This is the Archive of the Vermont Watercolor Society online newsletters from the old web site. It is for reference only.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

VWS news update

The image for next year's SVAC post card has been chosen. Here's the message from Rob O'Brien:

Nancy E. Winters innovative watercolor,"Yard Sail", was chosen by the juror to represent VWS for the Southern Vt. Arts Center's Festival of the Arts Catalogue for 2007-' 08.
Congratulations to Nancy and thanks to everyone who submitted an image. There were some good submissions. Needless to say, the juror had his work cut out for him.

Juror's Statement:

"Yard Sail" is filled with wit and whimsy. At the same time, it is a
serious and successful undertaking of a well constructed and complex
design. The painting readily displays competence in the handling of the
medium. I was captivated by the way the color effect is unified in a
serene-like manner despite the vitality of the color accents and the
painting's lively interaction of forms. As in every other aspect in
this painting, the reflections of the sails reflect the artist's solid
knowledge of painting. I congratulate the artist in being selected to
visually represent the Vermont Watercolor Society in the Southern
Vermont Arts Center's 2007 catalogue.

All other CD's will be mailed back soon.

Rob

Sounds like a fine painting-congratulations, Nancy !

Pick-up for paintings at SVAC is Tuesday, Dec. 5 from 12 PM-4 PM. We will try to let you know if anything has sold to save you a trip. Please be sure to retrieve you painting at this time or arrange for someone to pick it up for you.

We would like some feedback from any of you who were at the luncheon/annual meeting. We've had some complaints about the food-and some good comments, and I would like to be able to give the Inn some feedback, positive or negative.

Cindy Crawford
VWS President 2006-2007

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

VWS Annual Meeting Brief Summary

Greetings!

Our annual meeting was very well attended with 50+ members. We covered a LOT of ground, and some exciting things are coming up. However, I will not give you a full run-down at this time, just the essentials.

Elections:

President-Cynthia Crawford
cindy@creaturekinships.com
802-649-1411

Vice President-Jan Olmstead
jan@derbymanagement.com
802-297-9603

Treasurer_Everett Webber
everett.h.webber@valley.net
603-643-5450

Recording Secretary- Sheryl Trainor
Strai6098@aol.com
802-296-2073

If you have not yet paid your dues for 2007, please send a check for $35.00 made out to “Vermont Watercolor Society” to:

Everett Webber
5 Longwood Lane
West Lebanon, N.H. 03784

By-Laws-amendments:

All amendments were passed. This, in a nutshell, means that our membership is now open to any watercolorist living anywhere, who wishes to apply. This membership policy will be in effect for the year 2007, starting Jan. 1, 2007. If someone applies for membership from out-of-state before 2007(which is fine to do) , they will automatically be entered into the roster as 2007 members. In fact, all membership applications and renewals will be assumed to apply to 2007 at this point, unless we hear otherwise.

The other amendments allowed for leeway as to when and how we meet with a requirement for at least 2 meetings a year. It was confirmed that anyone who has served a President of the Society, past or present, receives a lifetime complimentary membership. Current officers receive complimentary memberships during their terms of office.

To view the exact wording, please refer to the document sent to you by mail or see it online on our website.

We had several people volunteer for various committees and tasks THANK YOU! - a list will be posted when I get all the information. If you volunteered for exhibition or program committees, please be sure to contact me and the committee members before taking any action. This is because we need to ensure that proper procedure is followed and so that there are no scheduling conflicts. In particular, if you contact a gallery about a possible show, please just get a rough idea if the gallery might be at all interested and a rough idea when they could accommodate us. Do not make any formal arrangements unless you have talked to me and the committee members about it. This is not to discourage you from inquiries- they are most welcome. It is just necessary to be sure the left hand knows what the right is doing….or visa versa (I’m left-handed…grin).

At present the Exhibition Committee chairs are :

Judy Laliberte
laliberte@valley.net
802-295-8987

Rob O’Brien
rjoartist@yahoo.com
802-263-9394

The Programs Committee Chairs are, at present:

Tina Bielenberg
krisbiel3@yahoo.com
802-456-7482

Elaine Reed
reedart@sover.net
802-875-2893


Marijke Westberg
vartland@sover.net
802-824-6578

Our new Vice President, Jan Olmstead, is jumping right in with plans to formulate a survey which will be sent to you, inquiring about your wishes and preferences for this Society. We had some great discussion about this at the meeting, but more needs to be known for us to best meet your needs and desires. THANK YOU, Jan!

