PALM COAST, Fla. – A vintage sewing machine draped in lace. A beloved puppy resting in a wicker chair. A wide-eyed calf encountering a dachshund for the first time. A Florida scrub-jay captured in delicate shades of blue.
Each piece in the Colored Pencil Society of America District Chapter 117 exhibition begins with a personal connection. Together, the works demonstrate how artists can transform an everyday pencil into a tool for realism, storytelling and emotional expression.
The chapter celebrated the exhibition’s opening reception on Sunday, September 13 at Expressions Art Gallery on Colbert with its first hybrid art show and the presentation of its inaugural Schumaker-Jevons Award.
Founded in Palm Coast 21 years ago by retired Flagler County teacher Hanneke Jevons and Bill Schumaker, District Chapter 117 is part of the national Colored Pencil Society of America. Although its roots remain in the local community, the chapter now reaches artists far beyond Florida.
Chapter President Linda Metzger said the chapter’s willingness to embrace technology helped it survive—and ultimately grow—during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This chapter stayed alive because they switched to Zoom,” Metzger said. “It has been amazing. We now have almost a quarter of our members online.”
Artists and supporters participating remotely in the opening represented Canada, Washington, Idaho, Missouri, Arizona and Ohio. Others attended in person, creating an experience designed to serve those who missed gathering face-to-face while continuing to include members living outside the area.
“This was our test to see if a hybrid would work,” Metzger said.
The exhibition did not have a formal theme. Instead, participating artists were invited to submit their best colored-pencil work. The show was also open to artists from outside the chapter.
For Jevons, the exhibition represents how far the medium has come since she and Schumaker organized the Palm Coast chapter more than two decades ago.
“I think colored pencil is the most wonderful medium because I love to draw,” Jevons said.
Jevons lived in the area beginning in 1980 and spent nearly three decades teaching in the Flagler County school system. Before retiring in 2010, she taught colored-pencil techniques to high school students and encouraged them to recognize drawing as a foundational artistic skill.
She believes creating art by hand preserves a deeply personal connection between the artist, the subject and the finished piece.
“It is a creative process that comes from within yourself,” Jevons said. “You have a feeling, you have a vision, or you’re inspired by something in nature. There’s nothing like the creative process. It is the same thing as creating music. You create it through your body, through a pencil and onto paper.”
One of her former students later returned to tell her that the drawing and colored-pencil skills learned in her classroom had contributed to his professional success and an opportunity with Pixar.
“I’ll never forget that,” Jevons said. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s so cool. He actually made it.’”
Jevons has achieved signature status through the national organization, an honor awarded after an artist has had three works accepted into its national exhibition. She has been accepted into five national shows during the past decade. The highly competitive exhibition may attract 600 to 700 entries, with approximately 120 selected.
Her hope is that visitors examining the District Chapter 117 exhibition will be surprised by the sophistication and versatility of the medium.
“I hope that you walk away thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is done with colored pencil,’” Jevons said.
Artists can work with traditional colored pencils, watercolor pencils, Inktense pencils and a variety of papers and surfaces. Different techniques allow them to create everything from soft, impressionistic backgrounds to fur, feathers, lace and reflective surfaces rendered in extraordinary detail.
Inaugural Award Honors Dedication
The opening reception also marked the presentation of the first Schumaker-Jevons Award, established in recognition of the founders’ 21 years of service to the chapter.
Jevons selected Jacksonville artist Dale Waley as the inaugural recipient, honoring Waley’s artistic excellence and dedication to colored pencil.
“She was selected because of the quality of her work, which reflects the quality of colored-pencil art, and the fact that she has been devoted to the medium since 2014 through our chapter,” Jevons said. “She is a true artist. She works every single afternoon on colored-pencil art, and that’s what she loves.”
Waley’s exhibited works include a vintage sewing machine and an intricately rendered arrangement featuring lace and flowers. The subjects reflect an evolution in her own life and artistic inspiration.
“I was a very contemporary person in my younger years, and as I’ve gotten older, all of a sudden I’ve become attached to very vintage things,” Waley said. “The sewing machine—I actually have that in my house. The lace and the flowers are things I’ve come to love over the years.”
Waley began working with colored pencils about 15 years ago after seeing an image of birds created in the medium while searching for artistic inspiration online.
“It just touched me,” she said. “I immediately thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’”
Her search for instruction led her to Jevons, who was teaching a class in St. Augustine. Waley traveled from Jacksonville to participate and never looked back.
“I never stepped into another medium again,” she said. “One of the reasons I particularly like it is that you can get such great detail. You can make the tiniest marks.”
Despite her years of commitment, Waley said she had no idea she would receive the chapter’s inaugural honor.
“I thought I wouldn’t win anything this year because the work here is so fabulous,” she said. “But to win this was something special. I love this club, so it was extremely special.”
Her advice to aspiring artists is to accept that success rarely comes on the first attempt.
“I couldn’t do it either in the beginning,” Waley said. “My trash can is fuller than my walls. You don’t start off knowing how. You start with the desire to do it.”
Art That Captures a Connection
Metzger, a neurologically based physical therapist and pet portrait artist from the Orlando area, has worked in colored pencil for four years. She describes it as “a very analog activity in a very digital world.”
Unlike the constant movement and brief distractions of digital media, colored-pencil work demands patience.
“This is a slow medium,” Metzger said. “It’s a mindful medium.”
Among her exhibited pieces is a portrait of Theo, her neighbor’s puppy. The artwork began as a trade after her neighbor created an elaborate cake for Metzger’s daughter-in-law’s baby shower. Metzger photographed Theo sitting in a wicker chair and created a portrait in return.
Another piece captures an unexpected meeting between Werner, a calf with striking blue eyes, and Lulu, a 5½-month-old dachshund. Metzger photographed the moment Werner pulled back his head and widened his eyes at the unfamiliar little dog.
Metzger often begins an animal portrait with its eyes.
“That really tells a story,” she said.
Her work also includes “Bold In Blue,” a portrait of a Florida scrub-jay created on drafting film. The threatened bird is found only in Florida’s rapidly disappearing scrub habitat. The piece also holds personal meaning for Metzger’s family and will ultimately be given to her sister.
Whether portraying a cherished pet, an endangered bird or a treasured object from the past, the artists’ works reveal the emotional possibilities within the medium.
“You can do it anywhere,” Waley said. “You can load up those pencils and the piece of paper you’re working on and take it with you. It’s so relaxing.”
The free exhibition will remain on display through the end of October at Expressions Art Gallery on Colbert in Palm Coast, offering visitors an opportunity to look closely—and perhaps reconsider what can be created with a simple colored pencil.
