CAL News

This beautiful 82’x82’ painting entitled “What goes on in my head” was donated to the Conroe Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, November 14th, by the Conroe Art League. The artist, Golda Rader, was on hand for the presentation. The original art was a 40x40 acrylic/ mixed media piece and was voted on as the favorite to be remade into a very large banner that hung in the Madeley Building courtyard. A perfect home was found for it at the CSO building.

Ho, Ho, Ho!  Betty James’ Workshop, Santa’s Smile, was a great success this past Saturday.  Twelve artists armed with pastels filled the classroom for a fun day of creating Santa images.

Mary Mapes was announced as the winner of the People’s Choice Award for October at the Artist’s Reception held on Saturday, November 9th.

“Thank you for selecting my piece. I think there are a few cat lovers in the Conroe Art League, which goes to show what nice people there are in this artistic group. This piece is a Prismacolor pencil drawing on suede matte board. It shows my cat Rita and me and is an attempt to capture how we feel about each other, hence the title, “In Sync”.”

A new exhibition is now on display in the Gallery.  Come in and vote for your favorite for the November People’s Choice Award which will be announced in November.

Entries for the 5th Madeley National Juried Show and Competition are now being taken.  This unique two category competition features seven cash prizes totaling $6,000.  All visual artists over the age of 18 are invited to enter this event which will be held in March 2020.

Artist may enter up to 6 works of art in two categories.  Category #1 includes Oil, Acrylic, and Watercolor Paintings, and Graphite, Charcoal, Colored Pencil, Pen and Ink and Pastel Drawings.  Category #2 includes Mixed Media, Photography, Digital Art, Printmaking, Experimental Art, Sculpture, and Studio Fine Crafts except Jewelry.

Jurors for the event are Karen Vernon from the Houston area and Jennifer Perlow from Denver, CO.  Deadline for entries is December 13, 2019.  All entries are made through https://tinyurl.com/MadeleyNational.  Questions may be refered to the Madeley National email at the5thnational@gmail.com.

We recently had a visit from Ann S. Graham,  the Executive Director of Texans for the Arts. Texans for the Arts (TFA) is a highly effective, non-partisan statewide arts advocacy organization that organizes advocacy efforts in order to protect and increase public and private funding for the arts at the state, national and local levels and provides coordinated information about legislative activity related to arts issues. 

They selected Conroe as one of ten Texas cities where arts organization are using the HOT (Hotel Occupancy Tax) to fund their operations. Conroe is to be one of their Case Studies/Success Stories being presented to other cities. They toured the Gallery, the Crighton and the Owen and met with City Parks and Recreation and the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

After the visit, Ann Graham asked for more information and details on the CAL story. She was impressed with the growth and the activities and are planning to feature some of what we have done in their case studies. 

You can learn more about TFA at http://www.texansforthearts.com

Debra Riley was announced as the winner of the People’s Choice award for September at the Artist’s Reception held on Saturday, October 19. Her piece, Symphony in Blue, not only drew the highest number of votes but also drew a buyer to purchase the piece at the reception. Debra has been an ardent student at CAL taking classes from CAL Teachers Gary Hernandez and Juan Cantavella. She credits CAL as a place where artists can learn, grow and flourish.  

“Joining CAL had a huge impact on my artistic life.  The first workshop I ever took, the first sale I ever made, the first art show I entered, and my first entry and acceptance into a national juried competition, all happened at CAL.  “Symphony In Blue” won Best Floral in the Fall Show 2018, but to win the People’s Choice at CAL is a greater honor to me.  I am very grateful to Juan Cantavella for making this program possible.”

Come to our first OPEN STUDIO with Tom LaRock

Saturday, October 26, 1:00-3:00 in the classroom.

Join your fellow members and artists in this, our first Open Studio.  We would like to make this a monthly meet-up where you can bring a project  you are working on, something you would like to have critiqued, or just to listen in, ask questions and participate in the discussion.

This is an informal session and, for this first outing, will be led by Tom LaRock.  Tom will provide guidance, answer questions and share his art  journey.  Tom teaches oil painting and drawing in the realistic and classical style of contemporary masters from the 18th and 19th centuries.

We plan to repeat this each month, typically on the third Saturday of the month, the same day as the General Meeting.  Each month we'll have a different teacher or professional artist lead the session.  Community.  Creativity.  Conversation.  Maybe coffee as well.

CAL has been fortunate to receive grant funding from the Texas Commission on the Arts, and in return, we can promote Texas as the State of the Arts by purchasing State of the Arts license plates.  A portion of TCA's grants budget is earned through sales of the State of the Arts License pate.  This license plate only adds an additional $30 to your registration fee.  TCA will receive $22 for each State of the Arts license plate sold or renewed.  The revenue generated through these sales is distributed through grants like the one CAL received... so the more they raise through the license plate, the more they can give through grants.  Order a plate today - and renew it annually!  http://tinyurl.com/TXartsLP

The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCS) has approved funding of 868 grants in its first funding round for fiscal year 2020.  The grants total over $8.9 million and will go to non-profits and units of government in 111 Texas cities.  These grants include all of the Arts Create program grants, the revived Cultural District Project grants, the first two funding rounds for the Arts Respond Project program, the quarterly Arts Respond Performance Support program, and the quarterly Commission initiatives and Designated Funding category.  For a full list of grants organized by city, please visit http://www.arts.texas.gov/cities20/cities/.

CAL received $8500 under the Arts Create grant which provides year-round operational support to Texas arts organizations with budgets over $50,000.  CAL is required to provide matching funds of $8500 which results in $17,000 in operational funds.  We are especially pleased to announce that a portion of this grant was provided with federal funds through the National Endowment for the Arts.  To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

For the second year in a row Nicolee McCowen wins Best Of Show with one of her large acrylic floral paintings.  With over 350 pieces of art on display, Judge Daniel Brents had a difficult job on his hands – narrowing it all down to the four top prizes.  Artists receiving the top awards were Nicolee McCowen for Best of Show, Charles Wallis for Best Floral, Laura Tangedahl for Best Landscape, and Jordan Olivares for Best Student Art.  The show was held at Christ Church in Conroe on Saturday, September 28th.  We needed the larger space, not only for the 350 pieces of art, but for the number of people that turned out.  It was a packed house!  We were especially pleased to have over 100 student entries from area high schools as well.  All ribbon winners of Honorable Mention and higher are invited to display their winning piece in the Madeley Gallery during the month of October.

This year’s show included a Chili Cookoff, with the honor of Best Chili going to Jan Saunders for her White Chili recipe.  There was also an auction for a drafting table, donated by Susan and Brook Boswell, with the proceeds going to the Adrianne Gerlach Scholarship fund.  This auction raised $200 for the fund.  Golden Artist Colors gave a great demonstration of Golden products and samples were provided to those in attendance.

All in all it was a very successful show with many thanks going to the show team headed by Golda Rader and Martha Ezell and the many, many, volunteers that worked tirelessly on this event.  We couldn’t do what we do without all our wonderful volunteers!