEPTED ARTISTS
Selected artwork must arrive at the Hudgens Center for the Arts between June 17 and June 24, 2009. Shipping instructions are included in this PDF file. (http://www.cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/17thEXHIBITION/Exhibition.Atlanta09.html and select "shipping instructions."

CONVENTION EVENTS
Wednesday Evening, July 29 - Welcome Night in the Hospitality Suite
This is your opportunity to Check-in and pick up your name tag and other materials for the convention. The Board and Chapter Presidents and Representatives will have been in town for a couple of days attending their meetings and will be on hand to greet you and answer questions regarding the week’s events.

Thursday and Friday, July 30 and 31 Workshops (9 am to 4 pm - includes lunch)
During Convention Week attendees have a number of opportunities to learn more about our favorite medium and methods of expanding our art interests and improving our techniques. This year we have workshops taught by two highly qualified and popular artists/instructors--Betsy Holster, CPSA and Pat Averill, CPSA. Betsy will help you expand your options with your artwork–remove your personal limitations; explore new pencils; apply them in new and innovative ways--get excited and see new results. Want to create sparkling water? Pat Averill will show you how to achieve the illusion of pounding surf, waves and foam patterns, wet sand, and, yes, sparkling water. On line registration for convention events.

Saturday Morning, August 1 - (9 am to 1 pm - includes lunch)

On Saturday morning, a highlight will be the Mock Jury with Vera Curnow, CPSA Founder and frequent juror. A similar jury event was held several years ago and the room was filled to overflowing. You actually get to observe and understand how jurors go about selecting artwork for juried shows. The audience will be able to participate in this selection process. A lively morning seminar is promised. On line registration for convention events.

Membership Meeting (Thursday, July 30th evening) is a great time to meet other members and to see artwork. This event is free and no registration is required. During the evening we are treated to a show of all the images submitted to the exhibition. You will be amazed at the quality of images--those selected and those not selected. During breaks in the show, the Silent Auction donations are bid on (you have to be quick to get these!) and you have a chance to win many donated products. Our sponsors and patrons are very generous and nearly everyone goes home with something. This is also the time for our Member-to-Member Fundraiser drawing. The fundraiser is described at the CPSA website
( http://www.cpsa.org/PROMO/MembertoMember2009/2009Fundraiser.html). This year we will have a drawing for two winners. Two of our members have contributed highly prized items. The Icarus Drawing Board donated by Ester Roi has become a very popular item with colored pencil artists. Ester will be demonstrating the board during the convention week--you’re going to want to try it. The Carry-Go-Round pencil holder donated by Cynthia C. Morris is also a coveted item--a very elegant and useful way to store your pencils. Tickets for the fundraiser are available on line at the above-linked page for $1 ea or 6 for $5 and will be available in the Hospitality Room at the hotel during convention week.

Awards Banquet (Friday Evening) and Gallery Reception (Saturday Evening)
Of course, last but not least, are our Awards Banquet and Gallery Reception. The Banquet is our time to recognize the Award Winners and new Signature and Merit Recognition members. We look forward to the smiles of happiness on those who reach this point in their art careers. You will also want to take time to visit the Gallery one more time before heading home. The gallery is a beautiful facility and our colored pencil artwork will put the icing on the cake.

So, you see this is a great week which always goes much too fast. Be sure to get your reservations in soon so you don’t miss any part of it.

17th Exhibition • Mock Jury Seminar • Member URLs

What You’ve Been Waiting For!

The list of artists and their works that have been selected for the 17th Annual Exhibition are now posted on the CPSA website. Did you enter? Were you selected? Find out by going to http://www.cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/17thEXHIBITION/2009invited3.2.htm We hope many of you will go to Atlanta, GA to review the selections. If you want to register for the convention, please go to http://www.cpsa.org/MEMBERSHIP/ConventionRegistration.html

IMPORTANT: Selected artwork must arrive at the Hudgens Cener for the Arts between June 17 and June 24, 2009. Complete shipping instructions will be posted on the CPSA website soon.


