Member News / Announcements

Jackie Rimmler won 3rd Place for her painting titled "Morning Light," in the 2026 10th Annual Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint-Out competition in Orange County, NC. Her painting already sold! Almost 200 artists participated in the competition, judged by Lori Putnam. The judge's comments were: “Bridging a gap between abstraction and representation, this artist’s use of vertical strokes to suggest layering of grasses and horizontal marks to illustrate the light on the tree trunks juxtaposed to angular branches and random leaf shapes.” These works are on exhibit through Nov 21 at the Eno Arts Mill Gallery in Hillsborough. (https://artsorange.org/2026-paint-it-orange-plein-air-paint-out-winners-announced/) [...]

Cary Gallery of Artists Eighteenth ANNUAL SMALL TREASURES JURIED EXHIBIT Small Works of Art by North Carolina Artists March 27 - April 22, 2026 200 S. Academy St., Suite 120, Cary NC 27511 www.carygalleryofartists.org [...]

PSNC held a mini-workshop for 15 attendees with Christine Ivers as instructor.  Daphne Boder, Barbara Steinacker, Jackie Rimmler, Donna Streisfeld, Janet Nickle, Kathy Summers and Pearl Cohen shared their artwork created during the workshop. Daphne mentioned that the workshop was fun and that Christine shared a lot of useful and entertaining information. [...]

3-Day Workshop Announcement for Piedmont Pastel Society!   Instructor: Nancie King Mertz Dates: November 6—8, 2025 Price: $$395 Attendees limit: 14 students Location: At the Studio of Jay DeChesere in Wilmington, NC    Bring your references of scenes you’ve always wanted to paint but never quite knew how. This can include faces, figures, landscapes with man-made elements, boats, reflective water, small villages...anything you would like! Nancie will guide you toward success!   Contact Jay DeChesere at [email protected] to register or with questions.      About Nancie: Nancie has spent her lifetime painting in oil and pastel. She was awarded the Master Circle by International Association of Pastel Societies, Eminent Pastelist in 2018, and is a Master Signature [...]

"Looking forward to next month and new friends at my in-person pastel portrait workshop in the Blue Ridge Mountains.   A few spots are left in my class at Kanuga Watermedia Workshops at the Montreat Conference Center. Paint pastel portraits with me while your family enjoys the 4,000 acre campus, treks miles of mountain trails, or kayaks in the lake. Quite. Secluded. A beautiful place to reflect, study, and create.   Workshop Dates: March 23—28, 2025. Contact Director Megan Miller Williams at 828-964-3968. https://www.kanugawatermediaworkshops.com   Luana Luconi Winner, PSA, PSNC, IAPS/MC     Portrait Society of Atlanta, Juried Member / Past Editor of FOLIO     Portrait Society of America, NC [...]

The PSNC Board approved for me to build a new PSNC website using the FASO (FineArtStudioOnline) hosting company. Today is the official day our new website design goes "live." Within 15 minutes, we had one renewing member use the new Membership Registration Form–success! [...]

Hi PSNC members, it’s Jim Hallenbeck (Signature member of PSNC). I will be teaching a 4-hour pastel class at the Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough, NC on February 15 from 1pm to 5pm.   You will learn my technique of starting with a watercolor underpainting to identify shapes and values. We will then move to establishing the focal point and work from dark to light using soft pastels. You will complete a painting by class end!    Cost is $85 through the Orange County Arts Commission.    Here’s the registration information: https://events.humanitix.com/pastels-bringing-landscapes-to-life-winter-2025-with-jim-hallenbeck   [...]

Albert Handell will have his 3rd annual Raleigh workshop from April 8 – April 11, 2025.   The workshop will be held at Artspace located at 201 East Davie Street in Downtown Raleigh.   The workshop includes a morning demo by Albert – two in oil and 2 in pastel. The afternoon is dedicated to individualized instruction at your easel. You can paint in both pastel and oil or just one medium, i.e., all 4 days paint with your pastels.   Cost is $950 with a $200 deposit required and payment in full by March 7, 2025. Please contact Jim Hallenbeck to sign up at [email protected] or call 919-917-3394.   [...]

January 7, 2025   My pastel painting "Sun Kissed" received Special Merit Award in the Fall 2024 Art and Color 365 Magazine issue.   This show will be on their website online exhibition for a full year.     [...]

Jim Hallenbeck will be teaching a pastel class on Saturday, February 10 from 1pm to 5pm at the Eno Arts Mill Gallery located at 437 Gimmicks Mill Road #17 in Hillsborough, NC.   The class is for beginner to intermediate pastel artists.   Using soft pastels, students will learn how to start a landscape with a simple pencil drawing followed by a watercolor underpainting (2-3 colors) to set up shapes and dimensions. We will paint on UArt 500 grit paper board eliminating the need for any adhesive. From there we will begin using soft pastels working from the focal point out, dark to light to [...]

A Full-Day Zoom Workshop in Two Three-Hour SessionsFriday, April 5, 2024, 10am – 5pm$175Note: All proceeds will go to the Pastel Society of North Carolina General Fund.   This day will set you on your way to sketching and painting faces with confidence. Artists of all levels of experience will find useful, basic, and essential instruction of the construction of the head. With these indispensable notes, you will begin to enjoy painting portraits without hesitation.   The lessons and demonstrations will begin with focused attention on each individual feature of the face. Simple diagrams willbecome your maps to understanding shape, construction, proportion, and uniqueness of [...]

When: Saturday 6/29 9AM-5PM; Sunday 6/30 9AM-3PMCost: $220 for the weekendAges 18+   This workshop is designed for beginner or intermediate pastel artists to explore and expand their understanding of the dry medium of pastel by using a variety of wet techniques to transform the medium. The workshop will include demos each morning, then hands-on practice and exercises. The workshop will include CDR methodology — create, destroy, and recreate — encouraging construction and controlled deconstruction of a work, allowing many layers of color to exist within the surface.   Students will experience a mix of structured exercises and free time to work on their own paintings to [...]

A 3-day virtual workshop with Rita Kirkman hosted by the PSWC  February 23-25, 2024   $285   In this virtual 3-day workshop, you will learn how to create a vibrant sense of glowing light in your pastel paintings. Instruction emphasizes value and temperature as keys to unlocking the light.   Learn an underpainting method to “nail the values!” The workshop is appropriate for adventurous beginners all the way to advanced pastelists.   [...]

I’m very honored to be selected to be a part of “Up Your Arts” downtown Southport, NC Pole banner project to be hung in May of 2024. More details below…   We are so proud to announce the names of the artists selected to have their artwork displayed on banners in downtown Southport next year! Chosen by a three-judge panel from a group of 71 submissions to represent our “Raise Up Your Arts” pole banner project, their art is a mixture of 2D and 3D mediums—everything from paintings and photography to mosaics, pottery and fiber art to woodworking and glass, with equally varied [...]

Fun and informal pastel instruction and inspiration in Rita’s Virtual Open Studio.   Exclusively on her Patreon, Bunny Buddy level $10 and up.   Live Zoom invites and instant access to over 170 full-length videos, and more!(The highest tier now includes monthly critiques! 🙂   If you’re not yet ready to join as a member, you can join for free to follow the frequent public posts, quick vids, art tips, progress pics and other cool stuff.   https://www.patreon.com/RitaKirkmanStudio   “You can’t use up creativity. The more the you use, the more you have.” –Maya Angelou   [...]