Ring 'Round the Rosey II, 12x12" pastel by S'zanne & Friends
The above painting was started and finished by me, and also painted on by Carolyn, Richard, Linda and Donna. (To see the original painting this was based on, click here.)
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Tonight, Austin Pastel Society members gathered at Tres Amigos, the first of this season's monthly meetings, to watch a "paint-around" between five artists. Pastelists who placed in last spring's annual juried member show were invited to reproduce their award-winning artwork in the paint-around. Participants were local artists and APS members Richard Banh, Donna Crosy, Carolyn Kilday, Linda Wells, and myself, S'zanne Reynolds.
A "paint-around" is a painting demonstration where the artists have ten minutes to work simultaneously on his or her own painting, before passing their painting to the artist on their right. Then each has another ten minutes to paint on someone else's artwork before again passing the art to the right. The process is repeated until your own piece comes back to you in which you have the last ten minutes to put on the finishing touches.
So, we ended up having five wonderful paintings that had five different interpretations of the same artwork. It was so much fun to see how each turned out!
The best part of the evening was the post-production silent auction. APS members and guests eagerly bid on all five paintings. A hundred percent of the proceeds of the painting sales are going to help the Bastrop fire victims, as one of our dear members, and many of our friends lost everything to the Central Texas wildfires.
I found this experience to be a great reminder of how truly unique each of us really is...how we each have our own vision that must be expressed.
The process made me cherish our individuality all the more, and value the great possibilities we can create when we come together on behalf of our communities. The world can never have too many artists, visionaries or dreamers!
God bless.
