Jeff receives two awards at National Juried exhibit in New Hampshire

On Saturday, September 19, 2009, The Pastel Society of New Hampshire opened its 2009 National Juried Show “It’s Pastel” at the Discover Portsmouth Center Gallery, 8 Islington Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. More than 250 works were submitted for inclusion in the exhibition, of which 77 were selected.

The event was attended by approximately 100 artists and their families, friends, members of the New Hampshire group, and many arts patrons. The evening was capped by the presentation of nearly $6,000 in awards, consisting of artist products and cash. The exhibition will conclude on October 19, 2009, and the gallery is open for viewing seven days a week from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

I was fortunate to have two pieces of my work selected for the show, and even more fortunate to have both receive awards. “Summer Repose (Belfast, Maine)” received the Richeson Pastel Award, a product award of Unison Pastels, while my second piece “Late Afternoon Surf (Bass Rock / Gloucester, MA)” received a cash award which was donated by The Vermont Pastel Society.

It was a nice evening, enjoyed and shared with family and friends. I met many new people and look forward to their friendship. If you get the opportunity, please visit the gallery and check out my work as well as the work of many of the other fine artists included in the show.

As always, thanks for your support, and hope to see you out and about in 2009 and beyond.

Ohio Elementary School Honors Artist Jeff Fioravanti for Upcoming School Year

I'm pleased to announce that the Morgan Elementary School in Hamilton, Ohio has honored me as one of six living artists the school will study in their weekly art class for the 2009-2010 school year.

Now one might wonder, how does an artist from Massachusetts become part of an art class at an elementary school in Ohio?

Well, as a visual artist with a web site, I receive a number of queries through my contact page.Now the down side to that is you also get a lot of spam and scams, so you have to be skeptical at times when you open up those queries.

Sometimes though, you get something that is rather unique and special. I’ve gotten contacts from relatives whom I had never met, developed friendships and perhaps the most interesting thus far has been the contact from Ms. Jenna Rahrig, the art teacher at Morgan Elementary.

When I queried Ms. Rahrig back, this is what she had to say:

“This is my 4th year teaching and I decided 3 years ago to name my tables in my class after an artist. I started off using artists such as Picasso, Degas, Pollock etc. But the students always asked me if the artists were still alive and I always had to reply with a no. So last year, I taught my 4th grade class about 6 different Ohio Artists since the students study Ohio History in Social Studies.

This year however I decided to combine my "Happy Birthday to the Artist of the Month" bulletin board with my classroom tables. I was looking on the internet and http://arthistory.about.com/od/artistsbdays/l/bl_feb.htm when I found your name listed. I investigated further and decided that Jeff was the type of artist that I wanted to share with my students.

And so, the artist from Lynn goes to Ohio to be admired, at least for this year, by 350 grade school children. A nice gig if you can get it! I am certainly happy to be a part of their school year! Thanks for the support, and hope to see you on the painting trail/scene soon.