Once again, I had a painting accepted into the annual exhibition of the Pastel Society of America, "Enduring Brilliance", a national art show. pastelsocietyofamerica.org The event is held at The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South in NYC in the historic Tilden Mansion. The PSA received 1,298 submissions and only 178 paintings were selected for this exhibition. My painting, "Amaryllis with Juan Gris", was selected. I did not win a prize but getting into the show was enough for me! My painting came about as a result of a happy accident. The inspiration for my painting came from a Juan Gris painting, 'Still Life with Checkered Tablecloth'. I saw this painting in an email, I loved it. Later I saw the actual painting at the Met (see photo below) and I bought a print. The print had a place of honor in my studio. Months later, my very generous friend, Nina Turkin, gave me an amaryllis. The amaryllis bloomed with huge red flowers. I wanted to photograph the flowers, but I needed a background. I placed the flowers in front of the poster and realized I was looking at something wonderful. The painting came from that combination (see painting below), but I incorporated the artist's name and birthdate into the background as homage to Juan Gris. (I also checked with an artist friend, Susan McCartney, who is a docent a the Palmer Museum, to ask if using the Gris as the background for my painting was an acceptable thing to do and she assured me that it was fine.) I hope that my painting will make others wish to see the original Juan Gris painting, too. Note: Juan Gris was a student of Picasso in the era of cubism, a 'movement in modern art that emphasized the geometrical depiction of natural forms'. Cubists did not show just one point of view but multiple views of the same object.