September 8 to October 4, 2025
Philadelphia Pastel Society “Visions on Pastel” National Open Juried Show
Juror of Selection – Sandra Burshell, IAPS-EP, PSA-MP, DPS
Judge of Awards - Erin Pryor Gill IAPS/MC, PSNJ
Juror of Selection, Sandra Burshell
An Eminent Pastelist in IAPS and a Master Pastelist in the Pastel Society of America was tasked with selecting the 65 pieces of artwork that you see here today. Below is her Juror’s Statement for our show:
“As Juror of Selection for the Philadelphia Pastel Society’s 2025 exhibition Visions in Pastel, I was deeply impressed by the diversity of work submitted - spanning landscapes, still life, figurative pieces, and portraiture through to abstracts. The range of individual styles was equally striking, from abstract to representational, conceptual to literal.
In evaluating each piece, I considered the foundational tenets of strong artwork: solid composition and design, unity, rhythm and movement, and a command of the pastel medium itself. Color, both in its technical execution and its emotional resonance, played a key role in my assessment.
What stood out most was the richness of personal expression, with each artist presenting a unique perspective that elevated many of these works to a level beyond the visual, offering insight, atmosphere, and narrative.
Congratulations to all who submitted. Many works truly exemplified the transformative power of pastel, and it was an honor to witness the talent and vision present in this year’s exhibition. Happy pastelling!”
Judge of Awards, Erin Pryor Gill
Erin’s work has been showcased in exhibitions with the Pastel Society of America and IAPS where she earned Master Circle recognition. While ShowSubmit has an online jury panel to review and select awards, this year’s selection was made in person. After the show was hung and before labels were installed, Erin spent the better part of her Friday making her choices for awards. She provided the following Judge’s Statement of our show:
“I love the pastel medium, and it’s been a delight to see it showcased in so many unique and powerful paintings in the 2025 National Open Juried Exhibition. I’d like to thank the Philadelphia Pastel Society board for inviting me to serve as awards juror -- it has been a real honor and a responsibility I take seriously.
In tackling the difficult task of assigning awards, I strove to consider both the more formal and the expressive aspects of each piece. Composition, use of values and color, drawing skill, originality, how the medium was handled, and the connection it made with me as a viewer. To me, the most successful paintings convey a clear sense of intention and distinct artistic voice.
Big congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all who submitted, participated, and volunteered to make this exhibition a success!”
Areté Award of Excellence ($1000)
Drew Scarpa
“Foggy Morning”
This painting has quite a presence, powerful in its scale and simplicity. It’s quite realistically rendered, but its focus on composition gives it an abstract feeling. In the foreground, a small fishing boat is tied to a dock, with wonderful reflections done with painterly strokes. A muted, treelined peninsula juts into the left midground, adding depth and balance to the composition. The horizon line of the water is almost totally lost in the early morning fog, giving an almost surreal, infinite quality to the scene. Within the limited palette, texture and subtle color is used to create atmosphere. The pastel is beautifully handled; an amazing piece.
First Place ($750)
Ilana Reisner
“Pears on Striped Cloth”
This lovely pair of pears was one of the first pieces to grab my attention, a small gem. The linework is delicious, with bold strokes as the artist’s hand searches the contours of fruit and drapery. Textural tones are laid down in thin layers of pastel, so the warm pink of the paper peeks through, adding a cohesive warmth. As light hits the sides of the pears, line gives way to more dimensional modeling of form, and the fruit looks ready to grab and eat. Simply beautiful work.
Second Place ($500)
Mary Rinderle Smith
“Trekking the Back Country”
The abstracted forms in this painting efficiently and beautifully evoke a snowy field, with bright highlights and dark tree lines. A wonderful sense of light has been created, backlit against the horizon and spilling across the landscape. There’s a lovely textural contrast between smooth expanses and scratchy linear detail. The palette is mostly neutral, with shifts between warm and cool, but pops of red in varied intensity delight our eyes.
