Melody Asbury of Woodbury will be demonstrating in pastel at the next meeting of The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN). The program will be on Wednesday, September 11, at 7:30 pm, and Ms Asbury’s subject will be an animal.

The program-meeting is open to the public, free of charge. It will be in the lower meeting room of Newtown Meeting House, 31 Main Street.

Art has always been an important part of Ms Asbury’s life. She started painting at Ridgewood Art Institute in New Jersey while in her teens, specializing in portraiture. She continued her studies at Wesleyan University and then Dayton Art Institute.

Her wide range of subjects includes research and paintings of American Indians, figurative and portrait paintings, as well as wild life and farm animals, which was prompted by her involvement at Ellis Clark regional Agri-Science and Technology Center in Woodbury.

Ms Asbury was awarded a prize for her work at Hospice Regional Show and also the Connecticut Pastel Society Members Show in 2008. Three years later she won the Best in Show-Farm Award at the Flanders Artist Day show.

She has recently been designated a Signature Member of The Society of Animal Artists based in New York City and she specializes in animal portraiture. She is a signature member of Connecticut Pastel Society.

She is currently celebrating a one-person show at The Burnham Library in Bridgewater and she will be represented in a show Art for Animals at Washington Art Association in October.

Reservations are not needed for SCAN programs, but additional information is available at SCANart.org.