Saturday, January 09, 2010

The Pastel Society 111th Annual Exhibition - Call for Entries

There are three things you need to know about the Pastel Society Exhibition this year

1. The dates are different from last year

The most important thing to know about The Pastel Society 111th Annual Exhibition is that this year the society has reverted to its old dates for both submission and exhibition. I'm not aware as to the reason why but I rather suspect they might have got people saying 'if it's not broken don't fix it! Which means:

Receiving Days
Friday 5th and Saturday 6th February 2010, 10am-5pm
Select this link for information on regional handing-in points.

Collection of unaccepted work
Saturday 13th or Wednesday 17th February 2010, 10am-5pm

Collection of unsold exhibition work
Thursday 22nd April 2010, 10am-5pm

Exhibition dates 2010
Private View: Tuesday 6th April
Opens to public: Wednesday 7th April, 10am-5pm including weekends
Closes: Saturday 17th April at 3pm
2. Visit the FBA website for all information relating to submission

The second thing you need to know is that the Annual Show page on the The Pastel Society website has not been updated (the website generally seems to be gathering cobwebs) It doesn't even contain a link to where you can find the relevant information.

For anybody wanting to submit artwork to the exhibition, all the information you need to know can be found on the website of the Federation of British Artists/Mall Galleries. This then is the link to information about the 111th Annual Exhibition of The Pastel Society

Topiary Levels by Peter Woof

3. A pre-selection procedure introduced for 2010

Good news! A MAJOR change has been introduced for 2010 which should greatly assist non-members in reducing the cost of submitting larger works to this London-based exhibition. The aim is to avoid unnecessary journeys to London for artists whose large paintings are unfortunately not considered suitable for the PS Exhibition.

Only paintings which exceed 70cms X 70cms total AREA will be eligible..
Artists are now allowed to submit work which exceeds 70cms X 70cms (in total AREA - ie 4,900 square cms) as a a single photographic image (in jpeg format) of each painting via a CD-Rom plus the completed form and £10 fee

(Note: 70cm = 27.6 in; 4,900 sq. cm = 1929.1 sq. in).

Bad news! You need to have submitted your work by Friday 8th January - so I'm too late with this post!

I think it's a great pity that this change was not better highlighted - particularly by The Pastel Society on their website. I certainly hadn't spotted this earlier.

It's also not entirely clear from the website whether this measurement includes or excludes the frame. To my mind to be of most beneficial use to artists it needs to include the frame as it is this size which is most difficult to transport.

I'm going to query this with the FBA and will update this post with the response - for submission next year

As a very rough rule of thumb, I'd suggest that this new ruling should apply to anything which is too big to get into a suitcase and requires a car or van to move it - which means an extra £10 for the congestion charge in central London which applies if work is delivered on the Friday.

Works by landscape artists in 2009 Pastel Society exhibition
all works copyright the artists / all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Normal submission

Notification of pre-selected work will be given no later than Monday, 1 February by post. (Assuming The Big Freeze has lifted by then. How about email for next year?)

Regional handing-in dates: The bit that I just don't 'get' at the moment for the pre-selected work is how the notification and submission dates syncronise with the regional handing in dates.

If artists living in different parts of the country want to use any of the 'move a picture' firms to submit their work then the relevant website page advises they need to let them know at least two weeks in advance of the submission date. However the artists using pre-selection process won't know until 4 days before the first date!!! I can imagine the firms might well have comments to make about this new procedure.

All pre-selected work (which effectively means it hasn't already been rejected) and all other work should be submitted on the 'hand-in' days which are either Friday, 5 February or Saturday, 6 February 2010 for selection in the normal way.

Who can enter?

This is an OPEN exhibition and is not limited to work by members

Eligible work

  • Acceptable media are: Pastels - including Oil Pastels, Charcoal, Pencil, Conte, Sanguine, or any dry media.
  • All works must be framed but metal and clip frames are inadmissable. Contact the FBA in advance if the pictures is taller than 2.4m (8ft).
  • A maximum of six works may be submitted, of which a maximum of four may be accepted.
  • All works should be for sale. The minimum price for works is £300
  • Up to 6 works can be submitted of which up to 4 will be chosen
  • Download the Registration Pack
  • submission fee £10 per work (no further hanging fee)
You can see work which was in last year's exhibition in Exhibition review: The Pastel Society's 110th Annual Exhibition (June 2009)

Awards/Prizes

  • Daler Rowney Art Materials Awards,
  • Bill Patterson Memorial Award,
  • Brian Sinfield Fine Arts Award,
  • Linda Blackstone Gallery ‘Debra Manifold Memorial Award’,
  • £200 Annie Longley Award,
  • Cross Gate Gallery Prize Kentucky USA,
  • Frank Herring Awards,
  • The Arts Club Award,
  • Unison Pastels Materials Award,
  • Alexander Prowse Website Award,
  • Sarah Samuels Fine Paintings Award,
  • Orange Street Gallery Prize,
  • Anthony J. Lester Art Critic Award,
  • £100 John Purcell Paper Award,
  • The Ranelagh Press Award.
Next week I'll have a post about the pastel workshops which take place during the course of the exhibition.

Note: If you're interested in soft pastels, you may find my resource site of interest - Pastels - Resources for Artists It also contains links to other pastel societies

Links:

previous posts about the Pastel Society on Making A Mark

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