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denisejhoward
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Here I thought 2023 was fast…2024 went so fast I didn’t even have a chance to write any new blog posts before the very last day! So, what was so important that I couldn’t take an hour to write something all year? The Colored Pencil Society of America and lots of peripherally-art-related stuff kept me busy…
Non art-related but important for me:
The number of new artworks I finished this year, four, is the lowest since I resumed my art in 2010. That’s because after the first three I embarked on a big one, 18″ x 18″, that has taken the rest of the year to finish, and it’s still not finished, so it’ll be my first of 2025.
I was surprised to win the Legion Paper Award for Distinction and $1000 in the 32nd CPSA International Exhibition for All That I Once Was Is Lost in August, especially since it’s entirely black and white colored pencil on gray paper, among 97 colorful and outstanding artworks. It’s my piece that was in the De Young Open in San Francisco in 2023-24. Then I was thrilled to pieces to win Best of Show and $1000 in the annual UArt Open organized by University Art in Redwood City, CA in October. The number of accepted pieces is limited to 75, and the quality of work is always very high, across all media. I’ve won awards in it several times, including 2nd Best of Show, but the top award had always eluded me. This time, my Waiting did the job. A big win not only for me but for colored pencil! What’s amusing is that it, too, is entirely black and white colored pencil on gray paper. Guess I need to pursue more black and white on gray paper….?
I still didn’t meet my goal of experimenting with some additional media. I tried to sign up for a beginning watercolor class, but there was a glitch so I was unable to register. I’ll just have to re-commit for 2025. I already spoke to that watercolor instructor.
Being president of the CPSA is often a full-time job, especially in June and July on the run-up to the convention! I think I may actually be working more hours at this on averae than I normally spent as a software engineer, and that’s saying a lot. And it’s a volunteer job!
2024 starts in just a few hours as I write this. I already have three workshops and a presentation scheduled, plus for the first time I’m going to teach a six-week “Introduction to Colored Pencil” class at the Pacific Art League starting January 22. I’ll be participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios the second and third weekends of May at the same site I was at in 2023. The CPSA convention will be in Bethesda, MD, so I’m going to take the opportunity to do some more sightseeing in Washington, DC afterward. Hope I have time to actually draw!
What art goals do you have for 2025? If you don’t have any I encourage you to think up a couple, because otherwise, at the end of the year you won’t be able to tell if you made any progress! They’re not resolutions, they’re goals.
Happy New Year!
- Exhibited work in 17 exhibitions, from local to international. I’m not counting the De Young Open, since it opened in late 2023 and ended in 2024.
- Finished 4 new artworks
- Sold 9 original artworks–eight of them from the Cheryl Watts Gallery in Monterey
- Won 9 awards, including a Best in Show in an all-media show
- Taught 1 virtual workshop
- Taught 3 in-person workshops, including a two-day workshop near Gainesville, FL
- Gave 3 presentations to local art groups
- Exhibited in the Livermore ArtWalk
- Finished my 2nd year as president of the Colored Pencil Society of America
- Attended the CPSA convention in Brea, CA
- Featured and cover artist for the July issue of COLOR Magazine
- Published an 8-page feature/tutorial in the Dec/Jan 2025 issue of International Artist Magazine
- Finally found and bought a vintage drawing table like the ones we had in my college drawing studio
- Finally got a retail display rack for my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils
- Had a custom shed built for my overflow art stuff (no more $400/month for storage unit rental, yay!)
Non art-related but important for me:
- Traveled to Missouri in April to witness the total solar eclipse in the very center of the path of totality (WOW!)
- Started a year of Invisalign to realign my teeth, 40 years after finishing braces
- Restored two antique pressed-back cane-bottom chairs I found discarded on the street
- Traveled to Missouri to oversee the demolition and removal of the house and all outbuildings on the farm where I grew up–that was no fun
- Vacationed in the stunning eastern Sierras and Washington, DC on successive weeks–polar opposite experiences
The number of new artworks I finished this year, four, is the lowest since I resumed my art in 2010. That’s because after the first three I embarked on a big one, 18″ x 18″, that has taken the rest of the year to finish, and it’s still not finished, so it’ll be my first of 2025.
I was surprised to win the Legion Paper Award for Distinction and $1000 in the 32nd CPSA International Exhibition for All That I Once Was Is Lost in August, especially since it’s entirely black and white colored pencil on gray paper, among 97 colorful and outstanding artworks. It’s my piece that was in the De Young Open in San Francisco in 2023-24. Then I was thrilled to pieces to win Best of Show and $1000 in the annual UArt Open organized by University Art in Redwood City, CA in October. The number of accepted pieces is limited to 75, and the quality of work is always very high, across all media. I’ve won awards in it several times, including 2nd Best of Show, but the top award had always eluded me. This time, my Waiting did the job. A big win not only for me but for colored pencil! What’s amusing is that it, too, is entirely black and white colored pencil on gray paper. Guess I need to pursue more black and white on gray paper….?
I still didn’t meet my goal of experimenting with some additional media. I tried to sign up for a beginning watercolor class, but there was a glitch so I was unable to register. I’ll just have to re-commit for 2025. I already spoke to that watercolor instructor.
Being president of the CPSA is often a full-time job, especially in June and July on the run-up to the convention! I think I may actually be working more hours at this on averae than I normally spent as a software engineer, and that’s saying a lot. And it’s a volunteer job!
2024 starts in just a few hours as I write this. I already have three workshops and a presentation scheduled, plus for the first time I’m going to teach a six-week “Introduction to Colored Pencil” class at the Pacific Art League starting January 22. I’ll be participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios the second and third weekends of May at the same site I was at in 2023. The CPSA convention will be in Bethesda, MD, so I’m going to take the opportunity to do some more sightseeing in Washington, DC afterward. Hope I have time to actually draw!
What art goals do you have for 2025? If you don’t have any I encourage you to think up a couple, because otherwise, at the end of the year you won’t be able to tell if you made any progress! They’re not resolutions, they’re goals.
Happy New Year!
