On Saturday, June 14, the Colored Pencil Society of America opened their 33rd annual international juried exhibition at the Mansion at Strathmore.
“We are always delighted to return to Mansion at Strathmore,” said CPSA director Anda Chance. “It is our third CPSA exhibition in this beautiful gallery. Our first exhibition at the Strathmore was in 2007, we returned for a second time in 2017, and now in 2025!”
The exhibition included artworks from colored pencil artists in the United States and beyond, featuring delicate still lives, scenes of daily life and intimate portraits. Many are noted for their remarkable commitment to photorealism, capturing the individual strands of fur on a German Shepherd’s neck or the reflections of light in a shop window displaying eerily lifelike doll heads.
“They call the work paintings rather than drawings,” said gallery director Lesley Morris. “It uses all the same techniques that a painter would use. If you think about the elements of art — the composition has to be right, the color, the texture, the size and perspective, all of that has to be fine quality. Just like a painting, you can use different approaches to the colored pencil. Some artists actually melt the colored pencil and apply it with the brush, while some are using the pencil to draw with.”
Founded in 1990, the Colored Pencil Society of America is a nonprofit arts organization that celebrates the craft of colored pencil artwork by sponsoring exhibitions and workshops. CPSA also contributes to product development through their ongoing colored pencil lightfastness testing, which measures how colored pencil pigments react to UV rays in order to develop pencils and related tools that don’t change color or fade in sunlight.
In addition to the exhibition, CPSA organizes an annual convention for colored pencil artists at the end of the yearly gallery show. The convention will take place from July 31 to August 1 at the Mansion and feature workshops, seminars and a silent auction.
With a focus on displaying master works, CPSA offers over $20,000 in cash rewards to artists annually to sponsor the continued development of colored pencil as a craft. This year, the juror who selected pieces was Jack Rasmussen, director and curator at the American University Museum at Katzen Arts Center.
“It was delightful to have him come here. He’s a very versatile artist on his own, and he knows what it takes to work in this fine area of master colored pencil artists,” said Morris.
The exhibition runs from June 14 to Aug 2. The gallery is free and open to all Tuesdays through Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A free curator’s tour will take place on June 28 at 1 p.m. Registry for the end-of-show convention is currently open and will close July 10.
