Pastel Society | Annual Exhibition 2026
Officially opened by Mark Cazalet, Senior Member of Faculty at the Royal Drawing School
Promotional Video featuring Kelvin Okafor and Members of the Pastel Society
The Pastel Society welcomes New Members Alex Ayliffe, Katy Bailey, Rachel Arif and Stuart Jarvis.
In The Studio Photographs
Awards and Prizes Winners 2026
Award Winners Photographs Courtesy Mark Sepple
Invited Artist Kelvin Okafor
To View The Magic of Pastel
To View ‘In Conversation with Carole Hubscher CEO of Caran d’Ache’
FBA Fundraiser – FBA Editions
Prints for a Cause
Limited Edition Prints from the Federation of British Artists
To view the full range of prints available:
https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/exhibitions-events/fundraiser-fba-editions
Pastel Society Members Tanya Avchinnikova and Ian Rawling are featured.
THE ReMARK March 2026
Where did February go? One moment sitting in a busy London Gallery; the next moment in a quiet Café in Bath, taking a breath. We await the full feedback on how the Annual exhibition went but, on most levels, it was a great success. And where it wasn’t, we will improve on that next year.
To all our visitors, we thank you for spending time viewing, buying and partaking in the activities. We should all take the rare opportunities that allow us to both view new contemporary work and to also be able to ‘physically’ join in. We were excited to inaugurate The Studio Prize and we hope that this will continue in years to come. The work of the first two winners whose work caught our eye, by Pauline Hazelwood and Peter Wild, are shown here whilst the gallery of all the other work photographed during the exhibition is to be found in our news section.
To all those that made a ‘sealed bid’, thank you, and to all those that are in the process of collecting their painting after a successful bid, we hope you will enjoy the work in years to come knowing that all the money goes to ensuring that The Society can function and that the AGBI can help less fortunate artists.
To our new members, congratulations. All existing members know from experience that it is part of a journey that is unpredictable and often needs perseverance to achieve. Now with PS after your name, welcome as another equal member of The Society and to another active part of your journey.
To all existing members, thank you for all your contributions in whatever way you were able to do so. We all know that cost, time, distance and ability are all factors that make this both a challenging and exciting event but we hope it was enjoyable. Please think about any individual or overall ideas that would be worth considering next year and let me know when you are ready.
But now, what is next? Jane Hodgson and her team are now fully committed to preparing for what will hopefully be known in years to come as The Pastel Society Roadshow. All everyone needs to do for now is to ‘Save the Date’ in your diaries;
The Pastel Society Roadshow 14-27 July 2027
To our Friends, please keep the work and ideas coming. We realise we have struggled to organise some events recently and that we may not appear to action some suggestions immediately, but we take every good idea seriously. Regional PS artists & workshops are a current preoccupation and improved ‘audio’ in the Mall Galleries is an item to be addressed for next year.
Finally, some work sent to us by David Watts, a long-time Friend and previous exhibitor in our annual exhibition, is shown here. Not all the pastel or dry media work we receive will be shown, but if you want the chance to have to get it shown, you first have to try.
Good painting. Simon B. Hodges VPPS
info.thepastelsociety@gmail.com
’24 Hours from Tulsa’ by David Watts
Featured artist
Kevin Line PS
Artist’s Statement:
I have always found that what I observe is more interesting than what I imagine. Portraiture is my natural home as an artist. It enables me to study people. Great portraits can be looked at again and again and still yield something new and fresh with each viewing. They represent a moment of truth as seen by the artist. The way a personality is captured can tell us something about the subject, the artist, ourselves and the human race all at once.
‘Being an Artist’ is, I believe, a condition that could be described as a state of slow looking. To draw one has to observe the subject and do so intimately. In effect, drawing gives you the license to stare at something, or someone, in a way that might normally be considered socially unacceptable. Through drawing you can hone observational skills and through observation comes comprehension and knowledge.
Drawing is a non-verbal thinking process. It frees up thought. It is time consuming. but it is also time slowing, isolating but self fulfilling at the same time. For me it is a part of my life, but also a metaphor for how life should be – everything in its place, every pattern clear, every rhyme exact and every goal near. I have always thought with a pencil in my hand and that is vital to me and who I am.
