"Adrift" appears on page 123 of Strokes of Genius 7: The Best of Drawing; Depth, Dimension, and Space (North Light Books, 2015).  I'm excited that my work appears on the same page as Holly Siniscal's "Dancing Shoes".  I'm a fan of Holly's work (and just missed owning one of her originals in a bidding war at the CPSA silent auction).  Copies of the book can be ordered from North Light Books online store.

Strokes of Genius 7 will be released in November, and can be ordered from the North Light Books store or Amazon. My work "Adrift" appears in it (that piece seems to be popping up everywhere lately).

My work "Adrift" will be featured in the "Competition Spotlight" section of the October 2015 issue of the Artist's Magazine.  "Adrift" was a finalist in the 2014 Artist's Magazine annual art competition.  It's an honor to be selected for the competition spotlight (and I'm always particularly happy when a colored pencil piece is selected in an all media competition), so be sure to check out the October issue.

I received my hardcopy of North Light Books Strokes of Genius 6: Value | Lights & Darks. Cascade appears in the Portraits section on page 16. Please visit North Light Books online shop if you'd like to purchase a copy.

I'm honored to be the featured artist in the November 2014 issue of Colored Pencil Magazine, and my piece, Adrift, appears on the cover. The issue features a four page article which includes a step by step sequence for the making of Adrift. Please visit www.coloredpencilmag.com/issues to purchase digital or hardcopy issues.

North Light Books Strokes of Genius 6: Lights and Darks will be available 10/23/14, featuring artwork by many of my favorite colored pencil artists.  My work, "Cascade", appears in the book.  Visit North Light Books shop here: http://www.northlightshop.com/strokes-of-genius-6-lights-and-darks?lid=SLarnar092314.

There was a great turn out Friday night at the Marquis Art and Frame group show artist's reception.  The show was hung in two rooms in the 2nd floor gallery of Marquis Art and Frame, and my work appeared in the second room.  It was great to see some old friends, and meet some new.  Here's a few pics from the reception:

Today I dropped off my artwork for this Friday's group show, "The Art of Colored Pencil" at Marquis Art and Frame.  The show includes colored pencil artwork from Nina Davidowitz, Edy Kishbaugh, Barbara Baker, Tammy Greear, Mary Lou Steinberg, Sabine Thomas, Charles "Woody" Woodworth, Mary Beth Lesko, Linda Keck, Carol Colestock, Georgiana Cray Bart, Tom Stapleton, and myself.  My two pieces are "Sunrise" and "The Red Room, Revisited".  Show info is:

Artist's Reception

Friday, November 15, 2013, 5-8 pm

122 S Main St Wilkes-Barre

Show runs Nov 15, 2013 - Jan 4, 2014

I'm excited to announce that "Cascade" has been accepted into North Light Books Strokes of Genius 6: Value | Lights & Darks. I really love the Strokes of Genius Books, which showcase artists of different drawing media, ranging from charcoal and graphite to ink and colored pencil. The complete list of accepted artists can be found at: http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/drawing/strokes-6-winners. Checking over the list, I see many of my fellow colored pencil artists, including Gloria Callahan (Harley’s Davidson), Deborah L. Friedman (A Zen Little Drawing), Tanja Gant (Waiting; Speak No Evil), Linda Lucas Hardy (Her Eyes So Blue; Repose), Elizabeth A Patterson (Tomato Bullseye), and Bill Shoemaker (Rosie’s World).

Each year the CPSA holds a silent auction during convention week at the Annual International Exhibition.  If you get a chance to go, be sure to attend Thursday night of convention week.  It's a fun night where you get to see all of the entries, get some great door prizes, and bid on the auction.  The auction quickly escalates into a frenzy of last minute bids as everyone tries to get his favorite piece. I was one of the invited artists this year to contribute a piece to the silent auction.  Auction pieces have a  size limitation of 11" x 14" matted so that everyone can take their piece home in a suitcase; also, because the auction is called "Small Works of Great Magnitude".

