An Important Lesson from a National Show

Years ago, as I was beginning my career in the watercolor business, I made a wise choice to enter several paintings in selected national shows. Of course, I felt I was a neophyte, yet I mustered up courage, faced the strong possibility of rejection and sent slides of my paintings in.

I was rejected in several shows, but I do remember two acceptances that sent me on an emotional high. (I figure I can live off a good compliment for four months). Not only did my confidence receive a badly needed boost, it also turned out to be a good marketing move. I sent a press release to the local newspaper and informed the customers on my small mailing list of my recent acceptances in, of all places, New York City! I believe this helped to establish my credibility with collectors.

Aside from the marketing benefits, acceptance in national shows gave me the assurance early on that I was going in the right direction with my paintings. It is one thing to successfully sell one’s artwork, but a pat on the back from well-respected national jurors goes a long way.

Competing on the national level for a number of years, I am now a member of six national societies. Most of these offer signature status; meaning, I may use the initials of the society following my signature. Two of the more notable societies are represented following my signature: AWS (American Watercolor Society) and NWS (National Watercolor Society). Of the two, the American Watercolor Society is the more prestigious and membership requirements are stringent: I had to be accepted in three of their international shows. The society is based in New York, is the “granddaddy” of all the societies and keeps its membership limited.

As I was leaving art school, I asked my mentor and instructor Irving Shapiro if he thought I’d ever fulfill my dreams of getting into the American Watercolor Society. He thought I would. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to share the joy of acceptance with me.

A story that I have shared with my workshop students is worth retelling here. Years ago I would set aside a choice studio painting for the grand American Watercolor Society Show, only to be rejected several years in a row. The rejections were rather discouraging to the point that they drove me to another wise decision: I’ll enter shows but try not to put emphasis on pleasing the judges.

One such painting came from this time period. On a stormy winter day I desperately needed to get out of my studio and ended up trying to do a watercolor propped on the steering wheel of my old “72 Volvo. I was overlooking the Port of Nahcotta through the driving rain and the repetitive swish of windshield wipers. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, halfway through the painting the oyster dredge operator turned on a blindingly bright light that flooded all the cool evening colors with an incandescent glow, reversing my shadow pattern.

After much difficulty of adjusting the painting, the same light was turned off, putting my by then warm colored painting in jeopardy as my subject now had only cool harmonies.

This turned out to be such a difficult flip flop that I considered the painting to be only an exercise in experience and threw the somewhat finished painting in the back seat of the car.

Weeks later I took a more serious look at the painting and felt there might be some promise. After a bit of touch up, I framed it up for my gallery. Months passed, the painting didn’t sell, and once again the time came to enter the elusive American Watercolor Society show. I was thinking it would be fun if this painting, done on the steering wheel of my car in the worst conditions, would be accepted in the show. To my astonishment, not only did it get in the show, but won a beautiful medal and was selected for the National Traveling Show! All because I stopped painting for the judges.

After all, it’s the journey that is the reward,

-Eric