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Spring has officially made it to Chicago. We look outside and it’s green and the trees and bulbs are flowering.
As I mentioned last time, it is and will be a busy year….
IAPS is just around the corner, and many are already planning and getting ready for this event. It is always an incredible experience.
The basics have been planned for the CPP’s major events this year. The Richard McKinley workshops in September will take place at the Morton Arboretum in Wheaton and the Peabody Mayslake Estate in Oakbrook. Our biennial exhibition, Pastels Chicago 2017 will be returning to the Peabody Mayslake Estate as well, after a six-year hiatus.
The exhibition is at the end of the year, when many people are busy with various holidays. This year we decided to be daring and think outside the box. With the exhibition ending December 3, we have decided to incorporate three events into one day — instead of an opening reception we will be having a closing reception. And because it’s typically the weekend of our holiday party, we will have a luncheon on location before the awards ceremony. And now all of you are wondering what the third event could possibly be. Well, those in the exhibition will be able to pick up their painting and take it home after the reception.
We are hopeful this may be one of our most attended events. That is why we would like you to put this date in your calendar and RSVP as soon as you receive the invitation. Also, to make this event happen seamlessly we will be needing some volunteers.
At this point many of you are probably thinking “Oh, no! Ellen Eagle’s workshop is going to be in Oakbook as well!” Oh, no! It’s not! We found a great art studio in Skokie in the Devonshire Cultural Center. Details and registration forms will be emailed and available online mid-May. We do hope to fill the months with a few more “intimate” events. Read those CPP emails! And remember the visit to the Art Institute next week!
Hope you all are or will be enjoying all shades of green, be they outside or in your studios.
September 4 and December 3
the most important dates of 2017
MAY 5/5 Art Institute Event
JUNE6/6 thru 6/11 IAPS Convention, Albuquerque, NM
SEptEMbEr9-4 Pastels Chicago 2017 Deadline for submissionsRichard McKinley Workshops (See Page 4 for details):
9/2 thru 9/4 Intro to Pastel Pointers9-6 thru 9-8Next Step/Reunion
NovEMbEr11/8 thru 12/3 Pastels Chicago 2017 CPP’s Sixth Biennial National Juried Open Exhibition11-11 thRu 11-14 Ellen Eagle Workshop Devonshire Cultural Center in Skokie, IL
DEcEMbEr12/3 CPP holiday Party and Pastels Chicago 2017 reception
Upcoming Events
www.chicagopastelpainters.org Spring 2017
Wild ONioN Chicago Pastel PaiNters
from the president’s corner
c h icagopaste lpa inters.org–tatijana
And more events in the works
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SuE GOMBuSbarbara Moline’s Meet the Member
Snow Storm, 24” x 36” – This intricate and stunning pastel won the Award of Excellence at the November 2013 Pastels Chicago exhibit sponsored by CPP.
Some artists know from childhood that this is the vocation they will
pursue. Other artists begin as “hobby artists” and gradually become more dedicated to an exclusive pursuit of art. But probably only Sue Gombus, an award-winning wildlife artist who resides in the Indiana Dunes (recently downsizing from an old farmhouse near Merrillville, Indiana to a condo in the Dunes) can credit her art career to “the most terrible class of sixth-graders in the world.”
