2017 Watercolor Society of Indiana Juried Show

© Robin Edmundson, 'White Roofs',  watercolor, 10 x 14 inches.   Framed, 18 x 22 inches.  

This piece was just juried into this year's Watercolor Society of Indiana's member show.   The juror this year was Barbara Nechis.  I'm pretty excited!   I have now achieved signature status in the Watercolor Society of Indiana.  [This means I can sign the letters, WSI after my signature on my paintings.]

The WSI show will hang at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from October 8 - December 3, 2017 in the gallery across the hall from the gift shop.

IMA Exhibit Opening

Last Sunday was the opening of the juried member show of the Watercolor Society of Indiana [WSI] at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  The show continues until December 2, 2016 in the community gallery across the hall from the gift shop.

That's me standing next to my painting in the gallery.  [Here's the post about my painting.]

It's not often that museums do shows of all watercolor.   Watercolor isn't as tough as oil or bronze and museums keep the important pieces locked away in climate controlled rooms.   So -- It's a real treat to see 45 works in one gallery.

I spent a couple of hours trolling the walls admiring every single piece.   The quality of art in the show was astounding.   The juror was John Salminen, an internationally known artist and recipient of over 200 awards.   I felt very very lucky to have been included in this group.   There were portraits, cityscapes, abstracts, still lifes, etc.   The collection showed the full range of modern and traditional watercolor styles.   45 paintings were chosen from 137 submissions.

Truth be told, there was a big part of me that was sure that my painting had been included just to make the other ones look better by comparison.   I don't have a lot of confidence in the quality of my work.

Imagine how overjoyed I was to see that my painting is one of two which were placed facing the entrance to the exhibit and are first to be seen in the collection.   That's mine on the left.   [The one on the right won a huge award.]  Perhaps my work is better than I think it is.

The museum does all the hanging and arrangement themselves.  WSI sends the photos and sizes and the museum staff takes over. Things were mostly arranged by subject.   The wall to the left of my painting held the rest of the landscapes.

On the way home, we all chose the paintings we loved most.   There were so many fabulous choices. [My favorite is the one with the swan.]  The gallery is in the admission free area of the museum.  If you get a chance to go see this show, it would be well worth your time.   I'd love to hear what your favorite pieces are.

Taking Some Risks

In all the art books I've been reading lately, I find a section on risk taking.  

Over and over again, I'm reading:  Learn the techniques.  Show up at the easel.  Take some risks.

For me, this means painting even on days when I'm not in the flow.  Painting one more painting even when the last three are awful [and I'm not being modest here.  A lot of them are awful.]  Also it means showing my work to actual humans who don't live here.  Also it means sending my work to competitions even when I know the quality of other applicants' work is way beyond me and that I'm nowhere in their league.

So I showed the painting above to some people at the local watercolor society and they suggested I enter it into the juried show of the Watercolor Society of Indiana.  

Two new risks here:

1. Joining the Watercolor Society of Indiana.
2. Sending my work in to a juried show.   

A juried show is where a judge looks at photos of all the entered works and chooses 30 of the best ones to be featured in a show at a museum or gallery.  The Watercolor Society of Indiana has a juried show every year to showcase some of the amazing talent of its members. The show hangs for 2 months at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.   At the opening, some of the pieces get additional awards.   Here's a link to the award winning art from 2015.   At the top of that page, you'll see a link to all the pieces juried into that show.   It's pretty darn good art.

So I sent it in.   And finally the letter came.   And it said my painting was accepted.  

So that was good.  

As in Whoo-HOO!  

This painting will hang at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from Oct 9 - Dec 4, 2016.   I hope you get to see it there.  [It's prettier in person.]   There are new risks to take [like showing up to the opening] but my new goal is to Just Show Up.   I will show up at the opening, look at the really fabulous art that will be there, hopefully get to know some of the best watercolor artists in the state and smile, and listen and learn.   It will be a grand experience.