Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Budas.
Hi Steve, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am the current president of the Lake Country Pastel Society (LCPS). LCPS started January 1998.
In April of 1997, four pastel artists were visiting at a friend’s opening exhibit. All four wondered if there was a pastel society in Minnesota. They searched, but didn’t find one. By word of mouth, they found enough interested pastel artists to form a society, with elected officers and board members. After many informal planning meetings, the society was off and running. All of this was done by word of mouth, phone calls, letters, visiting art stores, dropping off brochures etc. It was hard work and well worth it. No computers or cell phones at that time.
The first LCPS meeting was January 13, 1998 – the coldest night of the year – and yet 45 people attended.
The first few years, members enjoyed and participated in exhibits, workshops, meetings, and a newsletter called Dust in the Wind. By the second printing of the newsletter, the society had 79 members.
Lake Country Pastel Society has expanded from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area to the whole of Minnesota and into neighboring states, with members living as far away as Australia.
Many LCPS members go to the International Society of Pastel Artists conferences, and participate in the IAPS exhibits and workshops. We offer members two workshops yearly, two exhibits yearly and five demonstrations.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Communications have always been challenging. Even today, with 80 members scattered across the upper Midwestern states, We now offer our presentations via zoom, the purpose of which is to help maintain our membership. Many of our members are not able to attend our meetings or presentations in person, so after a while, they tend to drop out. We are hoping expand our programs via live-streaming in the next few years. Some of the other struggles are acquiring grants for the organization. Sometimes we are disqualified for not having a paid employee. Sometimes for not having a large enough budget to meet their guidelines, but we have been around for more than 25 years, so we know we are doing something right!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our mission statement is: “We seek to unite artists from beginners to professionals who are interested in the pastel medium and to serve their needs by encouraging artistic growth and development through education and sharing. We also work to create public awareness of pastel as a unique and beautiful art form.”
Many artists join us to learn more about Plein air painting. Many of our members are inspired by the impressionists, particularly the landscape impressionists. The Landscape Impressionists did not invent plein air painting, but.painting plein air teaches you to paint differently. Painting outdoors does expose one to a new way of seeing and painting due to how sunlight affects your subject matter. We are proud of the fact that our professional members are very willing to work with and teach our beginners what they know and have learned. Many of them are nationally known and have had their works exhibited world-wide. What sets us apart from many other art organizations is our focus on pastels. We do not offer water color or oil, or any other art form. We concentrate on those brightly colored sticks that so many people enjoy seeing. (See the samples we have included with the article.)
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes us happy is spreading our joy of painting through our exhibits. We also enjoy sharing our experiences with the various communities we live in. By that I mean that we are IN JOY when we paint. We enjoy watching people connect with our works of art, after all, being a part of nature is what makes us human. We do have a judged exhibit coming up in the Hopkins Center for the Arts,
1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins, MN. Lower and Upper Lobby Galleries!
And here is a description of the photos I had sent you:
Cheryl5 – This is Cheryl LeClair-Sommers, one of the members who started LCPS.
Cheryl2 – Cheryl painting Minnehaha Falls
Becky1 – Becky Jokela, former board member, painting a stream.
Becky2 – Becky outdoors painting a corn field.
Becky4 – Becky painting the Vermilion River
Duncan2 – Pat Duncan, former board member, painting road view
Duncan4 – Pat’s finished painting of that road. (Sent as “personal photo”)
Pricing:
- We intentionally keep our yearly membership price low. All of our presentations are free to members, workshops cost money, but are discounted to members and exhibiting opportunites are very low in priciing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lakecountrypastelsociety.org
- Email: [email protected]