Sue grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, married after high school, had two kids, and did not get a college degree until she was in her thirties. Her degree was in urban and bilingual education, and she commenced on a career teaching elementary school. She had enjoyed playing with art materials when she was in high school, but never considered pursuing art. Fate, however, had a different plan. She finished the school year with that terrible sixth-grade class, and told her husband she was taking her backpack and going somewhere—“anywhere that didn’t have sixth graders”—to get away for a few days. At the airport she spotted a flight to San Diego, booked a seat, and ended up in this city that is home to both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. While visiting the latter she witnessed a
cheetah racing at speeds close to 60 mph, and learned with horror that these gorgeous animals were facing a fifty percent chance of becoming extinct in the wild within fifteen years. She still does not wholly understand the strength of her reaction, but at that moment she became committed to helping save the threatened wild animals of the world and decided to write and illustrate a children’s book about cheetahs. When she returned home and began researching cheetahs, she came across an invitation from Miami university in Ohio and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, Africa for
teachers to apply to do two weeks of fieldwork at the CCF. They chose twelve from around the world and six months later she was in Namibia, studying with renowned conservationist Dr. Laurie Marker, learning about cheetahs. She finished the children’s book in
September 2008, but was unable to find a publisher due to the economic depression and lack of demand for new children’s book authors. But at that point she decided to start painting the wild life she saw. Since then she has been back
to Africa nine times and has travelled all over the continent. In her quest to photograph wildlife, she has had amazing adventures: rolling around on the grass
Sue Gombus
Sue with school children in Kangundo, Kenya; above, Sue with orphan elephant in Nairobi
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Meet the Member SuE GOMBuS, continued
with orphaned baby rhinos in Kenya, sitting with the Mountain gorillas after climbing the Virunga Volcanoes, and walking with Kodiak Grizzlies in Katmai, Alaska.
On her first trip to Africa, Sue learned to observe, sketch, and watch. She paid close attention to the anatomy and musculature when the cheetah moved. She was drawn to pastel because it was so portable and because the colors were immediately accessible. It was
also a medium that lent itself to the realities of life; as she continued her teaching career, she found that pastels, unlike oils, could be left at her easel and easily picked up again. The immediacy of pastel fit with her busy life.
Sue begins each picture with her camera, and through multiple shots composes her picture. All of her painting and drawing takes place in her studio. She starts with hard pastels, then soft, and loves using pastel pencils. For paper she has usually used Art Spectrum Colourfix
or Sennelier LaCarte but more recently she has fallen in love with Clairefontaine Pastel Mat. “I have a hard touch and can create quite a mess, and Clairfontaine minimizes dust.” A demonstration of her way of working can be seen on: www.suegombuswildlife.com
More recently Sue has discovered colored pencil and is loving it also. She is currently working on a whole series devoted to endangered wildlife. The series is called “On
the Edge,” and all of the wildlife is done in colored pencil on black
paper, with the subjects placed on the edge of the paper in some form or fashion, just as they are on the edge in reality. She has traveled to as many zoos and preservation
sites as possible to document these animals, and her ultimate plan is to write a school curriculum to go with each species; she feels it is very important to get this information to children, who will be the future caretakers of our wildlife.
Sue has won many awards for her work, including the Award of Excellence for her painting “Snow Storm” at the November 2013 “Pastels Chicago” exhibit sponsored by CPP. Her paintings have hung in many museums, and reside in private collections throughout North America and Africa. She donates the proceeds from her sales to conservation organizations that support the wildlife and wild places she loves.
Now that Sue is “retiring” to the Indiana Dunes, she looks forward to working more locally. She is particularly interested in depicting birds, and hopes to participate again at the annual Birds in Art Exhibition in September at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, where she exhibited in 2014. There are two elementary schools within five minutes of her new home, and she knows she will become involved, passing on her love of wildlife to young students. When she has been in Africa, she has taught about wildlife to African youngsters who, surprisingly, never have opportunities to view wild animals.
Her message to other artists is that style, medium, and technique are all secondary to the passion that infuses one’s work. “Paint what you love, and people will respond.” Sue is still surprised and humbled by the path her life has taken, and the incredible adventures it has brought her. Who could predict the consequences of that awful sixth-grade class?
Winter Princess, 10” x 8”
Nature Holds No Promises, 13” x 39”
Amur, 24” x 36”
“Paint what you love, and people will respond.”
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3-day Pastel Landscape Workshops with
Workshops1) Intro to Pastel Pointers WorkshopSaturday, September 2, 2017 through Monday, September 4, 2017 at Morton Arboretum in Wheaton, Illinois
Workshop is ideal for artists who have not yet studied with Richard.
2) Next Level/Reunion WorkshopWednesday, September 6, 2017 through Friday, September 8, 2017 at Peabody Mayslake Estate in Oakbrook, Illinois
Prior workshop with Richard preferred.
Fees per workshop$410 CPP Members
Registration for existing members open now through January 21; Non-member registration opens January 22, 2017.