Third Place ($300)
Julia Lesnichy
“Sunset in January”
The setting sun is the focal point of this wonderful painting. Its glow filters through the foreground trees with a rim of warm color, casting cool blue shadows on the snow. Lively marks create grasses peeking through the snow cover, and their repetition pulls our eyes into the painting. Clouds and distant mountains are conveyed with fresh strokes, and accurate values hold everything together.
Web Picture Frames Award ($300)
Patricia A. Quigley
“Goldenrod Drift”
This landscape gives such a sense of freshness. The viewer isn’t given any tight detail, but we get a wonderful impression of fields and flowering hedgerow, with distant white farm buildings and perhaps cattle. The blue in the shadows is a nice counterpoint to the overall warmth of the colors in the work. The mark making is sketchy but purposeful, and the painting vibrates with life.
Honorable Mention ($250)
William Schneider
“Lamentation for Ukraine”
The subject of this portrait reminds me of a contemporary saint, with her downward gaze, folded posture, and the circular piece hanging in the background like a halo behind her head. The cool colors and dark traditional clothing are mournful, but the brighter and warmer flesh tones shine out from the shadows. The figure is deftly drawn, and I particularly appreciate her toes, bent against the ground.
Honorable Mention ($250)
Lora Banks
“Lover’s Triangle at Brewer Fountain”
My eye is immediately drawn to the sculpted faces in this painting. The depicted mythical figures gaze at the ground or into the distance and invite me to wonder about the story they reference. The dark bronzes are rendered with subtlety, with a purposeful use of reflected color and light. I appreciate the contrast in how the background is handled, with vertical marks that beautifully diffuse detail and give the impression of falling water.
Honorable Mention ($250)
Natalie Richards
“Midwest October”
I really enjoy the way this painting uses impressionistic marks of various types to give the feel of sun filtering through trees into a forest glade. The broad side of the pastel is used to imply sifted sunlight. Thick strokes of yellow are backlit leaves, dark areas of purples and browns are organized to form shadows and tree trunks, and wispy lines are the thinnest twigs catching the light.
George Torphy Memorial Award ($250)
Kimberly L. Stone
“Olive Trees and Vineyards”
There is a wonderful dreamlike quality to this painting of a hilly vista. I like the deliberate mark-making of the pastel, with gentle vertical strokes possibly implying a distant rain, and the distinct lines of vineyards in a field adding texture. Warmer greens in the foreground and cooler greens in the background give the piece a sense of atmospheric perspective.
PWCS Award ($250)
Teresa DeSeve
“Blue Notes”
The figures in this work look away from the viewer -- we can’t see what they are watching, though the blue glow gives a hint. But the attitudes of their bodies are conveyed with wonderful loose mark-making that invites the viewer into the familiarity of taking off our shoes and curling up on the couch. The angular field of yellow in the background nicely contrasts and compliments the cool tones in the painting.
John Durnin Memorial Award ($250)
Pamela Wallenhurst
“A Place for Alice”
This abstract painting is a satisfying combination of color, line, and composition. The applied ground has been textured with a comb-like tool, and the resulting swoosh of parallel grooves is highlighted with the side of the pastel. In contrast, the dark linear strokes are full of hand-drawn personality. Restful areas of more neutral color and smoother surface are punctuated with notes of bright orange, pink, and blue, adding to the rhythm of this piece.
West Charlton Frames ($200 gift certificate)
Mike Barret Kolasinski
“Ice Breaker”
This sunset painting has a noteworthy dialogue between warm and cool. The reflection of orange sky in the water acts like a fiery pathway among the floating ice. The values are darker toward the edges of the painting, vignetting the focal point towards the horizon. Bright marks of color add touches of sparkle throughout the piece.
Earthberry Pastels ($150 value product award)
Sharif Sadiq
“Lady with Floral Bun”
This painting creates an intriguing viewpoint from behind the portrait subject, giving only a glimpse of her face. Most attention is focused on the crisp marks of the pink flowers in her dark hair, in contrast with the softly handled edges of her shoulders. Details like the golden glint of an earring, delicate eyelashes, and a cool light on her temple add a gentle pathway for our eyes.
