Watermedia 2013

I attended the opening reception for the MTWS annual national juried exhibition, Watermedia. It was held at the Bigfork Museum of Art & History in downtown Bigfork, MT. The show runs the entire month of October.

Over 200 entries were submitted and only 50 were chosen. I had the opportunity to hang among some AMAZING works done by some fabulous painters. This is the 9th time in 10 years I have been accepted into Watermedia.

The juror for this exhibition is a very talented watercolorist, Sue Archer. Her works are stunning. Be sure to click on her name and check out her work. I'm pleased to announce that she awarded me the MTWS Founders' Award (4th place) for the amount of $500!!!! THANK YOU SUE!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I can't contain my excitement. I seriously keep doing a happy dance...kinda like the one Katherine Heigl does in the Ugly Truth

Yeah....that's how excited I am.

Well, here are some images from the exhibition. If ANY of you are in the area of Bigfork during October, 2013. YOU REALLY NEED TO GO. The works of art are fabulous.

Sue is discussing the reasons why she chose my painting. She said I took a big risk leaving so much white space on the left side of the painting...a risk that paid off. :D

Me posing by my 4th place piece!!!

My FABULOUS friend Elena who came with me to the show!

Blue on Black

Blue on Black 19x30

I finished it! I'm naming it Blue on Black...partly because that song (by Kenny Wayne Shepard) came on my playlist quite often while I was painting this piece and each time I thought how much blue and black (and purple) I was using in this piece. It's very tonal and the phrase, I thought, is fitting (yes, I know the song is about heartache and dealing with it, but we can just look past that aspect). So a shout out to Kenny for his inspiration when it came to a name!

I do want you to know that after I finished the piece and stared long and hard at it determining that it was, indeed, finished, I scanned it and stiched it together in photoshop (as I do with all my pieces) and then noticed a couple spots that needed so shadows. So, I've sinced gone in and given the piece a little more depth and beefed up some shadows within the shadow. I just got so excited that I was finished that I failed to notice I forgot those. Painting time clocked in at just over 19 hours. Add that with the drawing time and I'm under 25 hours for the piece!!! Close to 24 hours of drawing and painting time.

Thanks for letting me share the process with you!!! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday night and a fabulous end to your weekend tomorrow.