FALC General Meeting, Social Room, Quinlan Center, 10185 Stelling Rd., Cupertino

Open to the public. Guests welcome.

Claire Verbiest - Pastels and Watercolor

Artist's Statement

"I paint because I must and I am a painter most of the time. My goal is to create indelible images that transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. My desire is to represent the absolute truth of what I see and to capture the moment in time that best portrays my subject. My obsession is to charm the eye with intense color, dramatic light and strong design."

Claire Schroeven Verbiest is a Belgian native who lived in the Congo and in Germany before moving to San Jose, California with her husband and their two children. An award-winning artist and a signature member of several art societies, Verbiest is considered one of the finest watercolor and pastel artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1999, her painting “Haute Cuisine” received the High Winds Medal at the American Watercolor Society’s annual exhibition. She is well known for her lively, crisp and truthful depictions of people, landscapes, flowers and objects and for her distinctive use of color. She teaches watercolor and pastel painting classes and conducts painting workshops throughout the US, Canada and Europe. She frequently serves as a juror for local art shows. The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California displayed 29 of her original pastel paintings in May and June 2007.

Panels are available for rent all year at $5/weekend for members and $7 / weekend for non-members. For panel rental and availability please email Carrie Zeidman at czeidman@elanstudios.net or call her at 408-741-5809.

Open Studios: Members of the FALC Board and volunteer positions get first preference for panel rental during Open Studios. Please inform Carrie Zeidman about your panel request and she will let you know about the status of your panel request by January 30th.

FALC has been fortunate this year to welcome many new members, and with our annual art show coming up in September, we can look forward to many others being interested in joining our club. One of the questions that we get asked the most from current members and those who are interested in joining is about our criteria for acceptance. Our process is clear and simple. Anyone who wants to join needs to bring three pieces of art to one of our meetings. The members present at that meeting will vote, and, if a majority of people approve, that person will be accepted, pay their dues, and become an exhibiting member.

The question about criteria is not so simple. We all know that Art is subjective. Sometimes we benefit from that subjectivity, and sometimes we don't. No one can tell you what good Art is or isn't.

As a juried club, FALC strives to maintain a certain standard of proficiency since organizations that invite us to exhibit assume a certain selectivity. One rule of thumb commonly used when voting in new members is to ask yourself this question - Would I like to exhibit with this work? Would this new work add to the reputation of the club? Just as we support each other by bringing our best work to shows and by providing new, fresh work for the painting changes at Quinlan, we can use our Artists' eyes to make decisions about what work will be hanging beside us at the next show.

Voting "no" during the jurying-in process does not bar an artist from joining the club. The artist can still be a member, just not an "exhibiting member". Non-exhibiting members can attend demos and meetings that provide an environment for their art to grow. As they continue to develop their skills, they are welcome to jury in at a later date.