$445 Non-members Includes $35 membership fee
ContactTatijana Jacenkiw, 708-557-0797 [email protected]
CHICAGO PASTELPAINTERS
“Every blank surface provides the same intimidation and every day spent painting, a new challenge. My goal is to capture a piece of the spontaneous dance of light across the palette of nature. I hope my pieces are like a glance when we see something that makes us linger for a moment.” –Richard McKinley
www.chicagopastelpainters.org
RichaRd McKinley
Join the Chicago Pastel Painters
JUST A FEW SPOTS LEFT!
Click here for Registration Form
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PASTELS CHICAGO 2017Sixth Biennial National Juried Open Exhibition
2017 Prospectus
NOVEMBER 8 - DECEMBER 3, 2017
MAYSLAKE PEABODY ESTATE1717 West 31st Street
Oak Brook, Illinois 60523www.mayslakepeabody.com
2017 CALENDARSubmissions open May 1, 2017
Submissions closed September 4, 2017
Jury Notification the week of: October 1, 2017
Shipping: To arrive October 30-November 3, 2017Hand-Delivery: 6-9 pm, November 6, 2017
Closing Reception and Award CeremonySunday afternoon, December 3, 2017
Pick-up Hand-DeliveriesImmediately following reception
Return of Shipped Work will startthe week of December 4, 2017
JUDGE OF AWARDSEllen Eagle, PSAwww.elleneagleportraits.comEllen’s pastel paintings evolve slowly, contemplatively. When she’s painting a portrait from life, the most exquisite expression of light she has seen is the timeless and fleeting human subject as seen in the eternal and ever changing light. She responses to the figure’s subtle expression of emotions. Her own book, Pastel Painting Atelier, was published in 2013.
BEST OF SHOW 2015 National ExhibitionGlory Over the Waters, Frederick Somers, PSA, IAPS-MC,Eminent Pastelist
ELIGIBILITYOpen to all U.S. artists, 18 years and older. All work must be original, created, and produced by the artist within the last 3 years, without class, workshop, or any other supervision and have at least 80% of the image area in soft pastel. No oil pastels. No nudes. Compositions taken from published material will not be considered original. Work produced under supervision is ineligible. Work previously exhibited in any CPP Exhibition is not eligible. CPP reserves the right to refuse any painting that does not meet these professional standards. Return of such paintings will occur at the artist’s expense. All accepted work must remain on exhibit for the duration of the show. All work must be for sale. Once prices are submitted, they are final.
SUBMISSION OF ENTRIESArtist may submit up to 3 images. All entries for this exhibition are digital, submitted online through ShowSubmit, and may be linked online at www.ChicagoPastelPainters.org beginning May 1, 2017.
LIMITATIONSSize limited to 36”x42” framed size. All work must be professionally framed and ready to be hung. No screw eyes. No sawtooth hangers. All work must have bottom bumpers. Plexiglas strongly recommended for shipped works. Glass at artist’s own risk.
SALESThe Mayslake Peabody Estate will receive a 20% donation and CPP will retain a 10% commission on all sales. Artist will receive 70% of sale.
ENTRY FEESCurrent members: $35.00, up to 3 images. Non-members: $45.00, up to 3 images. No refund of entry fees.
AWARDSBest of Show - $1,500. Cash and Merchandise awards will total approximately $8,000.00. Winners will be announced at the closing reception.
DELIVERYUpon acceptance, artists will receive detailed information about hand-delivery, shipping and handling, and exhibition labels. A minimum handling fee of $40.00 per container will be charged to shipped work.
AGREEMENT OF ENTRY AND LIABILITYAll reasonable care will be taken with paintings and submissions. However, the Chicago Pastel Painters, its officers or volunteers, and the Mayslake Peabody Estate, its officers or volunteers, will not be responsible for loss or damage. CPP suggests that participants carry separate insurance for loss or damage in transit. CPP reserves the right to reproduce accepted artwork for publicity purposes. All accepted work (no substitutes) must be delivered or shipped as specified in this prospectus. If accepted work is not available for the exhibition or for the entire time of the exhibition, the artist may be prohibited from exhibiting in future CPP shows. Artist will release the Chicago Pastel Painters and the Mayslake Peabody Estate from any liability by entering this exhibition.
