Galveston Art League features pastels painter in March

​In March, painter Mary Vinnedge headlines as Featured Artist at the Galveston Art League Gallery,
2117A Postoffice St. in Galveston. She paints using the dry, chalk-like medium of pastels, which are
rubbed onto textured paper. Vinnedge’s work shows a wide range of subject matter: birds, coastal
scenes, insects, plants and more.
She will have about 20 paintings for sale throughout the month at the league’s gallery, which is open
noon-6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Her works are presented as part of a Galveston Art League member
show that includes dozens of additional pieces by league members. For folks who can’t get to the gallery
in person, photographs of artwork in this show will be posted and sold at
www.GalvestonArtLeague.com, with easy credit card checkout, starting around March 6.
Vinnedge first tried pastels during a fifth-grade art lesson and was pleased by the soft quality of the
fawn she painted. But she didn’t touch pastels again for more than 20 years. Then in her 30s, she heard
about a pastels portrait class coming up in Mesquite, Texas, where she lived at the time. She enrolled
and did paintings of her three young daughters.

Another long hiatus from art followed. As a mom with a journalism career at newspapers such as The
Dallas Morning News as well as national and regional magazines in Texas and New Jersey, she stayed so
busy that art wasn’t a priority. “Between stressful, deadline-filled jobs and a ton of kids’ activities and
appointments, there just wasn’t time,” Vinnedge says of this break, which lasted about 25 years.
But art was still on her mind when she moved to Galveston in 2015. The first opportunity was at
Galveston College. “Suzanne Peterson was teaching drawing in night classes,” Vinnedge says, “and I
started with that. I also took a watercolor class from Suzanne. I still considered pastels to be my medium
of choice, though.”
Vinnedge explains that one reason she loves pastels is that there’s no drying time. “I’m impatient and
like to keep going when I’m in the zone. Another advantage of pastels is that you can easily alter a
painting as you work on it by erasing or covering existing strokes with a new layer of pigment. In fact,
even years later you can revise a pastels painting.”
As it turned out, two Galveston Art League members would instruct Vinnedge in pastels techniques. She
enrolled in two workshops taught by Pam Hatch and four class series with Gay Paratore at the Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). “I had seen terrific pieces by Pam and Gay during Art League exhibits,
so I knew they could help me get better.”
Vinnedge officially retired from her remote-work day job in mid-2016, although she still does freelance
writing and editing on a part-time basis. “After I left my full-time job, my husband said I’d better find
some volunteer work because I’d be too antsy otherwise. During an ArtWalk, I talked to a Galveston Art
League volunteer about the organization and joined shortly afterward. The league is totally run by
volunteers, and I do marketing, advertising and PR.”
When she joined, Vinnedge said she knew very little about the organization. “One big thing I’ve learned
is that quite a few non-artists are members. At every league event, you can talk to people with all sorts
of interests and backgrounds – dentists, business owners, librarians, surfers, teachers, engineers, and
birdwatchers, for instance. I look forward to league events and have gone to preview parties, taken one
charter trip, attended three fundraiser galas, and enrolled in several workshops. The workshops, galas
and most of the trips are open to the public, but the preview parties are a members-only perk.”
Galveston Art League, founded in 1914, advocates on behalf of visual artists in Galveston County,
Houston and the entire Southeast Texas gulf region. A general membership costs $40 per year, which is
tax deductible. If you’d like to join or see the league’s scheduled events, please visit
www.GalvestonArtLeague.com or email [email protected].