Mary Vinnedge, Galveston Art League’s Featured Artist during March, paints in pastels, which are chalk-like sticks of pigment that are applied to textured paper. Her paintings reflect diverse subjects, among them coastal scenes, birds, flowers, insects and still lifes.
Vinnedge will have about 20 paintings for sale this month at the Art League Gallery, 2117A Postoffice St. in downtown Galveston. Hours are 12:00pm to 6:00pm Fridays-Sundays. This March exhibit featuring her paintings and dozens of other works by league members also will be posted online at www.GalvestonArtLeague.com, with easy credit card checkout.
Although she first experimented with pastels as a fifth-grader and liked the soft quality of the fawn picture she painted, Vinnedge didn’t touch pastels again for more than 20 years. As a 30-something, she heard that a pastels artist in Mesquite, where she lived, was teaching community center classes in portraiture. She took a few classes and painted her three young daughters.
Then she took another long break. Parental responsibilities and her journalism career – at newspapers such as The Dallas Morning News as well as national and regional magazines in Texas and New Jersey – pushed art off her radar for another 25 years or so. “Between stressful, deadline-filled jobs and getting kids to sports, school, church and choral events – plus doctor and orthodontist appointments for my girls – there weren’t enough hours in the day,” Vinnedge says.
After moving to Galveston in 2015, she explored opportunities to study art on the island. “Suzanne Peterson was teaching drawing at Galveston College, and I started with that. I also took a watercolor class from Suzanne, but I still considered pastels to be my medium of choice.”
Vinnedge explains that “I’m impatient, so I like that I don’t have to wait for a pastels painting to dry. Another advantage of pastels is that you can easily correct and improve a painting as you work on it. In fact, even years later you can revise a pastels painting.”
Two Art League members turned out to be excellent pastels instructors. Vinnedge enrolled in a couple of workshops taught by Pam Hatch and later took four sessions of classes with Gay Paratore at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). “I had seen Pam’s and Gay’s outstanding work during exhibits at the Galveston Art League Gallery, so I knew I could improve my skills by taking their classes.
“Eventually I mustered the courage to chat up an Art League volunteer about the organization during an ArtWalk,” Vinnedge says. “I joined shortly after that and now do marketing for the league as a volunteer. I am impressed that the entire organization is run by volunteers and always has been. I’ve enjoyed every Art League event I’ve attended – a trip, preview parties, several workshops, and the annual fundraiser galas. A lot of non-artists join as patrons, so you meet interesting people – business owners, teachers, librarians, dentists, surfers, gardeners, engineers – at league events.”
Vinnedge emphasizes how the 108-year-old Art League, with its excellent gallery and shopper-friendly website, provides exposure for emerging artists in Galveston, Houston and the entire Southeast Texas gulf region. “The league has many excellent artists,” she adds. “I have learned a tremendous amount and received encouragement from member artists at league gatherings and at the league’s inexpensive workshops, which are open to the public.”
Vinnedge holds a professional membership in Galveston Art League, which has various membership levels; general membership is $40 per year. Both artist and patron memberships are tax deductible because the league is a nonprofit organization. To join the league, check out its upcoming events, or learn more about the league’s long history as an island institution, please visit www.GalvestonArtLeague.com or email gallery2117@gmail.com.