WORKSHOPIn conjunction with the exhibition, Ellen Eagle, PSA, will conduct a four-day workshop November 11-14, 2017. Visit www.ChicagoPastelPainters.org sign up.
QUESTIONSMike Barret Kolasinski, CPP-M, Exhibition [email protected]
www.ChicagoPastelPainters.org
JUROR OF SELECTIONSJennifer Evenhus, IAPS-MC,PSA-MP, NPS-DP, PSWCwww.jenevenhus.comJen is naturally drawn to patterns, shapes, and movement found in nature and everyday objects, capturing their essence with simplification and exaggeration. Her abstract work is known for its dynamic composition, bold use of color, and confident application.
6c h icagopaste lpa inters.org
Meet the Judges of Pastels Chicago 2017
Judge of SelectionsJENNIFEr EvENHUSwww.jenevenhus.com
Jen Evenhus is a nationally recognized, award winning artist. Jennifer’s bold use of color is what first attracts the eye. Her subject is often paint itself, fascinated with the painterly effects one can achieve with pastels, or the wonderful transparency and opacity of oils. Whether with oils or pastels, Jennifer enjoys the process of painting as much as completing the work. Always sorry to see the journey end, Jen describes the process as a journey through unknown territory. Even though she has a good idea of the outcome she wants, she is careful not to become locked into an idea, staying open to all those little accidents that happen along the way, careful not to cover them up so the viewer might experience her travels and discoveries. These accidents she describes as unforeseen treasures that give a painting character, depth, and movement. Jennifer’s work is often very abstract, using earthscapes as a starting point, she paints out most of the detail, leaving just enough for the viewer to become lost in a new world.
Jennifer has exhibited work in New York City at the National Arts Club; Denver, Colorado at Carol Siple Gallery; Sacramento and Redding, California; New Orleans at the World Trade Center; Coos Bay and Bend, Oregon and Seattle, Issaquah, Everett, and Anacortes, Washington to name a few.
Ellen Eagle is known for her intimate pastel portraits. Her work is represented by Forum Gallery, N.Y. She has had four solo exhibits and has been shown in many group exhibits throughout the united States in such venues as The National Academy Museum, NY; Butler Institute of American Art, OH; Frye Art Museum, WA; Albright Knox Gallery, NY; Long Beach Museum, CA; New Jersey State Museum; and the Arkansas Art Center. In 2011-12, she exhibited twenty pastel paintings in a two-person traveling exhibit in China. Her co-exhibitor was the curator, whose purpose in inviting Ellen was to largely introduce the medium of pastel to the Chinese art community. Her paintings have been the subject of many publications. Her own book, Pastel Painting Atelier, was published by Watson-Guptill, NY, in 2013. Ellen teaches the only class devoted exclusively to pastel at the Art Students League of New York, and has given workshops throughout the united States, in Croatia, and China.
“I always work in natural light. The most exquisite expression of light I have seen is in the radiance of flesh. The timeless and fleeting human subject as seen in the eternal and ever changing light.”
Judge of AwardsELLEN EAGLE
www.elleneagleportraits.com
CPP’s Sixth Biennial National Juried Open Exhibition
Ellen will conduct a 4-day portraiture workshop, November 11-14 (Saturday through Tuesday) in Skokie, Illinois.
Watch your emails for details.
7096 J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M
B Y R I C H A R D H A L S T E A D
When I look at the art of Ellen Eagle, I am reminded of my earliest interest in portraits. I was a boy, looking at reproductions of Old Master paintings in my parents’ attic, moved by something about them that was immedi-ately present, yet otherworldly at the same time. Eagle’s paintings are like that. They are very spe-cific and faithful to the individual sitter’s char-acter and momentary presence, but also larger
— timeless and universal in their evocation of the human psyche.
In The Art Spirit, the influential book he published in 1923, the artist and teacher Robert Henri (1865–1929) wrote:
There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual — become clairvoyant. We reach then into reality. Such are the moments of our greatest
happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. It is in the nature of all people to have these experiences; but in our time and under the conditions of our lives, it is only a rare few who are able to continue in the experience and find expres-sion for it.
