THROUGH THE ARCHES

I saw this wonderful scene while in Cairo last year. Days were spent strolling through the hot dusty streets exploring where I could, all perfectly safe. I chanced upon this unusual Mosque one morning and was enthralled. I spent a few hours alone within the central square looking at many different points of view, sketching and photographing. Back in the studio, I first did a smaller study in oil then tackled the larger watercolor. I found this painting difficult to finish and worked on it over the period of a few months (in fact I still feel the need to do something more to it!). Anyway, I was quite pleased with the finished painting and was thrilled to have it accepted into the 32nd Annual Exhibition of Transparent Watercolor hosted by the TWSA. Luckily, this painting was one of only 85 selected for the exhibition from over 900 entries! As the society's title suggests, only transparent watercolor is accepted with not even the slightest inkling of gouache allowed. This suits me fine as this is my preferred method of watercolor painting anyway. The show runs from May 16 to July 28 and is in the Bloomington Art Center, 1800 W Old Shakopee Rd, Bloomington, MN 55431. Web sites are: www.BloomingtonArtCenter.com and www.Watercolors.org (Transparent Watercolor Society of America).

Other news is that Barn Window (see Nov 27 post) has been accepted into the Baltimore Watercolor Society's 2008 Mid-Atlantic Regional Watercolor Exhibition. Slightly better odds here as my painting was one of 100 selected for the exhibition from 428 entries. Still, I feel honored and the show runs from April 27 to May 27 in The Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, MD 20852. I will be at Strathmore on the 27th and hope to see you there. Since early December, I have had a good run of watercolors but now feel the need to get back to some oils so expect to see some of those next. The size of 'Through the Arches' is 22" X 15".