Art Talk By The PebbleCreek Art Club

The 2017 Meet the Artist event is even better this year

Linda Strauss-Lewis

Have you already marked your calendar for March 31 and/or April 1? In last month’s PebbleCreek Post we told you about the 2017 Meet the Artist event. In this issue we want to tell you about changes we made, based on your excellent feedback. We invite you to tell your friends about how much you enjoyed last year’s show and that by all counts this one will be even better!

For example, we’ve retained two new respected judges to give their perspectives on whose artwork deserves First, Second and Third Place as well as the Judge’s Pick for Best of Show. We’ve also purchased more gallery-style display stands so that the Woodcarving Room will look as professional as the Coyote Room exhibit. We’re also feeling very clever; by purchasing special hanging materials, we’ll be able to exhibit even more artwork this year and yet leave you more room to wander. I’m not giving anything more away than that! You’ll just have to come to see the upgrades.

If you like the clean lines of photography for your walls, you may find the perfect piece at Meet the Artist 2017. And we made one more change; like mediums will be displayed in the same area. i.e.: If you’re an ardent fan of oil paintings or, if you’re interested in seeing some of the new mediums being explored across the country and here in PebbleCreek, you’ll find them grouped by category to make your job easier. You made the suggestion and we’re trying it out. Please let us know what you think.

Every piece of art is new! Last year was a fine year; however, this is 2017. Every piece is a new piece. Hopefully you’ll be tempted to take the perfect piece home with you.

Below is a review of the details:

Friday, March 31, 2017 – Opening Night from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Coyote and Quail Studios in the Tuscany Falls Creative Arts Building. Friday night features a Complementary Wine and Snack Reception plus a newly expanded opportunity to speak with the artists. As always, the largest selection of Silent Auction, affordable, small art pieces will be available on Friday night, so come early. Once again, a part of your Silent Auction purchase will be donated to a local art charity.

Saturday, April 1, 2017 – 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. – A lovely, leisurely time to view and/or purchase art. Almost all the pieces will still be on view, including those that may have sold on Friday night.

Above all, please remember to vote for your favorite piece for the coveted People’s Choice Award. Our artists always wait to find out which piece or style you thought was best. By the way, Shirley Smith’s photograph accompanying this article won the People’s Choice Award in 2016. Your vote counts!

Art Club elects new officers

Charlene Romanos

The PebbleCreek Art Club ended 2016 with the election of officers. Charlene Romanos is the new president, Jym Snider, vice president and Lou Stifter will serve as Vice President of Education. Elaine Rajeski, current secretary and Barbara Rossi, current treasurer will serve another term as well as Judy Caruthers in the position of assistant treasurer.

The club recently welcomed 19 new members and looks forward to another productive year of classes and special events. The upcoming Meet the Artist, the club’s spring art show and sale which will take place on March 31 and April 1, is coming up soon so mark your calendars. The annual fall event Art Walk is scheduled for November 4, 2017. Both exhibits will be presenting exciting new works by artists living in our community and can be purchased during the shows.

Marianne Graff named Artist of the Year

It is with great pleasure that the PebbleCreek Art Club announces that Marianne Graff was recently named the club’s Artist of the Year for 2016.

Marianne and her husband moved to PebbleCreek in 2003 and she took her first watercolor class that year. Dottie Mitchell, former PebbleCreek resident and instructor, was the teacher for that class. Marianne says she has been indebted to her ever since.

As a talented watercolorist, Marianne also creates in graphite and paper collage. She expands her skills by taking classes outside of PebbleCreek as well as those offered within. She even received honorable mention in our recent recycling art event. While continually encouraging others she is ever critical of her own work. She can be seen painting the same photograph (she has taken) over and over until she feels she has achieved the look she has envisioned. The quality of her art is ever improving. Marianne has been a resident instructor as well as a mentor to individual artists.

Marianne’s favorite mediums are watercolor and drawing. She continues to take workshops to expand her horizons, visit museum exhibitions and read art books and magazine articles for inspiration.

Marianne expressed that the greatest influence upon her painting has been the British landscape watercolorists of the late eighteenth century. Her greatest challenge is to learn to tell a story with a painting and to that end she is inspired by watercolorist Dean Mitchel.

She became active in the Art Club as well. She served as the club vice president as well as holding the position of president. Marianne has twice received the Artist of the Month award. She has continued to serve the Art Club in many ways, from making sure certain supplies were available for purchase, serving on committees, to scheduling the displays in one of the Creative Art Center’s window displays. Marianne has done community outreach on behalf of the club by assisting at the Opportunity House summer art program.