MOCK JURY with Vera Curnow - “You Be The Judge”

Saturday, August 1, 2009 - 9 am to 1 pm (includes lunch)

The Mock Jury Seminar will help you to understand how juried shows are selected. This seminar allows for audience participation in the process. Vera Curnow, CPSA Founder and juror of national shows, will guide you through the interactive process of selecting viable artwork and determining if it should be part of “your show.” The process will open your eyes as to the difficulty experienced when putting together a show. To register:
http://www.cpsa.org/MEMBERSHIP/ConventionRegistration.html

UPDATED MEMBER WEB URLs

The Web URLs of CPSA Members has recently been updated. This list is updated 4 times a year and includes the URLs of members who have submitted their addresses for publication. To include yours in the next posting, please submit it at the following address:
http://www.cpsa.org/MEMBERSHIP/emailchange.html. To view the updated list and to see some great colored pencil artwork, go to http://www.cpsa.org/MEMBERSHIP/WEB-URL/CPSA-URL.html

CPSA 17th International Exhibition - Notice of Date Change

The prospectus for the 17th Annual Exhibition states that notification of selection for the exhibition will be posted on the CPSA website by May 2, 2009. However, due to the juror’s very busy schedule and obligations involving extensive traveling, it is necessary to postpone that notification. We anticipate that the jurying will be completed and the list of accepted artists will be posted on the website by May 5, 2009. Shipping instructions for the exhibition will also be posted at that time. Thank you for your understanding.

Paula Parks
Exhibition Director

Announcing Fundraiser & Convention Update

The Annual Convention Fundraiser

This year Melissa Miller Nece, our Ways and Means Director, has put together a great Fundraiser. It will be known as the Member-to-Member Fundraiser and features two great items donated by two CPSA Members. These items will be given as two separate prizes. One lucky winner will receive an Icarus Drawing Board, the fabulous dual temperature drawing surface, invented and donated by Ester Roi and her company, Icarus Art. The other winner will receive a Carry-Go-Round, the ideal pencil organizer designed and donated by Cynthia Morris, CPSA. Constructed of fine solid woods, 12" across and 13" tall, this three-tiered carousel holds over 850 pencils and other supplies, and revolves on a durable lazy Susan swivel base. More description of prizes.

All you have to do now is print out the ticket page (http://www.cpsa.org/PROMO/MembertoMember2009/2009TicketSheet.pdf) and return them with your check. They are $1 per ticket or 6 tickets for $5.00. You can purchase and submit as many tickets as you want. The drawing will be at the Members Meeting at the Convention in Atlanta, GA and you need not be present to win. However, we love it when the winners are present and we can all whoop and holler.

Convention Update

Plans are continuing for the Atlanta Convention. Reservations are coming in through our online shopping cart and from those that are mailed. If you want to register for one of our excellent workshops, it is suggested that you register early. We have Betsy Holster, CPSA, and Pat Averill, CPSA as our instructors this year. The titles of the workshops are intriguing and are sure to stretch your inventiveness. “Stuck in a Rut? Expand Your Options” is the title of Betsy’s workshop and Pat’s subject will be “Unleash the Magic of Water (using Crayon, Wax, and Colored Pencil).” Each one-day workshop will be offered on Thursday and Friday of convention week. Convention Registration

Accepted Entry Notice / Spring TTP

For those who entered the Exhibition - accepted entries will be announced on May 2nd. Please check the CPSA website at that time for the list. The Spring/Summer To The Point magazine is in production and will be delivered to members in June.

Paula Parks, CPSA Exhibition Director, announced this week that the Hudgens Center for the Arts, the gallery for the 17th Annual CPSA Exhibition, has generously lowered their commission to 30% for any sales resulting from our exhibition. We know that in these stressed economic times this will be welcome news to artists, and we thank the gallery for taking this step.

