Enthusiasm for sharing their water media art with viewers in-person instead of online led 425 artists from around the world to enter the California Watercolor Association’s 55th International Exhibition. Opening Saturday with a reception and awards presentation at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, the work of 85 artists will remain on public display on weekends through March 23.
Jessica de Jesus, a California Watercolor Association (CWA) artist and board member, said in an interview that the number of entries has increased substantially from last year.
“When we announced it would be in-person, we saw entries double,” she said. “People really want to see the actual paintings. I and other artists did things on Zoom during the (COVID-19) pandemic, but watercolor is all about timing. You can’t see the effect of how wet the paper is online, study or feel the surface, see the true colors.”
Exhibition juror Michael Holter selected the artwork in this year’s show.
“Jurors change each year and pick art for its quality and talent,” said de Jesus. “There’s definitely a mix of traditional representational watercolor pieces but also artists whose work is abstract or explores different surfaces like a new Yupo (waterproof brand of) paper that’s synthetic. It absorbs differently, and you can actually wipe the paint off, even after it dries. Some artists use acrylic or gouache, because those are water-based materials.”
San Francisco-based artist Gary Bukovnik was tasked with serving as the exhibition’s awards juror. This year’s artists are competing for about $16,000 in cash prizes and sponsor products.
Bukovnik, for decades internationally renowned for his large-scale, floral watercolors, has paintings held in permanent collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and others (visit garybukovnik.com online for more details and to view his work).
“This was absolutely the most difficult exhibition to judge,” Bukovnik said in a separate interview. “Every single painting was excellent. I walked around and said there should be 50 first prizes. They all speak with excellence.
“It boils down to communication. My tastes are far broader than what I do in my studio. I like many ways of looking at things. A stunning picture of a harbor with a mountain in the distance or the closeup of blossoms or an abstract work — I was blown away by how perfectly these artists expressed themselves.”
Bukovnik embraces the variety of approaches that the 85 artists have taken while pointing to an essential essence emanating from the award-winning work.
“I always ask, ‘Has the artist been able to communicate what they’re trying to say?’ One shouldn’t think about how difficult it was to lay down that wash or each brushstroke. Instead, it should look so easy that people think, ‘I could do that.’ Of course, years and years of practice go into saying it all without showing how hard an artist struggles.”
Admittedly, despite being a remarkably successful artist, Bukovnik is all-too familiar with the struggle.
“I’m my own worst enemy: I’m the most difficult person to please. There’s always the bottom line and paying the rent. For years I was stone-broke. I’m lucky now because I paint pictures and it’s very seldom someone guides my hand or tries to change things.”
As a young artist, Bukovnik said he felt the force of multiple attempts by mentors and instructors not to paint florals or work in oil paint and other mediums.
“I eventually resisted. I use the same paper and watercolors with the most color-fast pigment that I’ve always used. If offered an opportunity to make something outside of my general oeuvre, I find tapestries, sculpture, lithography and etching enriching.
“After one year of trying to work in oil and being completely miserable, I realized it wasn’t for me. The thought process with oils is all at the tip of the brush, but with watercolor you think it all out in advance. That takes years of effort and experience. Flower painting is not the cutting edge of modern art, but somehow I’ve been able to make a life doing what I do.”
Returning or holding steadfastly to an original artistic vision may be another collective feature of the show’s artists. De Jesus says that during the pandemic, with her “regular” life disrupted, she resumed the painting and printmaking that had for years made only occasional appearances in her daily activities.
“There was all this time and I saw others returning to painting or other things for life balance,” she said.
“Early Start, Garnet Lake,” the painting de Jesus selected for the exhibit, depicts a landscape scene of Garnet Lake in the Ansel Adams Wilderness along the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada (see some of her work online at sfjessart.com).
“It was created in the studio using reference photos. It was an image my husband and I came upon while visiting the area. I remember it was early morning and bitterly cold. This was the one spot that looked warm. I chose it because it uses a limited palette of two colors and was a simple way to capture this specific morning.”
Responding to questions about the scale of the East Bay water media arts community, CWA memberships and the exhibition now in its 55th year, de Jesus says entries from more than 14 countries — including the United States, Mexico, Bulgaria, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia — are proof that interest and participation in watercolors is growing.
With improved social media presence and more robust outreach, de Jesus said she anticipates CWA memberships and public engagement will continue to follow an upward trajectory. Similarly, Bukovnik said he firmly believes young people will keep the artistic pipeline lively and that appreciation for art — not just watercolors — will never evaporate.
“Why? Because art and music are the only things that communicate the ineffable,” Bukovnik said. “You communicate from heart to heart, from mind to mind.
“Young people tend to listen to older people as if they own the truth. This notion of artists suffering? We think that’s being unable to pay the rent. But the suffering is self-doubt and people’s reinforcement of your doubt. I see this come into play over and over, and the important thing in my story is that it is difficult to go forward but possible. It just takes gumption.”
Visit bit.ly/cwa55thexhibition online for details about the CWA’s 55th International Exhibition.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.