Speaking of Art Blog

Every year for as long as I can remember, for over a decade, I’ve entered the Pastel 100 competition sponsored by Pastel Journal magazine. It has become the premier international pastel competition to get accepted into. There are only 100 spots to be had, so the competition is super fierce. In 2006 I was on Cloud 9 because I was able to get one of those spots with an Honorable Mention. Since then I’ve not been able to repeat that. But I will not give up. The level of expertise has gone up astronomically since then. Pastelists enter every year by the thousands to see if they can grab one of those 100 coveted spots.

These are the 6 pastel paintings I entered this year: 

Three birds:

and three floral/still lifes:

After receiving my bad news again this year, I wrote a post on the Pastel Society of America Facebook page. It has been well received. Here is my post:

"Something I want to say, for what it's worth: Early last year I was one of 3 judges for a very large regional art show. There were around 400 entries and we had to pare the lot down to about half (we wound up with 175) and then award only 11 prizes. It was all media, including photography. To say the task was hard would be a gross understatement. It took us ALL DAY. I was the 2-D judge, and since each of us got to choose one award recipient where we didn't need to consult the other two judges, I naturally chose a pastel. It went to a painting by Helen Kleczynski. She won a huge award in last year's Pastel 100 and she is winning an Honorable Mention in this year's P100. I did not know the piece was hers when I chose it. The reason I chose it was because it took my breath away!

After that day I now look at large competitions I enter very differently. When I don't get accepted I am no longer sour grapes, I no longer think that the judges picked their friends' work, and I no longer think that it's totally subjective. In large competitions the standouts get noticed because they STAND OUT. In my opinion, with competent judges, most artwork that fetches an award gets it because of its self-evident excellence.

My former inflated opinion of my work was chiseled down to where it needs to be. Yes, I'm good at my craft, but my challenge before me these days is to be even better so that I can finally say I'm on the same playing field with the big boys. Each time I get rejected I allow myself to wallow in self-pity for 24 hours, that's it. Then I need to roll up my sleeves and raise the bar for myself. I need to seek out the expert advice of other more accomplished artists IN ANY MEDIUM, doesn't matter. And I need to keep trying. Is it hard? You bet! But I will know, once I get there, that I did it through hard work. Onward I go......"

My 24 hours of (chocolate medicated) self-pity time are now only a memory, so it’s back to work once again. I have another year’s worth of new work to produce and a higher bar to try to hurdle over. It may look like a huge mountain to me now, but when I’m in the midst of discovering new things at my easel I must say it seems more like play than work. I am blessed. 

Note:  If you are interested in purchasing Beautiful Preener, please contact Mary Ann Pals through her Contact the Artist page of this website.  All the other artwork pictured here has already sold.