UPDATE ON AWS CONTROVERY

The American Watercolor Society has posted a statement on their website. There is a very thoughtful commentary on the statement and the situation by Katherine Tyrrell on her blog. By clicking on the title of this post, you will reach her blog. If you follow some of the threads, there is mentioned a place to learn about the legal ins and outs of using other material, etc. I think we all need to learn this information, especially myself. I think I am skating on thin ice photographing strangers. I need to check it out.

I'm sure you all understand that the excercises you are doing from the Frenchman photo are ineligible for competitions because it is my original photo. I am sharing it only for the purposes of learning.

While going through a few of her postings I found a very interesting artist who has been creating large portraits of controversial political and financial figures with a 'LINE AS TEXTURE" look (squiggly paint lines and drips) and then takes these paintings to a public place and has people write comments on the subject in the negative space around the head. Considering the dramatic events on Wall Street this week, this is a timely marriage of art and history in the making. He has auctioned these paintings off for major dollars. The blog address is below. Be sure and click on the individual images to read what people have written. What an interesting and creative concept. Wish I had thought of it! Darn, another great idea already taken by someone else.
http://www.theannotatedfuld.blogspot.com/

AWS GOLD MEDAL WINNER CONTROVERSY!

I am taking the most fabulous workshop this week with Donna Zagotta! She is all about design and composition and finding your true style. Good luck with me, as I change styles every painting! It is intense and I am very tired right now. I want to post more about the workshop, so will do so a little later in the week. We are going as a group tomorrow night after the workshop, to the Kanter Museum on the Stanford University campus to see the Diebenkorn exhibit and then have dinner together. That should be a great outing but gets me back too late to post, so looks like Friday I will give a synopsis of the week. I will also put together another slide show as many of you are sending me images of your Frenchman paintings, and they are terrific.

In the meantime, check out the Wet Canvas link by clicking on the title of this blog posting for a stunning controversy regarding the hyper realistic "painting" which was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Watercolor Society this year. Almost all of her images are now gone from the web but the AWS sight still has it, so you can refresh your memory, if necessary. I was nose to plexi with this painting to see how it was possible to paint every little wiry hair in his beard and head. Turns out, perhaps it isn't possible. I sure didn't see a single sign of paint or mark of brush. Be sure and follow the links that are provided in some of the comments on this Wet Canvas discussion for more complete details. Especially the link to the photography discussion board.

I look forward to your comments.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A WONDERFUL TOWN!

I'm back! We only had 3 days and 4 nights in New York but they were jammed with exciting activities. The weather was spectacular in the high 70's and all the flowering trees were in bloom. I spent a few minutes in Central Park while waiting for a gallery to open, so I did a small plein aire painting which I have posted. Everywhere people were enjoying being outside. We lived in New York our first year of marriage and I hated every minute of it. It was a rude, mean, dirty unfriendly place. What a difference 45 years make! There was no graffiti, the subway was relatively clean, people were pleasant and helpful. You still see people talking to themselves but now they are on cell phones.

The Salmagundi Club is housed in an old historic home. It has been an art club for many years. One of the photos is the outside of the building where the AWS banner and a poster advertising the exhibit were on display. We met up with some other exhibitors on Thursday afternoon to view the show as it is too crowded during the dinner to really study the paintings. The show is on two levels and all the work was truly remarkable. So many styles and techniques. We were anxious to see the Gold Medal Winning painting in person as it looks so much like a photograph in the catalogue. Honestly, we peered and peered closely at it and it still looked like a photograph!! Amazing! I have no idea how she was able to paint like that. The Silver Medal painting was the polar opposite in feeling....very playful and inventive in every way. It was fun meeting the artist, Mark Mehaffey. His personality matched his painting. I also had the pleasure of spending some time with Donna Zagotta, who is not only an outstanding painter but one of the very best workshop instructors around. I am looking forward to taking her workshop in September.

Friday evening was the long anticipated event, the Awards Dinner. I met and enjoyed talking to many more of the artists in attendance, including Jean Pederson who was so complimentary and wanted to get together and paint sometime. She promised to show me how to get that great background texture explained in her book. I made such a mess of it on my first try.

