I was fortunate enough this year to get accepted into the TWSA national exhibition and to this day I have seen the show 4 times. The last 2 times I went with artists from my classes and we critiqued and discussed so many things about the show. I want to share with you what we talked about.
There are 81 pieces in the show and the first one you
see when walking into the exhibit is the Skyledge Award which is also printed on the catalog. The first thing I asked everyone at the start of the show is, "what do you think of
this piece that won the top prize"? The biggest answer was that it is very different and is somewhat illustrative, like it was painted for an
ad.
Here is what we came up with about the show and the awards.... The biggest thing I noticed about this show was that every piece was done very fresh, clean and exact, most every painting was done with a high quality of watercolor control and handling. Loose or tight it didn't matter the paint was applied with professional handling.
Something else that stood out was how much realism there was in the show, some we found better then others but all
done with a large amount of precision and details. Then there were all the wonderful different styles, like Salminen, Ratinda and Mitchell's style. These 3 men may get into a lot of shows, but it is because they have a distinguishing style that looks different, stands out and is usually amazing.
From our finds at this TWSA show here is how I believe you will have a better chance of getting accepted into a show like the TWSA exhibit. Find a unique and different type
of subject matter and do it in a style that makes you different from everyone else. Do it with a professional handling of watercolor, meaning make it look like you did the painting in one or 2 brush strokes even if it takes more then 3 to get your effect. Bigger is better when it comes to giving your painting the wow factor and when it comes to awards. The wow factor is something I look for when I am judging a show. The first thing I do when judging a show from digital files or from being
at the actual show I go through real fast and pick out the paintings that make me stop because they catch my eye and then it makes me think wow, that is a beautiful painting. The reason it is a wow painting is because it has all the elements I talked about above, it's a different subject matter done in a unique style and if I see it live it usually is big. If I see the paintings as a digital file, bigger painting look and hold up better when shrunk to a smaller photographic, monitor size,
big holds together better then small paintings that are close to the size of the monitor that the paintings are viewed on.
My painting that was accepted into this years show is pictured below or see it with the link below http://watercolors.org/exhibitions/2017/Becker.html
