April Issue 2001
Southern Watercolor Society Exhibit at the McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC
The McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, is hosting Southern Watercolor Society's 24th Annual Exhibition from Apr. 29 through July 29, 2001. The annual exhibition gives watercolor artists from 18 southern states and the District of Columbia an opportunity to be included in a national exhibition, taking place in a different location of this southern region. This year's exhibition was organized by Toni Elkins of Columbia, SC.
This year's competition had a total of 614 paintings entered by 338 artists from 17 southern states. The juror, Gerald F. Brommer, selected works by 90 artists for the year's exhibition. Awards, totaling $11,000 in cash and merchandise awards will be announced during an opening reception before the exhibition opens to the public.
Brommer offered the following statement about his task: "I thank the Southern Watercolor Society for asking me to jury this current exhibition. I have long considered this group to be a very important aspect of the world of watercolor, and being able to study the slides of work from this section of the country has only strengthened my conviction. The work is highly professional, personal in content, and broad in scope and expression. It is very difficult to eliminate over 500 images in order to reduce the entries to a required 90 or so pieces. Many excellent works were therefore not selected, but this is the cost of professional competition."
"As you study the art in this exhibition, listen to what the artists are saying - about their world, their lives, their work, their joys; about their personal reactions to their environment, their fellow humans and their God: about order, chaos, color or the warmth of sunshine. By their visual expressions they have communicated with rich visual and personal vocabularies and have made their visual statements (their art) for our benefit. Enjoy!"
Last year's annual exhibition originated in
Houston, TX, and traveled to Ingram, TX and Hendersonville, NC.
The 25th Annual Exhibition will take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
at the Louisiana Arts and Science Center from May 1 through June
26, 2002. A workshop with Frank Webb will be offered on Mar. 20-24.
The Sponsors of this exhibition gave $1000 each. For the first
time in Southern's history they were all private donors. These
generous donors are: Toni & Sam Elkins, Michel Graydon, Joyce
& Bob Hampton, The Lipscomb Family Foundation (Guy Lipscomb),
Hal Moore, Mary Byrd & Ken Ormand, Dona & CB Smith, Kit
& Joel Smith, Linda & Bill Stern, Inez and Samuel Tenenbaum
and anonymous.
The invitation for the exhibition was sponsored by The Cultural
Council of Richland/Lexington Counties.
The Southern Watercolor Society, founded in 1975, is a non-profit corporation formed to elevate the stature of watercolor and educate the public to the significance of watercolor as an important creative permanent painting medium. The corporation is dedicated to the highest aesthetic standards. It is the aim of the organization to further the interests of painters in watercolor/watermedia by its programs and competitive exhibits, and to encourage the study of watercolor by art students and others engaged in watercolor painting.
An exhibition catalog will also be produced and announcements of winners of the $12,000 in cash awards will be made in May.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the Museum at 803/777-7251 or on the
web at (http://www.cal.sc.edu/MCKS/) or contact the SWS on the
web at (http://www.southernwatercolorsociety.org).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
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