Ray Hassardhonored at PSA. His pastel City Lights was included in the Pastel Society of America’s annual juried show “Enduring Brilliance” and was given the Great American Artworks award. It is among several works selected for an exhibit at the Butler Institute.. Ray participated in the Cape Ann Plein Air competition for the third year where he won Peoples’ Choice Award for his pastel Mrs. Currier’s Hydrangeas. The Degas Pastel Society in Louisiana accepted two of Ray’s pastels where Funke’s Greenhouse garnered a purchase award.
City Lights
Pastel on Pastelmat Board
19″ x 13″
Studio 2/05/12
Oil Painters of America opened its Eastern Regional Show October 28th at McBride Gallery in Annapolis, MD. Show continues through November 25th, 2018. Over 3,000 paintings were submitted to the selection committee.
Marybeth Karaus has been named a Third Place choice with her gorgeous floral still life “Cyclamen” while three other CAC members — Tom Bluemlein, Gail Morrison and Donald Schuster — have their paintings hanging in the prestigious show of over 120 paintings.
Karaus, Bluemlein and Morrison are each also designated Signature OPA members.
“Art Comes Alive” exhibition sponsored by Art Design Consultants has accepted paintings from eight members of Cincinnati Art Club this year. Josie Gearhart, Ann Headley, Grant Hesser, Helmut Kientz, Carol MacConnell, David Mack, Donald Schuster, and Trish Weeks. The exhibit is open through November 30.
Prestigious Outdoor Event Invites Ray Hassard to Return
The mission of Cape Ann Plein Air Competition is to preserve and promote Cape Ann’s legacy as the birthplace of American Plein Air painting. So it is no surprise that Ray Hassard was once again invited back to this prestige event in the Cape Ann communities of Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the Sea.
Ray’s main medium is pastel, but he also works in oils, acrylics, and gouache. He is widely regarded for his urban scenes featuring such figures as on-duty police and iron workers doing construction.
Shown here is the painting he completed at the competition (Low Tide at Beacon Marine, 12” x 12”, pastel). After painting it on a narrow floating dock which rocked when anyone walked past, Ray realized the great benefit of solid ground.
Ray was born in Freeport NY. He studied at Pratt Institute, and moved to Buffalo NY in 1977 where urban landscapes became his primary theme. Ray won several commissions, most notably one to create and install a large wall piece for the subway the city was building. In 1987 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, much to his surprise, and decided it was a pretty good place to be.
Ray is a Signature member of the Cincinnati Art Club and the Pastel Society of America; MidAmerica Pastel Society has designated him Master Pastelist. He is in the Master Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies. In 2013 he was Artist in Residence in Dinan, France for the month of June. His work appears in recent pastel, acrylic and drawing publications from NorthLight Books.
He participates in juried plein air competitions often and has won top awards in New Harmony IN, Richmond VA and San Angelo TX. In the last three years he has painted in Plein Air Easton, Wayne PA Plein Air Festival, Mountain Maryland (Cumberland), Bucks County Plein Air, Plein Air Maui, Finger Lakes Plein Air, and was awards judge for the first Cape Ann Plein Air event in 2016. He is the Chair of the Ohio Plein Air Society’s annual competition this year and 2019. It will take place Sept 27-30 and is open to all with no jurying in and will be based in Mariemont. For more information, go to http://ohiopleinairsociety.com/.
Ray received Third Place at the Club’s ViewPoint 49. He loves painting, gardening, travelling, dancing and rollercoasters, maybe not in that exact order.
![Grant Hesser, Roebling Bridge, Oil on canvas, 12x16 2000 300dpi[4967].jpg](https://storytellingartistblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/9830f-grant-hesser-roebling-bridge-oil-on-canvas-12x16-2000-300dpi4967.jpg)
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