On December 3rd, the Chicago Pastel Painters hosted the reception for the "Pastel Chicago 2017" show, their Sixth Biennial National Juried Exhibition held at the classic tudor-styled Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oakbrook IL.
The Exhibit had 172 images submitted by 64 artists from all over the country. From these 77 paintings representing 43 artists were selected by Jennifer Evenhus. There was a wonderful variety of paintings of many different sizes, themes (portrait, still life, landscape abstract and more) and a variety of creative techniques.
Here's Your's Truly posing besides my painting "Ski Tracks " which claimed one of the awards at the show:
I thought it would be interesting to publish the comments on each award-winning painting. Ellen Eagle was the Judge of Awards. For my fellow artists, the key criteria cited in Ellen Eagle's review are worth considering when planning a new painting (notice the predominance of "composition" and "drawing" criteria). You sort of need to see the paintings to fully grasp the gist of the comments, but the the concepts are nonetheless important to consider:
At the show I had the pleasure to meet award-winning Master Pastelist Nancie King Mertz. Nancie is based in Chicago and enjoys plein air painting in the city. You can view Nancie's work here at her website. Nancie has provided a Uart Tip of the Week which can be seen here in the Chicago Pastel Painters Summer Newsletter.
Attending a juried show such as this is a wonderful way to learn about the variety of styles, subject matter and framing options embraced by your fellow pastel artists.