Pastel Society of Southern California (PSSC)

“Make Your Mark!” International Online Open Juried Exhibition

2021 Official Prospectus 

The Pastel Society of Southern California (“PSSC”) is pleased to announce our third international online open exhibition. This juried exhibition, “Make Your Mark!” is easy to enter and requires no framing or shipping of artwork. The final show is completely online, making it accessible for all to view and purchase artwork. Our esteemed Judges of Selections are Bethany Fields, Michael Freeman, and Halla Shafey. The exhibition features both cash and merchandise awards. You may even enter artwork that is no longer in your possession, as long as you have an image of it. 

IMPORTANT DATES

Online Entry Opening – April 15, 2021

Online Entry Deadline - July 15, 2021
(Final day to submit digital images and pay jurying fee to onlinejuriedshows.com)

Notice of Acceptance - July 30, 2021 (Approximate Date)

Online Show goes Live - August 1, 2021

Online Show closes - August 30, 2021

JUDGE OF SELECTIONS: Bethany Fields is an American contemporary artist working in pastel. She has gained recent national recognition with exhibits at the Salmagundi Club and The National Arts Club, both in NYC, as well as the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio. She regularly hosts and teaches workshops around the country and is a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, Degas Pastel Society, and American Women Artists; a Master Circle member of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS); and a member of the American Impressionist Society. Bethany has recently been featured in the prestigious Pastel Journal magazine and as a Southwest Art magazine editor’s pic for Artist to Watch. Originally from Texas, Bethany graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts. She went on to perform professionally and continued honing her skills in composition and design, working as the on-air talent and designer for a web series in Burbank Calif. She has worked as a professional lifestyle and commercial photographer for the past 15 years, which naturally led to landscape photography and painting. Bethany’s primary focus is the American West landscape of the Llano Estacado and surrounding areas. A favorite location for inspiration is beautiful Palo Duro Canyon near Canyon, Texas, as well as the high plains of the Texas Panhandle. In her travels across the country, she has gathered a plethora of inspiration and her love of the outdoors shows in her emotional and nuanced landscapes. She makes her home in Texas with her husband of 20 years and their three children.   

See: http://bethanyfields.com

JUDGE OF SELECTIONS: Michael Freeman, IAPS/MC, MPANZ, PSA is an international award-winning hyperrealist pastel artist from New Zealand. He has had a fascination with realism since childhood, and in his paintings he is always striving to create images that have greater depth and feeling than can be achieved with a photograph. He is in the Master Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Artists of New Zealand (MPANZ), a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA), and has a Master of Fine Arts degree. His subjects range from his current series of still-life paintings featuring iconic New Zealand toys and objects, to landscapes featuring old, weathered sheds, barns, railway carriages, windows and doors, old locks, and farm animals (mainly cows)–all inspired from photographic trips along New Zealand’s roads. Michael has won many awards internationally and in New Zealand and has been exhibiting his work regularly since 2015. 

See: http://michaelfreemanartist.com

JUDGE OF SELECTIONS: Halla Shafey PSA PS IAPS (MC) is an international multiple award-winning pastel artist who has exhibited extensively in her home country of Egypt and abroad. Known for her distinctive signature style, Halla has striven to push the boundaries of soft pastel from classical representation to more contemporary and experimental expressionist abstraction. Influenced by her love for the natural world, her paintings are based on observations of the greater universe, dreams and meditations. Halla seeks to create poetry through her use of color and hopes to evoke in the viewers a sense of wonderment. Many of her paintings also reflect humanitarian and developmental concerns to her, including women and child rights. Halla has received 16 international awards and recognitions since becoming a full-time artist in 2012. She is an elected Signature member of the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of England and a member of the Master Circle of IAPS. Her works have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in Egypt and by private and corporate collectors in Egypt and abroad. Her works have been featured in numerous publications including the Pastel Journal, Pratique Des Arts, Artists & Illustrators Magazine and the Globe. Halla is also an art instructor/mentor and served on international pastel juries. She holds a B.A and an M.A in Economics from the American University of Cairo.

