You don’t have to live on the West Coast to become a member! With PSWC members located around the United State and around the world, the Pastel Society of the West Coast offers a strong voice for expanding the presence of soft pastel as a major fine art painting medium. PSWCwas organized in 1984 to promote pastel artists and the soft pastel medium. Today, PSWC is the among most recognized of pastel societies.
BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
PSWC provides social media channels for pastel education, communication, and exposure for members.
PSWC sponsors two annual juried exhibitions: the PASTELS USA open exhibition to showcase award-winning pastel artwork to public venues and the MEMBERSHIP ONLINE SHOW
PSWC sponsors an Art Scholarship for qualifying students interested in the further study of art.
Because PSWC is a member of IAPs, our members automatically become IAPS artist members and are eligible for IAPS juried exhibitions at prestigious galleries and on the web, as well as participation in the IAPS Convention at discount rates.
The Pastel Society of the West Coast is incorporated as a non-profit organization. The PSWC is run completely by volunteer Board Members. Endowments and bequests are welcome; please contact our President.
Note: Artwork featured on the website is from artists who entered shows in 2020 Please see show art by clicking Members Only Online Show 2020 to see titles and artists.
We are so proud and delighted to present our exhibition of PASTELS USA: 99 Voices in Pastel! This show takes nearly a year to organize and prepare for, even when it’s virtual. There are so many people who helped bring this together, from jurors and judges to volunteers from PSWC. Special gratitude and appreciation goes to our judge, Jean Stern and our panel of jurors, Sylvie Cabal, Wende Caporale, and Alan Flattman. They had an extraordinarily tough job this year. and I would like to thank our Show Chairwoman, Jan Miller, for doing an extraordinary job working on all the details. Many kudos to W. Truman Hosner who is our Museum Liaison and who advised us though this new process and program design. In fact, he is the one who took a conversation about change to make us more competitive and made it happen. I would also like to thank Board members Susan Goodmundson for managing the money and the awards, Deborah Shea for soliciting prizes and all those details, Dug Waggoner for creating ads to promote the show, Cynthia Riordan for send out dozen of eBlasts to let people know what was happening. Social Media Chairwoman, Rita Romero kept all our followers on Facebook and Instagram informed of deadlines and critical information. She also prepared the slideshow videos that you will see on YouTube and at the August 8th, 2021meeting.. A special thank you to Ranjani Mohana, our Meeting Chairwoman, who got us organized on Zoom. Finally, as always, we send many thanks to Joe Baker of ShowSubmit.com for his tireless work keeping us on track.
This year we are trying a special treat for your viewing pleasure. You can see the show “virtually.” Thanks to new technology, you can “walk through” our virtual gallery below. Next year we will be back in a real gallery, but for those who at home, this is the next best thing. All paintings are also featured below the video to scroll through at your leisure.
Thank you all for making this one of the best shows we have ever had!
Our new show format is organized as follows–Winners of Awards, Contemporary Realism, Contemporary Impressionism, and Modern Experimental. Please see the Rules page if you have questions about how to determine what belongs in each category here.
Best In Show: The Daniel E. Green Memorial Award
The Provider by Nancie King Mertz | 33.5×45.5 | $4500
Plein Air Magazine Award
Marley Creek by Ted Fuka | 18×12 | $1200
The Wakeham/Sutherland Award I
First Place: Contemporary Realism
The Fencer. After the Fight by Elena Prudnikova | 18.5×12.5 | $3,330
