Western Ohio Watercolor Society show

This afternoon I met my class at the Town & Country Fine Art Gallery to view the WOWS spring juried show. We walked the show together and talked about the paintings and why a judge might select this one or that one. On the whole it's a very inclusive show, since there are separate categories for transparent watercolor and mixed watermedia. It was good for my students to see that their work is as good as some of the accepted paintings. I like the show--it's balanced between realism and abstraction with a variety of subject matter, techniques and color treatments. For the most part the class seemed to favor the more realistic, traditional works. They were asked to vote for a "People's Choice" award and when they were discussing their preferences, one remarked that each person had selected something that resembled what they are trying to do in their own work in class--something to aspire to. I think this exposure will have a positive effect on their work in the future.