Northwest Watercolor Society Watermarks 2013 Exhibit

I had the pleasure of attending the artists' reception for the North West Watercolor Society's Watermarks 2013 Exhibition at Tsuga Gallery in Bothell WA on Thursday evening. My painting, "Emergent Eagle", was jurored into the exhibition by juror Michael Reardon. The Exhibition was well attended including friends I have not seen in decades--what a treat; and the Sandy O'Conner, the wife of a university colleague at the University of Washington.

The reason for this blog is to share some of Michael Reardon's comments and criteria for selecting the fifty works out of over 250 submissions. One criteria that was dominant is the understatement of color in many of the award winners--subtle color, strong design and strong simplicity--a more subdued palette. This puts the emphasis on composition and value as contrasted to strong color schemes. Color was certainly present and the juror in my opinion did a masterful job of selecting a nice diversity of work and approaches. What a treat as this is my third work selected for exhibition by the NWWS.

i am working on a piece at the moment in which i am trying to eliminate many shapes from my sketch and seek to combine and cluster major shapes with colored grays, leaving the brighter and intense colors for the center of interest. we will see by next week.
Keep painting. ron k