33rd CPSA International Exhibition Awards 2025 – Colored Pencil Society of America

Mansion at Strathmore Gallery, N. Bethesda, MD
June 14–August 2, 2025

Juror—Dr. Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC

Juror’s Statement:

During the last quarter of the 1900s, Clement Greenberg declared that advanced art had no place for drawing, subject matter, pictorial illusion, narrative content of any kind, or any relationship at all to the visible world, leaving only a kind of cool abstraction for “advanced” artists to pursue. The Washington [D.C.] Color Pencil School defied Greenberg’s rules and did the opposite—the same can be said for all the artists who entered their work in the Colored Pencil Society of America’s 33^rd International Exhibition this year. I looked at the 443 works I was to jury from, and did not find one that could truly be called abstract, Instead, there is a kind of miraculous realism that pervades this exhibition.

Though they display a variety of techniques and subject matter, what they share is an unreal attention to the tiniest detail coupled with breathtaking chromatic orchestral effects. They are almost universally small in scale, but they create vast spaces. For those viewers new to the medium, get ready for some big surprises in small packages!

Jack Rasmussen, PhD
4/18/25

View 33rd International Exhibition
2025 award donors

Each image is copyrighted by its individual artist. The use of any image from this site is prohibited without prior written permission from the artist. A red dot after the title indicates the artwork was sold during the exhibition.

Best of Show & CIPPY Award $5000
Tracy Frein, CPSA, CPX (IL)
Song Birds of a Different Feather

CPSA District Chapters
Award for Exceptional Achievement $2300
Kimberly Raboin, CPSA (MI)
Hive Mind

Patron & Chapter
Award for Exceptional Merit $1200
Bonnie Sheckter, CPSA (Canada)
(Dis)connected 🔴

BLICK Art Materials
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Christine Flanagan, CPSA (FL)
Loveliness

Creative Art Materials / Caran d’Ache
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Deborah Maklowski, CPSA, CPX (MD)
Brandywine Blues 🔴

Holbein Yoshio Kawami
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Mary Carlson, CPSA, CPX (AZ)
Entrance at AZ Sonora Desert Museum

Legion Paper
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Kathryn Hansen, CPSA (CA)
Serial Chiller 🔴

Prismacolor
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Linda Lucas Hardy, CPSA, CPX (TX)
When the Sun, the Moon and All the Stars Come Together

Ann Kullberg’s COLOR Magazine
Award for Outstanding Achievement $1000
Christina Connor (SC)
Earth Laughs in Color

District Chapters
Award for Distinction $500
Pauline Clay, CPSA, CPX (VA)
Nature’s Ice Sculpture 🔴

District Chapters
Award for Distinction $500
Sharon Hester, CPSA (FL)
Sun Gleaner

District Chapters
Award for Distinction $500
Pat Monical (VA)
Garden Flames
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Awards of same value are equal in rank.