I have a watercolor confession to make. I am not a fan of the accidental made intentional. I like watercolors that are controlled by the artist, rather than the other way around. This makes me picky. Sometimes I’ll skip a watercolor exhibit.
But I didn’t skip the Mid-Southern Watercolorists’ 40th annual juried exhibition at the Arkansas Studies Institute, and I was well rewarded. These artists have won the war with their medium. Dean Mitchell — a great watercolor artist himself whose work can be found at Hearne Fine Art — was the judge, and someone I see eye-to-eye with.
Little Rock artist Jacquelyn Kaucher won the Arvest Bank Gold Award for her large and tricky “Fish,” a batiky composition of loosely drawn and tightly composed fishes, with the judicious use of bits of sparkling something representing the glint of scales. It’s huge, a scale (no pun intended) not easily achieved in watercolor.
Boss watercolorists
Advertisement