Animals and Musical Instruments

Reprinted from the blog of the Scatter Joy Center for the Arts:

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On June 24, Scatter Joy’s new exhibit “Fantasy Tales” opens, featuring the work of members of the Bucks County Illustrators Society. Pat Achilles is not only one of the founders of this incredible group, she’ll be showing her work, too. Here, she shares some of the inspiration that shapes her work.

“My father was very musical and I have always loved drawing musical instruments – I’ve done a series of little animals playing instruments for greeting cards, and for years I’ve illustrated posters for the Lenape Chamber Ensemble with little musical menageries too. Strings, horns and woodwinds are beautiful in their design as well as being functional. I think that’s one reason I chose to draw the Pied Piper for ‘Fantasy Tales,’ to work a beautiful instrument into fanciful story.”

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Are you coming to the Fantasy Tales exhibit by the Bucks County Illustrators Society? Our opening reception (everyone invited!) is Friday June 24 from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the Scatter Joy Center for the Arts, 305 Horsham Rd, Horsham, PA.  More info on my blog post https://achillesportfolio.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/announcing-fantasy-tales-a-bucks-county-illustrators-society-showcase/ .

Illustration Award from Phillustration

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Art by James Bennett

I’m thrilled and honored to have received the First Place Award in Advertising art from the Phillustration 6 exhibit, hosted every year by the Philadelphia Sketch Club. The poster at left is the award certificate, with artwork by the inimitable James Bennett, whose painting of Roger Waters won Best of Show.

My husband and I attended a wonderful reception today at the Sketch Club, along with members of the PSC and the Bucks County Illustrators Society.  BCIS won other awards as well: besides his Best of Show prize, Jim Bennett also received an Honorable Mention in Self-Promotional, Cassandre Maxwell of West Chester received First Place in Editorial, Deb Hoeffner of Doylestown received Honorable Mention in Editorial, Ponder Goembel of Riegelsville received Honorable Mention in Book Illustration; and Dave Song of Doylestown received Honorable Mention in Self-Promotional.

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My illustration for the play ‘The Secret Garden,’ which won First Place in Advertising Illustration

Also on display in the exhibit is artwork by BCIS members Glenn Zimmer of North Wales, Monika Hinterwaldner and Lee Harper of Doylestown, Pam Hamilton of New Britain, Rebecca Rhodin of Lansdale and Joe Kulka of Quakertown. It’s a terrific show, featuring art by many area illustrators including Charles Santore, Bob Byrd, John O’Brien and David Brinley (who juried the show) and it runs through November 8. The Chairman of the Phillustration show is illustrator Rich Harrington, and he’s done another fantastic job.

I recommend checking out this amazing show in person, but if you can’t get to Philadelphia there is also an online gallery of the works at the Philadelphia Sketch Club website.  You can find out more about our Bucks County Illustrators Society at the BCIS website as well.

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