Congratulations are in order!
Some of our members have enjoyed success recently in their artistic endeavors:
- Marsha Elliott was honored to have her painting "Ebbert’s Seed Corn” purchased by the 80th District State Representative Jonathan Newman, and it will hang in his office in the Ohio State House in Columbus! Congrats, Marsha!
"Ebbert's Seed Corn" by Marsha Elliott
- Eight WOWS members were accepted into Rosewood Gallery's "35th Annual Dayton Works on Paper Exhibition": Shirlee Bauer, Billie Dickson, Connie S. Gifford, Yuki Hall, Tessa Kalman, Roger Kimmel, Kim Kramer, and Rose Schultz. Also, Carol Edsall and Veronica Beardsley made the Rosewood Staff Picks "Paper 2025" show on exhibit in the Community Gallery. Examples of our members' entries are below:
Rose Schultz, "Woodland Path"
News
Yuki Hall, "The Vine"
From the President
Roger Kimmel, "Andoya"
Remember, if you'd like a mention in the newsletter for your newsworthy accomplishments, please send an email to wows4info@gmail.com a few days before the first of the month.
Show Opportunities
Western Ohio Watercolor Society Members' Show
May 15 - June 15, 2025, Tipp Center; more details to come
Tipp City Area Art Council's "a fine art exhibit" March 31 - April 5, 2025
See their website for entry details, here.
Shows to Visit
Connie S. Gifford and her daughter, Brandi Harris, will have an art show at the Beavercreek Senior Center, Lofino’s Art Gallery, for the month of March, with an art reception planned Wednesday March 5, 2025, 5:00 pm till 6:30 pm. The Lofino’s Gallery is located at 3868 Dayton-Xenia Road, Beavercreek, OH 45432.
35th ANNUAL DAYTON WORKS ON PAPER
Rosewood Arts Center Gallery
January 21 – March 1, 2025
Details on their website here
Dayton Art Fair, 2/15-16 in the Rotunda of the Dayton Arcade
This event includes Prelude - Where Art Meets Desire (Formerly The Co's Annual Art Auction), on 2/14/2025. Details are on their website, here.
an art affair, April 5, 2025 | 10:00am–4:00pm at the Tipp Center
855 N 3rd Street | Tipp City, Ohio
FREE Admission, details can be found here
Workshop
The Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society Presents a one-day in-person watercolor workshop by WYN ERICSON: MASTERING WATERCOLOR PORTRAITS
Date: May 2, 2025
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location:
Arts Connect of Springfield Township
9158 Winton Road, Building A
Cincinnati, OH 45231:
Click here to see flyer for details
Carol Edsall, "Summer's Last Hibiscus"
Kim Kramer, "Fort Ancient"
Febuary 1, 2025
'Tis February, WOWS!
I hope this winter season is finding you well. And despite the issues it caused, I hope you were able to appreciate the beauty of the snow we had this past month. I found myself looking out over my yard and wondering "now, do those snow shadows have cobalt, or are they more ultramarine...or is it actually a shade of violet? Which edges are soft and which are crisp?" (Please tell me you do this too, and I'm not looney...)
I've slowly come out of "holiday mode" and am getting back into the swing of painting. My biggest immediate goal is to produce paintings that I'll submit to the Ohio Watercolor Society show. The thought of it makes me a bit nervous which can trigger a tendency to procrastinate, so the best antidote is to just dive in and start painting. So that is what I'll be doing this month. How about you all? Do you have a painting goal coming up this spring, or even sooner? See the Show Opportunities section below for upcoming events you may wish to consider, including our WOWS Members' Show that will be this May; more details on that in the March newsletter.
I'd like to mention, with a touch of pride, that WOWS recently made a good showing at the current "Works on Paper" exhibition at the Rosewood Gallery. We had 8 members make the WOP show (some had multiple entries accepted), and two made the Staff Picks show. Considering that this show includes many different media, I think that is quite an accomplishment! See below in the News section for details.
Speaking of shows, they can have their challenges. When you consider entering one, multiple factors come into play, and one to consider that may not be obvious is if your painting medium conforms to a show's entry criteria. This question came up to our Past President Connie Gifford a while back, and so she did a little sleuthing on the matter and was gracious to share her findings with us in the Brush Tip section below.
Well, I'd better get back to painting, so I'll wrap it up here and will hopefully see you at our first 2025 meeting on March 18th - put it on your calendar!
Cheers,
Tessa Kalman
The Wisdom in a
Brush Tip...
Past President Connie Gifford provided the following tip when determining if your painting contains anything that may disqualify it from a typical watercolor show. (Please note that some of the acceptable aqueous mediums mentioned below would NOT be accepted into some strict criteria shows such as the Transparent Watercolor Society of America, or the like.) Thank you, Connie, for sharing your findings with the group!
A while back, I was in an online workshop with a well-known artist who was teaching about how to paint sunbeams in a watercolor painting. I am always ready to learn and wanted to know how to approach this subject matter because it is a real challenge in my opinion. To my surprise, the artist used pan pastels to create the sunbeams, and that started me thinking about whether or not the use of pan pastels added into a watercolor painting would be acceptable.
From my understanding, the pan pastel mixes into the paper and is absorbed into the fibers. Some national artists incorporate different colors of pan pastel into their work, and they say this is considered the same as a gouache. I know thinned acrylics, casein, gouache and egg tempera in addition to watercolor can be acceptable, because they are considered aqueous mediums. What to do - I was still not certain about pan pastels.
Since I am also a member of Ohio Watercolor Society, I decided to get their input on the use of pan pastels (WOWS is part of OWS) and whether it would be acceptable, because inquiring minds like mine want to know.
I emailed president Mike McEnroe and because he was not familiar with pan pastels, he referred me to Tom Sorrell for the answer, as this had not been discussed before. Tom's background is as a chemist, and he has years of experience with OWS.
Tom’s email said: “Based on what I can find online, it looks like pan pastels are not a water-based medium, so they wouldn't qualify. Pastels are considered "dry media" -- they consist of pigment and binder (plus sometimes chalk or oil) but no water. Transparent watercolors and gouache (gum arabic), acrylics (acrylate ester polymers), casein (milk protein) and egg tempera (egg protein) are all made with pigment, binder (noted in parentheses) and water.
But just adding water doesn't make something an aqueous medium. For example, "water soluble oils" are not acceptable in most WC competitions, (despite being able to use water as a solvent or dilutant) because the pigment is suspended in an oil binder rather than an aqueous one.”
I wanted to share this with the WOWS members because I wanted to know and not just guess. Remember: people don’t know what they don’t know. When in doubt, ask questions.
Take care,
Connie S. Gifford
Billie Dickson, "The Birder"
Shirlee Bauer, "Holes Creek Snowfall"
Tessa Kalman, "The Homecoming Parade"
Page updated 02/04/2025
Meetings are held the third Tuesday of the month:
March, April, May, June, September, October
(NO meetings the months of:
January, February, July, August, November and December.)
Fellowship at 12:30 PM; Program at 1:00 PM
Connie S. Gifford,
"Sweet Fragrance of Spring"
Veronica Beardsley, "Nature's Art Work"