Eagle’s portraits look very different from Henri’s, but, ironically, they are the quintes-sence of his statement. They are so utterly real, so painfully everyday, but they are also bathed in an ambient light that suggests her subjects somehow are blessed by an unseen presence. I am drawn back to them whenever I grow tired of the affectations of most portraitists today. At first, I am restored by the honesty of her por-trayals. Then, as I study them more closely, I feel little firings going off in my brain, ones I can only describe as the experience of being repeat-edly stunned by what she has accomplished within such quiet, unassuming presentations. Each small section of the image offers a new sur-prise, with its own impact, yet all are perfectly integrated so that the viewer can comfortably explore the face or figure without feeling dis-connected from the whole. Who would guess there could be such subtly interwoven passages in the depiction of a single figure?
The people in Eagle’s works, as well as her technique, are unashamedly earthy, but still painted with the sensitivity and intricacy
of a Chopin sonata. This intrinsic contrast is the basis of her power: a contrast between that which is weighty and elemental and that which is sensitive and refined; between deeply felt emotion, even passion, and the restraint of disci-pline and thoughtfulness; between the simplic-ity of a single figure and the complex arrange-ment of subtle movements within the figure, and within the light and space surrounding it. These contrasts fittingly engender both a sense of serenity and of being very much alive.
If you have not felt this way while regard-ing one of Eagle’s portraits, I suggest visiting it again when your mind is quieter. They require patience and receptivity. Eagle’s vision will not
T H E Q U I E T P O W E R O F
T O D A Y ’ SM A S T E R S
Editor’s Note: We were delighted when the portraitist Richard Halstead offered us this appraisal of his much-admired colleague, the pastelist Ellen Eagle (b. 1953). A lifelong New Yorker, Eagle earned her B.F.A. from the California College of the Arts and studied in New York with Harvey Dinnerstein and at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Art Students League (where she has taught since 2005). Represented by Forum Gallery, she is an active member of the Pastel Society of America and will participate in a 2017 group show opening at Texas A&M University. In 2013, Watson-Guptill published Eagle’s book Pastel Painting Atelier: Essential Lessons in Techniques, Practices, and Materials. Just this year, it published the volume Art Students League of New York on Painting: Lessons and Meditations on Mediums, Styles, and Methods, to which Eagle contributed a chapter on her own work.
Self-Portrait, 2011, pastel on pumice board, 8 x 5 3/8 in.,
Collection Dr. Robert Ritch
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097F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6
leap out at you, and is too dignified to demand your attention. These pictures are not advertise-ments for the artist, but rather intimate conver-sations with close friends. If you take the time to study Eagle’s portraits, you discover you’re in a privileged space, talking about the deepest expe-riences of your life, or hers, or the sitters’.
If you are put off by the homeliness of everyday life, you may not like Eagle’s pain-tings. If not, they will lead you to an even greater belief in the survival of the human spirit. At various points, many of us have ques-tioned our ability to survive with our authentic vision intact. Eagle’s paintings suggest that she
too has struggled, possibly doubting herself now and then, but also that she has tenaciously returned to that steady gaze at life, as it is — in all its quiet glory. Her works give the impres-sion that they were made by someone with heart, stubbornness, and conviction.
The Canadian author Margaret Laurence said she wrote about what everyone knew but had never thought to write about. Similarly, Ellen Eagle paints what we all see and typically disregard as insignificant. Tactfully and unob-trusively, she slips past the shields her sitters wear to protect themselves, and then she paints them in the safety of her world. By allowing
us to see them this way, in their least guarded moments, she confirms for us that what is genu-ine is, ultimately, what is most beautiful.
Richard Halstead is a portrait artist and founder/director of the Halstead School of Portrait and Figure Art. His paintings are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Illinois and Indiana State Houses, Purdue University, Yale University, Rush Presbyte-rian St. Luke Medical Center (Chicago), University of Melbourne, Loyola University School of Law (Chi-cago), Episcopal Diocese of New York, and in many pri-vate collections. He lives and works in Evanston, Illinois.
