CPSA is sponsoring a new on-line show this Fall - ArtSpectations. All submissions are digital and available for viewing on a web service called Fluidview: www.cpsa.fluidreview.com. Open to all CPSA members, the show is judged for cash awards with CPSA signature members and non-Signature members judged separately.

In a departure from the eligibility rules for the CPSA International held each year, the submissions are not restricted to artwork done within the past 3 years - giving artists the opportunity to exhibit earlier work worth showing and potentially competitive. I think this is a great idea since some of my earlier work would not have a CPSA-sponsored show venue otherwise.

For this first-ever event my submissions, I hope demonstrating the various methods and subjects I favor,  are:

 "Life is Like a River", © 2012, 18 x 24", Colored Pencil on Gesso Board. A recent work using Ampersand Gessobord, a somewhat difficult surface for colored pencil due to its relative lack of roughness. Materials include traditional wax/oil based pencils as well as dissolved watercolor pencils.

  "Forged in the USA",  © 2011, 24 x 12", Colored Pencil and Solvent on Canvas Board. Typical of many of my pieces for the past decade, this one uses a still life subject with strong natural lighting and plenty of varied texture. Executed in wax/oil colored pencil dissolved in solvent along with dissolved watercolor pencil.

 "Villa Medici, Fiesole, Italy", © 2004, 20 x 16", Colored Pencil on Colored Paper. A more traditional piece done on paper using wax/oil pencils only. The genre is what I term "Intimate Architecture" - close up views of interesting architectural elements. Fiesole is a small hill town above Florence, Italy. It dates from long before the founding of the Roman city that became Florence. The door depicted is an apparent service entrance in a stone wall surrounding the summer villa of the Renaissance Medici family. It lies on the original narrow, ancient, twisty-turny, road up the mountain. Mostly used by tourists now and full of things unchanged over 5 centuries.

  "Nurse Emma, 1861", ©2001, 24 x 18", Colored Pencil on Watercolor Paper. One of my American Civil War series of colored pencil works. Based on re-enactment subjects, the clothing, equipment and environments are thoroughly researched for accuracy - re-enactors sometimes take shortcuts for the sake of cost but knowledgeable viewers can spot inaccuracy when they see it ;-)  Nurse Emma is the primary character in my, as yet unpublished, novel "Emma's Legacy". Review copies (pdf format) available free on request.

  "Lord of the Dance", © 1999, 22 x 26", pointillist Colored Pencil on Watercolor Paper. An earlier piece and one of my few landscapes. This view upward into California coastal oak trees is done entirely in the pointillist manner - i.e. with tens of thousand of dots of colors that combine in the eye to yield the intended color and value of the object depicted.