Albuquerque Trip

I am recently back from attending the IAPS (International Association of Pastel Societies) convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico .... and then a trip up to Littleton, Colorado (Denver area) to teach a three-day plein air workshop for Terry Ludwig Pastels! So .... I wanted to share a few of the photographs I took at the convention and some of the good times too!

Here is a photo of me at the IAPS 18th Juried Exhibition in front of my painting! It was an honor to have been accepted into this show. All the work was stunning and it was so much fun to attend the reception and meet new artist friends and reconnect with those artist friends made at previous conventions. This painting was done plein air and was painted last year at the Great Chattahoochee Paint Out held by the City of Roswell GA.

Eileen Casey -- a Facebook friend
met for the first time in real life!

I was able to meet friends I have made on Facebook at the convention and what fun we had when seeing each other for the first time.

The next photo is of three of my previous students that came to the convention -- two of them for their first time! I do believe they had a wonderful time .... but I bet they were tired when they returned home. We all have a tendency to sign up for a full schedule of sessions!

Karen Margulis, Sharon Lewis,
and Nancy Belknap

Stan Sperlak was also a
Facebook friend I got to meet!

Karen Margulis won the Poster Competition for this IAPS convention. What an honor for her .... and for me to have played a little part in helping her along her pastel journey.... well, that is what every teacher hopes to see ... success well deserved for your hard work, Karen!

The next photo is of two friends, Nancy Nowak and Barbara Jaenicke, from the Atlanta area and are in the Southeastern Pastel Society with me.

Nancy Nowak and
Barbara Jaenicke

I attended three different "sessions" with wonderful artists: Fred Somers, Doug Dawson, and Kim Lordier. What a treat to take 3-hour sessions "hands on" with Fred and Doug .... but the best was a full day, hands on with Kim Lordier!

Kim showing her alcohol technique over a first
layer of pastel. Just laying in the dark masses.

Kim's day class was about creating a "notan" and planning the painting before beginning. We watched her from start to almost finished painting... then we did the same, thumbnail, then a notan, and then the painting. It was suggested that we do several different notan for the same photo, and then choose the best abstract image. I do thumbnails, but the notan only occasionally... but will be doing them much more often !!!

Terry Ludwig Pastel and ...
my husband, Haywood working

The vendor marketplace at the convention is probably one of the highlights! The best, of course, is the Terry Ludwig Pastels booth .... those colors are just like candy to us pastel artists. It was an awesome sight! This shot is just after we had set up the booth the night before the opening the next day. That dark shelf at the top held a "sample" set of each of his various pastel sets .... and was even more impressive with them there. Wish I had a photo of that for you to see.

Kate, Donna and Deb

Kate and Deb work for Terry Ludwig Pastels and flew down to help man the booth with Terry and his son, Jeff (sorry I don't have a photo of him!) and my husband, Haywood. Donna and I helped when we were not in class, too!

So, we had a wonderful time .... many good friends were seen and new ones were made.... and we look forward to the next convention in two years! If you are a pastel artist, you really do need to plan to attend the next International Association of Pastel Societies convention in Albuquerque NM! Hope to see you there, and if I don't know you, please do look me up and say hello!

Found one more of the Ludwig booth ...
with the pastel sets up on the shelf above the
individual sticks!

Stay tuned ..... I'm saving the photos and stories about my plein air painting adventure on Monday after the convention closed for the next blog post ... went to paint with Kim Lordier, Stan Sperlak, Lorenzo Chavez, and many more! Painted all day long and then had dinner with many of them!