Portrait of the Young Artist Marela
Alvarez, 2014, pastel on pumice
board, 11 1/4 x 9 1/4 in., Forum
Gallery, New York City
Reprinted with permission from the January/February 2016 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur; article by Richard Halstead.
Dear IAPS Member Society President,
IAPS would like to invite you and your society members to attend a fun new event at the 2017 IAPS Convention
¡the Friday Night Fiesta! The Fiesta will have several different components:
IAPS Member Society Social An opportunity for our different societies to gather all together, to meet with your members, share society information, and also to meet potential new members. You are encouraged to bring promotional materials
pertinent to joining your society, entering your society exhibitions, and for your Society-sponsored workshops.
In the spirit of fun, and as we did in 2015, we encourage the societies to be creative in your dress or headgear. Something that will make you stand out and help break the ice!
Special Trade Show Hours The trade show will be open to give you additional time to shop and visit with the vendors.
Dueling Demos Three separate setups with two artists of different styles painting the same subject.
Plus, Strolling Musicians, Fun Food, and Cash Bars!
Please share this with your membership, and then bring yourself and your handouts for a fabulous gathering!
IAPS is all about connections! Let’s make some new ones!!!
We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers,
Shirley Anderson 2017 Fiesta Coordinator
International Association of Pastel Societies
Those of us who attended last year had no idea to what extent some societies went to on this night. Some headgear and necklaces were pretty imaginative and unique!
Those who are missing from this list and those who have any simple and great ideas for the Friday Night Fiesta please email me @ [email protected].
ANNoUNcEMENt For ALL IApS AttENDEES(Arlene, Audrey D, Ellyn, Evelyn, Kathie N, Nancie, Nancy A, terry N, tobi)
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Chicago Pastel Painters
Officers & Committee Chairs
PRESIDENTTatijana Jacenkiw [email protected]
VICE-PRESIDENT Brian Sauerland [email protected]
EXHIBITIONS Mike Barret Kolasinski [email protected]
TREASURER Arlene Tarpey [email protected]
SECRETARY Evelyn Brody [email protected]
NEWSLETTER Dotty Carringi [email protected]
WEB DESIGN Randy Karey [email protected]
MEMBERSHIPPat Hagle
PUBLIC RELATIONS Nancie King Mertz [email protected]
PRESIDENT EMERITUS Jessica Fine [email protected]
MEMbERShiP DESigNAtioNS
Signature Status – CPPTo receive CPP Signature Status, an artist must be a member in good standing and be juried into three different CPP exhibitions, either Member or National.
Distinguished Status – CPP-DTo receive CPP Distinguished Status, an artist must be a member in good standing and receive three awards in three different CPP exhibitions, either Member or National.
Master Status – CPP-M To receive CPP Master Status, an artist must be a member in good standing and receive three awards in three different CPP National exhibitions.
honorary Status – CPP-h To receive CPP Honorary Status, an artist must be selected by CPP’s Board in showing their achievement of advancing the merits and goals of CPP.
CPP Membership
Are you looking for CPP signature status?if you are working toward your CPP “letters,” it’s important not to let your membership lapse. good for one year beginning each January, your membership may be renewed at any time.
only $35 for the year!Please sign up or renew at:
www.chicagopastelpainters.org/membership-registration/
help organize a CPP Event And many of our members have already done it — for instance, a studio and gallery tour; a wildlife painting session at Cabela’s sporting goods store; a cocktail and appetizer party at a frame shop; and regular outings at the Art Institute Prints and Drawing Department.
What creative event can you come up with? Send us your idea, and we will help you make it happen! [email protected]
c h icagopaste lpa inters.org
heard on WbEZ Radio“A great source for nature lovers, plein air artists as well
as artists who work from photographs. Save yourself an unneeded trip, and check here where the action is
happening in the Chicagoland nature locations.”
http://chicagonaturenow.com/
(Remember: You + Location + email announcement + friend(s)
= CPP event)
Thank Youto all who contributed photos, stories, ideas and time to this
issue of Wild Onion.