This past year when the Artist of the Month program was disappearing, Marianne took up the challenge of keeping this important club function alive. She made a plea to the executive board and did a survey to assess support in the membership. Marianne formed a committee that put together written guidelines for the AOTM. As chairperson she coordinates nominations/selections, the PebbleCreek Post news articles/photos and the window display.

The mother of two and grandmother of five, her oldest grandchild Andrew loves to draw. The family talent is evidently being passed along.

Upon receiving this award Marianne said, “I’m deeply grateful for the support and encouragement of my family and friends and for the community of artists in PebbleCreek who inspire me daily with their creativity and energy. I’m both humbled and challenged by this honor.” Marianne’s dedication to our club and its members embodies the persona of this award.

Chris Pelkan named Artist of the Month

It is with great pleasure that the PebbleCreek Art Club awards the Artist of Month for March to Chris Pelikan. Chris and his wife of 49 years, Sharon, moved to PebbleCreek in 2011 from Colorado where they spent the first 10 years of retirement. It is rumored that Chris chose dog walking over shoveling snow when selecting Arizona for relocation.

One of 13 children, Chris was raised on a Missouri farm and spent his working career in electronic engineering and management in the California Silicon Valley. A younger Chris was intrigued by how our eyes and brains create images using light. He started dabbling in ceramics and pottery art. The fascination with visual interpretation continued and Chris began experimenting with subtle references in his art. Wood carving became his artistic expression and he has created over 100 three-dimensional carvings. Having been drawn to “relief,” which is carved and painted pictures, Chris incorporates illusions of varying depths in his pieces. Chris has received numerous awards in California, Colorado and recently in Arizona for his intriguing woodcarvings.

A new artistic endeavor has recently piqued Chris’s curiosity, the challenge of applying paint with an airbrush. According to Wikipedia, “an airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that sprays various media; most often paint but also ink and dye, by a process of nebulization.” It employs a significant learning curve to develop accuracy. One can only hope that this self-education is occurring in someplace other than the Pelikan living room!

Occasionally Chris undertakes plein air carving and on one such occasion near Cambria, California, was enjoying the weather and the waves and was carving on a wood project on the beach. Something diverted his attention from his project and he looked up to focus on an incoming rogue wave. He grabbed his favorite tools and scrambled for his life up an embankment. Halfway to the top, water was up to his waist and the Pacific Ocean had claimed his partially finished carving.

These days Chris is closer to home in PebbleCreek, volunteering at the food bank weekly, walking their dog Frisco and pursuing his art projects. He also bicycles 10 miles daily.

All are invited to view Chris Pelikan’s work in the Creative Arts Center and the Tuscany Falls and Eagle’s Nest reception desks.

PC Artists shine – below just a sample

Linda Strauss-Lewis

More and more members of the PebbleCreek Art Club are being recognized across the West Valley, the state, the country and even internationally. It’s no surprise actually, since our club provides such a fertile ground for growth. Not only do we work continually to improve our craft, but through our personal mentoring and resident and outside instructor-led classes, that growth is exponential. Below is just a sampling of some of our recent successes:

Sharon Adamy, a “Signature Artist” of the Pastel Societies of both New Mexico and Arizona, was honored to be juried into several recent shows, including the Arizona Pastel Artist Association and the 2016 Chicago Pastel Painters Association, where she won the Pastel Journal Award for Excellence; Sherri Van Schaick, who was a colored pencil neophyte in 2004, has again been accepted (for the sixth time!) into the CTS (Colored Pencil Society’s) online International Show; Here’s a fun winner: Much to member Nancy Hampton’s surprise, during the preliminary reception at the January 2017 Glendale Arts Council Show, she sold her entry before it even was placed on the walls!

Gretchen Olberding has been juried into multiple shows in 2016-2017; she received an award and sold a pastel painting in the 2017 Glendale Arts Council Exhibit and took second place overall in the Glendale WHAM December 2016 holiday show. She’s also been juried into the Sonoran Small Art Show in Cave Creek and the Desert Museum Show in Tucson. Long-time gourd artist Dee Smart recently won six awards in the Idaho State Fair and Charles Peterman, our club’s brilliant and prolific oil painter, exhibits regularly in the prestigious Art Center of Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. He was one of three featured artists in that gallery in January 2017.

And one more, just for good measure: Charlene Romanos, our new president, won the People’s Choice Award at the Goodyear Library November 2016 Wild Things Show. Also In 2016, she was juried into the Art of Recycling Gallery Show at the Sedona Art Center. That was a win for all of us in the PC Art Club. In short order, she introduced our membership to the Art of Recycling, which was quite exciting for all of us who made our own attempts!

Sharing ideas, mentoring, teaching – and did I mention a plethora of nationally-known guest speakers at our monthly meetings – all of that has added to the growth our membership enjoys throughout the year and you get to see at our annual Meet the Artist event, and more.