More news will be forthcoming soon.

Thanks to all who came to the meeting and your active participation. It is much appreciated and will benefit everyone.

Cindy Crawford
VWS President 2006-2007

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

VWS Calendar and a new idea

VWS Calendar and a new idea


It seems like the end of the year is fast approaching. Here’s a list of dates and events to keep in mind:

Oct. 30 & 31: Bring juried work to Southern Vermont Art Center –go DIRECTLY to Gallery 8, at the Yester House. (upstairs and to the right.) Delivery Hours are 11-4

November 4: Southern Vermont Art Center show –opening reception 2-4 PM
November 8: postmark deadline for annual meeting sign-up
November 19: Annual Meeting, 11:30-4:30 Three Stallion Inn, Randolph, Vt.
November 20 Postmark deadline for CD or Transparency entries for SVAC postcard 2007. Include SASE.
December 5: Pick up unsold paintings, SVAC between 3 and 4 PM
Jan. 1, 2007: Happy New Year! Annual $35.00 Dues should be paid up. You CAN pay your 2007 dues anytime between now and then.

OTHER NEWS:

Welcome to new members Peter Bramhall of Bridgewater, Vt., Peter Jeziorski of Grafton, Vt. And Terry Hodgdon of Montpelier, Vt. I hope I have not forgotten to announce others- we have had quite a few enrollments in the past few months.

I have activated a Yahoo discussion group for Vermont Watercolor Society. Here’s how it works. Everyone will receive an invitation to sign up. There is no obligation to do so whatsoever. It is simply a place where people can communicate with each other if they choose. When you sign up you have to create a name for yourself and a password. You will be given the option of receiving any messages posted to the group at your present mail address, or you can opt to receive a digest which is sent daily, I think, or you can choose to not get messages in you mailbox. In that case you would go to the site (I would bookmark it), to read any messages sent. This means, of course, remembering to check on the site for mail. I am in a few similar groups and choose to read the mail on site to avoid getting too much mail in my inbox. I see a number of good uses for this kind of site:

Personal show announcements- I can’t really keep up with everyone’s posts and send them out in time when I send out VWS news.
Car Pooling to shows, both people and paintings
Discussions about VWS issues
Sharing of information such as where to get slides made, where to get good frames, what kind of paints do you use, etc.
On the sidebar there are places to put information relevant to the society such as the By-laws, member lists, etc.

So this is a little experiment to see what interest there might be and if we can be more in touch with each other. I hope some of you will be interested, but again, this is not at all mandatory.

Look for an invitation soon from Yahoo. I can only invite 50 people at a time, so everyone won’t be invited at once, but all will soon be invited.

Member News;

Well, I guess it’s OK to announce my own solo show- at the Norwich Public Library, 368 Main St. Norwich, Vt. 05055. , Nov. 3-Dec. 30. Opening Reception 5-7 PM Friday Nov. 3. Call 802-649-1184 for library hours. All are welcome.

Cindy Crawford

Monday, November 06, 2006

VWS Annual Meeting-sign up now! and other news

Annual Meeting:

Send your payment for the Annual Meeting to :

Everett Webber
5 Longwood Lane
West Lebanon, N.H. 03784.

If you have lost the tear off sheet that was mailed to you, you can see it and copy it online at:

http://vermontwatercolor.blogspot.com/

Deadline for POSTMARK is this Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006.
Be sure to indicate your meal preference.
_____________________________________________________
If you do not meet this deadline but still want to attend, you must notify me :

cindy@creaturekinships.com

by Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006, 6 PM. An email notification must include the following: (copy and paste):

I will attend the Vermont Watercolor Society Annual Meeting at the Three stallion Inn, Randolph, Vt. Starting at 11:30 AM on Sunday, November 19, 2006. I am paying $26.00 per person for ____people, and my meal preference is for
1.meat___
2.vegetarian___

I understand that this email implies a commitment to make the payment I have indicated above.. I will send a check and the above information to Everett Webber at the above address before Nov. 17, 2006.
______________________________________________________

