BRATTLEBORO — Every year the Vermont Pastel Society (VPS) hosts a juried member show somewhere in the state. For the first time, the show this year will be held in Brattleboro.
Vermont Artisan Designs on Main Street will host the show that opens Friday, Oct. 7, during the monthly Gallery Walk festivities. The show will continue through Nov. 18. An awards reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 at the gallery.
The mission statement of the VPS, an all-volunteer organization founded in 1999, calls for its members “to build and strengthen connections among pastelists, to foster artistic development, and to promote public appreciation of pastels as a fine art medium.”
With those goals in mind, the membership roster of approximately 100 artists was divided geographically, and each member artist was assigned to a regional hub. The VPS membership naturally clustered into six areas; each region elected a point person or committee to help the hub plan for and facilitate activities.
One activity was to host exhibitions or shows. VPS: Southeast - the Brattleboro area hub headed by Deedee Jones and Matthew Peake - was tasked with hosting the VPS 2022 juried show.
VPS artists submitted images of nearly 60 paintings, of which 33 were chosen by two nationally respected jurors, Liz Haywood-Sullivan and Michael Chesley Johnson, to be included in the 2022 show.
Those pastels, displayed at Vermont Artisan Designs, will be viewed and judged in October by a third nationally recognized pastelist, Dawn Emerson, for awards of best in show, second place, third place, and two honorable mentions.
Vermont Artisan Designs is open seven days a week and has featured the fine art and contemporary American craft of more than 300 artisans for 50 years. For more information, call 802-246-7245 or email vtartisan2@gmail.com.