My piece for this year's auction is titled "Kiersten", and was completed with Prismacolor Premier, Caran d'ache Luminance, and Lyra colored pencils on Light Blue Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper.  I really love the color of the Mi-Teintes Touch paper, and matted the piece with 3/4" of bare paper.  If you like it, you can bid on it on the CPSA show Thursday night, 8/1.

The Spring issue of Drawing Magazine includes an article on drawing materials. My work, "Cascade", appears in the article on page 64 (full page!). Also in the article are two works by Cecile Baird, and later in the issue is a great article about Joseph Crone, who won the magazine's Shades of Gray competition. Be sure to grab an issue and check it out!

I'm excited to learn today that "Hopes and Dreams" was accepted into the Colored Pencil Society of America's 21st Annual International Exhibition.  Show dates are July 31, 2013 - September 13, 2013 at the Brea Civic and Cultural Center, Brea, California. For a complete list of accepted artists, click here.

I just received my May 2013 issue of the Artist's Magazine.  Starting on page 48 is an article by Maureen Bloomfield, "Colored Pencil Comes of Age", which details the work of Joseph Crone (www.josephcroneart.com), John Smolko (www.smolkoart.com), Arlene Steinberg (www.arlenesteinberg.com), and.....drum roll please...me!  My article appears on page 56-57 and includes my works, "Bend", "Unfurled", "Cascade", and "Opaline Dreams".  It's very cool to see the article as a whole, because each of us has a very different approach and look: Joseph's black and white film noir works on acetate; John's energetic, expressive lines on Mi-Teintes; Arlene's colorful realism on Icarus board heated paper, and my speckled drawings on textured paper.  I'm friends with Arlene and John and admire their work, and I look forward to meeting Joseph at one of the CPSA conventions, so it's great company to be in for the article.

It was interesting seeing the article go through its revisions from initial layout to final proof, since Maureen sent us updates at different stages for proof reading.  One of the challenges was preparing my digital images so they accurately translated into print.  The Artist's Magazine sends you a nice guide for this - what dpi and color space to save images, use of color guides such as Kodak Q13 in photos.  I followed it nicely for the main images, but didn't quite get it right for the progression of Opaline Dreams, so the final image is very dark. Oops! You can see the normal exposure on my portfolio page.

The December issue of Colored Pencil Magazine features a four page article by me!  I walk through the process of creating Daydreams with WIP photos, then talk about the proofing process of working with a gallery to professionally scan and reproduce the work to create prints.  I'm excited to be included in CP Magazine - be sure to check out their website if you're interested in buying an issue.  Here are some images of two of the article's pages:  

I received my copy of North Light Books Strokes of Genius 4. My piece, Daydreams, appears on page 86 in the Figures section. I love the Strokes of Genius books, so it's awesome to appear in one - plus some of my favorite colored pencil artists have work in the book as well.

Every year in May we have a local art fair and competition called the Fine Arts Fiesta, which is a multi day event on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.  There are bands, performing arts, vendors and food stands, adult and student juried shows, and plenty of people walking around and enjoying it all.  The past few years I've been submitting works for the adult juried show.  You really can't beat it, since the entry fee is only $9 for the first work, and $6 for subsequent, and they jury the works usually the day after they are dropped off (you don't submit slides - they jury the originals).  You can sell your work, or have it NFS.  At the end of the fiesta, you just pick it up - either right off the wall of the art tent (with a member of the art league there to remove it and verify that you're you), or at the drop off location.  There's the usual divisions for medium - painting, photography, etc.  There is not a specific colored pencil division, but instead I'm part of the Graphics category, which includes pencil, pen & ink and other graphics.  Awards include monetary prizes or gift certificates. This year I submitted "Hopes and Dreams", which is the drawing I did of Kiersten when she was 7 months pregnant (our daughter, Emma, is now 11 weeks old!).  I received a call from Gary at the Fine Arts Fiesta to inform me that my entry had won 1st place in it's category, Graphics.  The first place winners of all the categories are then judged, and a best of show is selected.  "Hopes and Dreams" won Best of Show!  The local newspaper, The Times Leader, called me, and did a short interview.  They're writing a piece on the Fine Arts Fiesta that will appear a week before the show, and a picture of my artwork with a quote will probably appear in the article.  This is my third Best of Show award from the Fine Arts Fiesta. The other two were for "Opaline Dreams" and "Bend", and I received 1st place awards for "Daydreams" and "Cascade" in previous years.