ELIGIBILITY:

• To be eligible to enter the show you must be 18 or older and working in the pastel medium.
• The show is open to both PSSC members and non-members worldwide. Images will be juried anonymously, and awards given by our Judges of Selections: Bethany Fields, Michael Freeman, and Halla Shafey. Acceptance is not guaranteed.
• All work must be entered online through Online Juried Shows at www.onlinejuriedshows.com 

• Member Pricing: $30 for up to two (2) images for members of the Pastel Society of Southern California (please make sure your membership dues are current for the 2021-2022 membership year before entering the show). $10 for each additional image. There is no limit to the amount of entries allowed per artist.

• Non-Member Pricing: $40 for up to two (2) images for any artist who is not a member of the Pastel Society of Southern California. $10 for each additional image. There is no limit to the amount of entries allowed per artist.

• If you would like to become a member of the Pastel Society of Southern California, please visit our website at psscwebsite.org/membership. Annual dues are $30.

SHOW RULES:

• You must enter online. All entries must be submitted as digital files to onlinejuriedshows.com.
• For information on submitting images and to pay the jury fee, go to onlinejuriedshows.com, scroll down to the “Pastel Society of Southern California Make Your Mark!” exhibit listing and click “enter this show.” 
• JPEG images must not show mat, frame, etc. and must be cropped to include only the artwork. Make sure images are right side up. Images must be smaller than 4MB, at least 1920 pixels on the longest side and 72 dpi.                        
• Payment is online via credit card or PayPal. No checks accepted. All entry fees are non-refundable and must be paid by the entry deadline.
• The artwork’s final layer must be (80%) soft pastel. 
• No oil pastels
• Artwork must be original and personally executed, not copied from other artists or from published or copyrighted materials or from someone else’s real life/still life set-up or photo. Artists working from reference photographs must use their own photo that they have personally taken. Paintings using photos taken by another photographer, even used with permission, will not be accepted.
• Works that appear to duplicate, or be closely derivative of a painting previously accepted into any PSSC show will not be eligible.  
• Paintings of nudes will be considered.
• Artists who enter a painting which shows a recognizable likeness (face or figure) must have a signed model release from the person portrayed in the painting, giving the artist permission to exhibit the painting in a public forum. 
• If the work is not for sale, check “NFS” on the entry form
• Artwork may not have been accomplished in a directed, step-by-step class or workshop. 
• Artwork must be originally drawn and not created on top of any type of photographic image, whether digital or mechanical.
• Artwork must have been completed within the last three years (i.e., after July 15, 2018), and may not have been exhibited in any PSSC show before. Artwork submitted and accepted into this show that has been shown in a previous PSSC exhibition will be rejected, and the Artist will be ineligible for the next PSSC show. If there is a second infraction, the Artist will receive a two-year ban on entering future PSSC shows. A third infraction constitutes the Artist a lifetime ban from any future PSSC shows. These rules of ineligibility also apply to any Artist who does not use their own original material reference.
• PSSC reserves the right to exclude from exhibitions any artwork deemed offensive, or any artwork that violates the laws of the United States, or of state or local governments.  
• There are no size limitations.
• A maximum of three (3) paintings per artist will be accepted into the show.
• Any one artist is eligible to receive up to a maximum of two (2) awards only (one ranked award and one special award).
• PSSC reserves the right to refuse artwork that does not meet with any show rules or requirements even though accepted by the juror.

SALES:  

Prices may not be changed after submission is completed and after the submission deadline.

If an artist sells a painting during the show, each artist is responsible for any sales transactions according to the listed price. Once the image is entered and paid for using Online Juried Shows, it is considered “entered” in the show. 

There will be no commission taken from sales. Artists are responsible for their own sales taxes.

PROMOTIONAL AGREEMENT:

Artist agrees to allow the Pastel Society of Southern California and Online Juried Shows to reproduce the accepted paintings on their websites, and for advertising and promotional purposes only. No images will be used or published for any purpose except as stated above.

LIABILITY:   

Submission of online entry form and fee shall constitute agreement with ALL conditions set forth in this prospectus.

For questions about the exhibition, please contact Chris Stillians, PSSC Exhibition Vice President, cmsdesignphoto@aol.com, or Otto Stürcke, PSSC President, at ottosturcke@yahoo.com