Anyone who makes a commitment but does not attend the meeting must still pay and will not receive a refund. This is because we have to tell the Inn on November 13th how many meals to prepare in advance, and pay for them in advance, regardless of how many people actually attend.
________
When you come to the meeting, bring any new slides that you would like to add to our slide collection, which we use for presentations to gallery owners when inquiring about possible shows at their location(s). This is an important part of the process of getting into galleries. Your slides represent the type and quality of our collective image. In addition, we have a very special offer from member Jean Cannon:

Jean has volunteered to take your slides and convert them to CDs for a reasonable fee. (yet to be determined). So bring slides that you would like to have on CD as well. (They could be the same slides- just let us know.) We are finding that more and more galleries are either accepting CDs and slides, or want CDs only, so this is a great opportunity to make the conversion. We can also use CDs for our collection of images, so you can bring them if you have them, or get a duplicate made. For VWS, please bring 3 images only, and mark them clearly on the slide or CD with your name, title of the piece and size of the piece.

The book with everyone’s slides and CDs will be at the meeting so you can look for your name and replace old images with new ones if you have them.
__________

HELP WANTED: We will need a few members to volunteer at the Annual meeting to help with:

1. Passing out name tags and written information, if any.
2. Assisting the Treasurer in ensuring that people are checked in, paid up, and that their names, addresses and emails are current.
3. Setting up the slide show, if we have one, and looking after the slide exchange, keeping track of who has brought in new slides or CDs and who wants CDs made.

Most of this needs to be done at 11:30, before the meeting and meal begins.
_________________
Don’t forget to send an image to Rob O’Brien for the SVAC postcard entry, deadline postmarked Nov. 20, 2006. See web page (cited above) for complete instructions.
________________
Cortina Inn

If you have work at the Cortina that has been there over 3 months, it’s time to pick it up and/or exchange it for new works.

See you on the 19th!

Cindy Crawford
VWS President 2006

Friday, November 03, 2006

VWS call for Entries and More Exciting News

Robert O’Brien was asked if VWS would like to have another show at the Southern Vermont Art Center in November 2007. . After some discussion amongst Board and Committee members, it was agreed that this would be an excellent opportunity for VWS. If you are not familiar with the Center (SVAC), be sure to attend our opening reception there tomorrow (Sat. ) 2-4 PM. You will see that this is a top professional organization. They need, however, to prepare their literature a year in advance. This means that we have to get an image to them for the postcard before the end of THIS month.

Here are the requirements for juried entries for the postcard image . PLEASE READ CAREFULLY, and follow directions as stated.
(Hopefully they will be 100% accurate- apologies again for my previous misinformation…)

1. Entries must be on a CD (high-quality 300dpi image, approx 4x5”), OR on a 4”x5” color TRANSPARENCY, OR, a high-quality PROFESSIONAL color PRINT (8.5 x11).
NO SLIDES WILL BE ACCEPTED

2. ONE ENTRY PER APPLICANT.

3. YOU MUST BE A CURRENT MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING. A CURRENT MEMBER CAN MEAN YOU ARE CURRENT FOR 2006 AND WILL PAY YOUR DUES FOR 2007 BEFORE JANURARY 1, 2007. IF YOU ARE A NEW MEMBER (SINCE NOV. 1, 2006) YOU CAN OPT TO APPLY YOUR DUES TO 2007. THIS WILL, HOWEVER, MEAN THAT YOU CANNOT VOTE AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.

2.Send your entries to :

Robert O’Brien
2811 Weathersfield Center Rd.
Perkinsville, Vt. 05151

2. INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED, STAMPED ENVELOPE (SASE) for the return of your material. If you do not do this, you will not get it back.

DEADLINE: MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 20, 2006.

Other good news:

Rob O’Brien has distinguished himself once again by becoming a signature member of the National Watercolor Society. Where can you go from here, ROB? I don’t think there will be much more room after your signature for more honors! (grin). Congratulations, and many thanks for your excellent and continuing volunteer contributions to VWS. Robert hung our current show as well as taking entries and co-ordinating all the details and negotiations.

Cindy Crawford
VWS President 2006