There were cocktails in the downstairs gallery and everyone had a chance to mill about. I met one gentleman, Anthony Ventura, who is 81 years old and was receiving his signature membership this year. He has been trying for 25 years and was so excited and justifiably proud.

They set up tables in the upstairs gallery for the sitdown dinner. Frank Webb was the master of ceremonies and he told lots of jokes, some of which were funny. The president, Janet Walsh, handed out the awards and everyone had their photo taken. I received the CFS Medal which is very beautiful and quite heavy. It would make a nice paper weight for the desk but I think I will display it on a shelf.

Like everything, one waits and anticipates and then it is over in a flash. But, it was a beautiful moment in time.

My good friend, Mike Bailey, also was an exhibitor for the first time this year with AWS. We spent lots of our time in New York with him and his adorable wife, Diana. That made the trip that much more fun and enjoyable. I will post more of the highlights of the trip tomorrow along with a slide show.

FINAL BOZZETTOS #8 & #9

Sitting at the Gallery Concord yesterday, I was able to finish the bozzetto sheet. Here are the last two pieces. This is an image that I want to work with much more with texture, composition, lighting, and other ideas. Texture and mixed media will require larger formats than 5 x 7 but I am going to work with lighting next so a bozzetto sheet will work nicely. So this is my challenge for the coming month.....to develop as many ideas as I can with this image.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the American Watercolor Society website in the last day, they have finally posted the awards. There are some very exciting paintings there. I am looking forward to being able to see them and the entire show in person. Tomorrow is the official opening of the show with a big reception...food, drink, music. If you can get to New York City, it should be an exciting event.

I finally have my workshop schedule updated. You can find it on my website at www.myrnawacknov.com. The one in Ocean Shores, Washington is being held at a resort and will be like a mini vacation! If you have time in October, consider joining me there.

JUDGING AND BEING JUDGED...the Results!

Yesterday was my maiden venture into the world of judging an art exhibit. I was hoping that there would be a lot of work that would be easy to eliminate based on a lack of painting experience but the entries were of very high caliber, so I was challenged in making my decisions. I had taken along a sheet of guidelines to help me focus. The saving grace in the entire process was that many of the entrants submitted two paintings. The rule was that any individual could only receive one prize. When I was deciding between two paintings by the same person, I had an easier time. Now that I think about that, it was because I was comparing apples to apples rather than apples to oranges. Some of the variables were eliminated and I was then thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of just that particular painting. Then, when I had to assign 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mentions, my own idea of hierarchy of importance of elements made the difference for my choices as opposed to what a different judge might pick.

People that are selected as judges recognize better craftsmanship, composition, color, mood, imagination, invention, interpretation, etc. etc. So, if a painting doesn't have it all in equal amounts, what becomes more important? If you have to choose between a painting that is more skillfully painted and one that is more imaginative, what wins out? At the national competition level, there are so many entries and so few spaces, skillful handling of the medium is usually a given. That said, there is always an exception or two in almost every national level show I have seen. At the local level, there is a much greater range of technical ability.

My own ideas of what is important in a painting has changed in the last few years. Like many others, I was focused on technique, technique, technique and wanted to be able to reproduce that photograph perfectly. I actually got pretty good at it in watercolor, which is no mean feat, but now I am looking for creativity and originality in my own work and rank that higher in importance in others' work, as well. So, the bottom line is that there is no way to judge others' work without personal prejudice because it is a subjective activity. After I was done, I talked about my assessment of each painting to those who were hanging the show. Hopefully, they were satisfied with the results.

The results of the judging of awards for the American Watercolor Society has been announced and I am the recipient of the CPS Medal. This was recognition beyond my wildest imaginings!! The show opens on Tuesday in New York and the awards dinner is on April 25th. I am treating my husband to an exciting trip to New York and will share a slide show upon our return.

Today I found a great check list by Tom Lynch in an old issue of International Artists magazine. I am listing the basic categories (he went into greater detail) because I think it will be useful for each of us in evaluating our own paintings. I don't know if the order is significant but you might want to arrange them in the order of importance to you. DESIGN, IMPACT AREA, MOOD/FEELING, CREATIVITY, VALUES, COMPOSITION, UNITY, CRAFSTMANSHIP, COLOR, PRESENTATION.