Uart Award ($114 gift certificate)
Barbara Berry
“Impromptu”
This pleasing portrait is painted with fresh, bright strokes. Well-organized values draw our attention to the face. A strong light source highlights the expressive eye, and beautifully rendered hands add life to the image.
Pan Pastel Award ($125 gift certificate)
Molly Wing-Berman
“Wonder at Devon”
This pastel of horse and rider uses line in a powerful way. The searching lines of the drawing give the impression of the rider’s weight in the saddle, the movement of the horse’s legs, and the tension of the reins. Textural lines are repeated throughout, and warm highlights are used judiciously to create a sense of backlighting in an arena. The square image format allows rider and mount to interact with every edge of the painting.
Wayne Art Center Award ($100)
Jeri Greenberg
“3 on Red Stripes”
The bird’s eye perspective in this still life is unexpected and compelling. The red stripes show the contours of the surface, and the shadows create a strong sense of directional light. The pastel marks are vivid and fresh, and I love the well-placed highlights on the apple.
Ampersand Award – ($100 gift certificate)
Dennis C. Murphy
“Ginkgo #8”
This close-up view of Ginkgo leaves plays with pattern and repetition in a fun way. The thin stems and broad triangular leaves create interesting lines and shapes for our eyes to savor, and the many different greens add depth. The distinctive veining of the leaves is nicely rendered with soft pastel strokes.
Blick Art Materials Award ($100 gift certificate)
Thomas Andrew Wilson
“Winter Kimono”
This artist uses multiple painting methods to impart a unique character to this portrait. The background wash blends the pastel and allows the pigment to be lifted, selectively exposing the lighter base paper. A glazing of white pastel creates the lost and found edges of the woman’s dress, obscuring her arms and drawing attention to her intriguing, enigmatic expression.
Blick Art Materials Award ($100 gift certificate)
Jacqueline Meyerson
“Bottoms Up”
In this still life, 31 glass bottles sit in a box, but the artist gives us so much variety in the repeated subject. The mouths of some bottles are dark and shadowed, while others are light against the background, creating a nice positive-negative space reversal. Dust and highlights on the glass add opacity to some of the bottles, while others are more translucent. The style is realistic, but the painting retains an appealing human, hand-drawn sensibility.
PSA Award ($100)
Marianne Knipe
“Along the Medomak”
The composition in this piece is simple but effective, with a single tree as the leading player. The softness and diagonal sweep of clouds in the background and the gentle grassy hills add interest and movement to this piece, which conveys the bright feeling of a summer day in the countryside.
Rita Morrin Memorial Award ($100)
Sherry Ward
“Girls Day Out”
The “girls” in this fun painting are depicted in a close, happy huddle, with the overlapping planes of their individual bodies visually merging. Their expressions radiate happiness. Their fashion seems to reference a bygone era, and the sepia-toned hues of the background hint at historical context while nicely juxtaposing the strong colors and values in the foreground.
Pastel Society of Tampa Bay ($100)
Marianne Fyda
“Bromeliad 5”
This bold composition fills the page with a close-up view of an exotic flower. The colors are vivid and jewel-like, and our eyes enjoy the overlapping shapes of petals and leaves. The pastel is well-blended and luscious.
Maryland Pastel Society ($100)
Mary Ellen Goetz
“Fisher’s Cove”
There is something very compelling about this abstracted view of a reflected shoreline. The unexpected asymmetry gives the composition a good balance, and the carefully placed darks catch my eye in a mostly high-key painting. The overall impression is immediate and fresh.
Central Massachusetts Pastel Society ($100)
Karen Israel
“The Home Stretch”
This painting tells a story as a woman walks her dog beside a city street. Her earbuds must be masking the sounds of traffic, and the blurred edges of the vehicles and figures evoke speed and hurry. The face of the dog is so charmingly and sensitively rendered.