The show dates are:

The 57th Annual Fine Arts Fiesta on May 17, 18, 19, 20 2012, Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Fiesta Hours: May 17, 18, 19: 10 a.m.-8 p.m., May 20: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.  The awards ceremony is Thursday, May 17th @ 6:30 pm.

For those who are Facebook friends, you've seen a steady stream of Emma pictures; I'll include one of my favorite recent ones for those who aren't on Facebook:

"Daydreams" has been accepted into the CPSA 19th Annual International Exhibition.  This year the exhibition will be hosted at the Charles W. Eisemann Center, 2351 Performance Drive, Richardson, Texas.  Show dates are June 29 - July 31, with the artist's reception on July 16th. This week I also received notification that "Daydreams" was juried into the 2010 Wilkes-Barre Fine Arts Fiesta, and won first place in its category, Graphics.  The fiesta dates are May 19th - May 22nd.

This Saturday I will be giving a workshop for CPSA DC115 titled "Evoking Mood with Neocolors and Colored Pencil", and I've got an area in my studio filled up with all my prep materials.  Like laying out pieces prior to a show, it's always fun to see everything all at once, together.  Here's a few snapshots:

Last week we attended the CPSA 18th Annual International Exhibition at the Art Museum of Los Gatos, California.  This was my fourth acceptance into the annual show, but my first time attending the convention earlier in the week so that I could see the entrant's slide show and participate in the silent auction.  I was really impressed by the quality of all the entries, and it was also very interesting to see the second piece submitted for artists who were accepted (you can submit two, but if accepted, only 1 is chosen).  Having not been to the gallery yet at the time of the slide show, it was also fun to try and guess which of the two pieces were accepted, for artists that I knew were in the show.  The slide show is presented in the much the same way that the awards are during the banquet; a reader projects the work on a screen, reads the title, artist's name, and artist's location.  I think it's great that everyone who submits gets to have their work viewed and recognized. There are breaks throughout the slide viewing to give away door prizes.  Just about everyone wins a prize (I won a pad of watercolor paper).  Separately, there are raffle tickets you can buy for the bigger prizes, and those were awesome - complete colored pencil sets from Caran D'Ache, Prismacolor, Neocolor; Icarus boards, year's subscriptions to the Artist's Magazine.  Also, the hospitality suite provided a great bag of freebies, including current issues of the Artist's Magazine, Derwent pencil tins, Canson sketchbooks, Stonehenge pads, and the samples of the new Lyra colorstripe pencils. The silent auction also was a blast, with an E-bay like countdown and flurry of final bidding.  My piece went to Shelly Minnis, who also bought my other silent auction piece two years ago.  The big bucks went for Elizabeth Patterson's piece, which I believe set a new record at about $700.

The awards banquet had a great slide show and talk by Vera about the 20th year anniversary of the CPSA.  For the awards, the top prize went to Shinji Harada's photoreal "Grapes in a Basket".

The artist's reception on Saturday was fun.  We had a bus shuttle us the 15 miles or so to the gallery, and it was a perfect, warm, sunny day for it.  The gallery space was somewhat small, and divided into three rooms, two at the entrance, and one on the bottom floor.  I actually prefer the smaller spaces, and the energy that comes from having everyone packed into them.  It's fun to hear all of the conversations about the different works swirling around you.  My piece was on the top floor in the left-hand room, and had a nice position in the center of the wall directly across where you first enter the room.

Here are a few pictures from the show:

Today I received notification of acceptance of "Opaline Dreams" into the North Light Book "Strokes of Genius 3: The Best of Drawing", scheduled to be released in October 2011.  I'm really happy to be accepted - I love this series of books, and routinely flip through them for inspiration.