This is me and Paul Kasmir at the Salmagundi club in New York City – photo taken by our third amigo, Janet Belich.
Taking the Baltimore Watercolor Society’s bus trip to NYC to see the AWS exhibit with friends was a great, fun adventure.
AWS Exhibition – Subject and Style
101 paintings were on display, with styles and subjects ranging from realistic Alligators to Zany cats, but the show was dominated by figurative and landscape scenes.
John Salminen has set the standard for city scenes and was the top winner again this year. Since he’s done so well, the painting of city scenes has flourished across the nation and AWS had them in abundance, especially in the award winners.
And Where Have All The Flowers Gone? There were no florals at the show this year. As a subject, flowers are the kiss of death for artists entering juried shows, but there’s usually a token flower somewhere. Not this year.
Is Photorealism Dead in Watercolor?
Since the fiasco with the top AWS winner a few years back, photorealism has been missing from many juried exhibits. (Maybe we should put it on a milk carton.) Painterly is what you see now and while it’s beautiful, I would have liked to see one photorealistic piece. Still life also, was almost absent, with only one or two small works.
Transparent VS Opaque and Does Size Matter?
There was a nice mix of tradition transparent watercolor and completely opaque paintings. Fritz Briggs, also on our bus trip, won an award for his traditional piece, done on a quarter sheet. While most of the winners were still full sheet or larger, there were more small pieces than I’ve seen in the past few years, and less ’big’ framing. With oversized shipping costs at an all time high, maybe everyone is cutting back a bit.
New Talent – There were definately a lot more asian artists making a splash at AWS this year, and they can really paint. 65 of the exhibiting artists were AWS signature members - I think, fewer than other years, with a bit more ‘new blood’ getting in. Maybe one day, I’ll be there myself. In the meantime, congratulations to everyone who did get in – it was an impressive show.
Hey Debi,
Thoughtful and good insights about the show, the whole day was enjoyable and say hello to Janet when you see her and tell her thanks.The drive back was also fun and informative and it nice to hear your views about the watercolor world and the possible new directions for you? Thanks again for letting me tag along.I should have known you would beat me to the punch with your post do you sleep:0)!!
Thanks you for sharing this with us. While I am at the point of just dreaming of entering this show one day I really enjoy hearing about it.
Hi Debi !
I finally got a few (!) thoughts & photos up about the trip ! But you and Paul have done such a great job, I’m just sending folks over here. What a great day !
Hey Debi,
Thanks for the virtual tour! Nicely done and very informative. And just because the AWS Jurors screwed up a couple of years ago they shouldn’t punish the rest of us realists
Bits