The Hudgens Center for the Arts features 4,000 square feet of gallery space, a large education department, and 28,000 square feet comprising the Weeks Sculpture Garden. An additional 20,000 square feet provides room for a Children’s Arts Museum, classrooms and performing space. You can read more about the Center at this link: http://www.artsgwinnett.org/readabout.cfm

The deadline for entering the exhibition is nearly here–entries must be submitted before midnight, March 31, 2009. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the Call Cor Entry website. Even if your masterpiece is not quite ready, take a few minutes to visit the website (callforentry.org) and open an account for yourself if you have not already done so. And, please read our materials in last week's blog and feel free to contact Paula Parks, Exhibition Director, if you have problems. We don’t want you to miss the opportunity to have your artwork considered for the exhibition!

Another Thought Provoking Published Article

"Working from Reference Materials" by Vera Curnow, CPSA
The Artist's Magazine, March 2009, p. 23


Since the use of reference materials, plagiarism, fair use, and other copyright issues are prominent in the news, this article is very timely. As you prepare your artwork for the upcoming 17th Annual, this might provide answers to some of life’s (or art’s) perplexing questions.




Show Entry Using CaFÉ (callforentry.org)


If you are concerned about the intricacies of entering the CPSA 17th Annual using the new digital system, there is help available both at the CPSA website and the callforentry.org website. And if you don’t find answers there, feel free to contact Paula Parks, our exhibition director at exhibitions@cpsa.org.

Some suggestions and advice
1. Don’t wait until the last day to enter. Should you have problems, we can help better if it’s not a last minute effort.
2. Read the instructions and technical help at the callforentry.org website. If you have a professional photographer, print out and take these guidelines to that person. If you don’t understand the terminology of “resolution” and “pixels,” the professional should be able to help.
3. We have two documents on our website about entering our shows using this system. They are available at "Step by Step Entry Using the CaFE system" (pdf 2.2 mb) and "Preparing Your Digital Image Using Photoshop (pdf 395 kb)"
4. Please note that there are two parts to entering our show.
**First, you establish your own account and upload your images and information to the CaFÉ website.
TIP: To make sure your image uploaded correctly, click "enlarge" which displays a larger version (500 H x 500 W pixels) of your image. This is **key** to knowing your image is OK because it is exactly what the juror will see when making his selections.
**Second, you must actually select the CPSA exhibition on the call for entries listing and submit your entry there. Your images are not automatically entered for you.
5. When your entry is properly received and recorded, you will see "Image successfully added."

We are looking forward to seeing your entries for this exhibition and we will also look forward to seeing YOU in Atlanta, Georgia for the Convention and 17th Exhibition.

As Promised - Explore This! 5 Exhibition On Line

Explore This! 5 ONLINE EXHIBITION IS NOW at CPSA.ORG
http://www.cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/EXPLORE.THIS/Explore5/exp5online.html

BEAUTIFUL, UNIQUE, THOUGHT PROVOKING...some words that come to mind when viewing this display of art. Gwen Chanzit has selected 50 pieces of art to represent this mixed media, primarily colored pencil exhibition.

The exhibition is now at the CPSA website for your viewing pleasure. You can browse the show by artwork or by artist. The price of artwork for sale during this show is listed on the Artists’ List page. If anyone wishes to purchase an artwork, please email Paula Parks, Exhibition Director, and she will put you in contact with the artist.

AWARD WINNERS for Explore This! 5 are also announced. Congratulations to the 9 artists whose work was chosen. Top winner is “Bruce on the Cello” by Cat Scott. This piece is colored pencil and acrylic and won the $2000 CPSA EXXPY and Prismacolor Award. Other winners are Sheila Theodoratos, Rex Barron, Arlene Weinstock, Elizabeth Patterson, Rich Heisler, Sandy Kesler Kaminski, Kathryn Koozer and Candace Ripoli. A special feature allows you to view photos of the award winners in a pop up window with a link to their personal websites. Each of these artists have accumulated very interesting collections of their artwork which I’m sure you will enjoy. See their work at http://www.cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/EXPLORE.THIS/Explore5/Awards-Explore5.htm



• DVDs of 16th Annual CPSA Exhibition were mailed January 27. If you do not receive your order within about ten days, please contact Kay Dewar (webmaster@cpsa.org).