This year is the 100th year for the venerable old CSPWC, which is kind of a big deal. I was excited to apply for the 2025 member’s exhibition, but, unfortunately, I have been soundly rejected!
Naturally that’s not my favorite outcome, but – I’m not too upset either.
I’ve applied 13 times and been accepted nine, so that’s a solid B+ , which is better than I ever did in school.
And! There was a complication this year.
They announced they would hold just TWO spaces, especially reserved for oversize paintings. Which, in this case could be up to 72″ in the longest dimension. Now this is a remarkable opportunity for a watercolor society show. Unheard of really. Typically the largest accepted work is full-sheet, 22×30″, which I imagine is because of available wall space. However the CSPWC has a permanent national gallery which is significantly larger than the rotating venues for most society shows.
And so – even though it meant I would be competing for one of ONLY two possible spaces, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, so that’s what I did.
If I was going to be rejected, I’d be rejected gloriously!
I settled on a diptych of full-sheets, so two panels, totaling 44×30″. Which is quite a bit shy of 72″ – but is twice as big as the largest thing I’ve previously painted.
(Also, if you were to be accepted, you have to frame and ship these things. So to be honest, this is more manageable.)
To help with going bigger, I switched from a traditional watercolorist’s folding palette, in favor of using Chinese dipping-sauce dishes :) This lets you have more color (bigger puddles), brought right to the spot where you’re working. Very handy for pouring! Plus, I used some hand-mixed pigments for even larger batches of color. Essentially making my own giant 3.5″ pans of watercolor. (Something I tested out during the 2023 30×30 marathon. It’s quite a savings over tube-color if you’re willing to go to the trouble).
The painting is another of my primitive jungle fantasies; art-historically related to Rousseau and (much more problematically), Gauguin. (I am not a fan of his life, but his paintings remain cultural artifacts).
I’ve been doing works with this motif on and off, (here’s one from 2021), which are not just fan art, but rather, part of a personal narrative to do with an imaginary return to a primitive culture.
I have what I feel is a reasonable amount of anxiety about the end of civilization. Climate change, consumption fueled pollution, global war and genocide, the fall of democracy – lots of reasons to be concerned. And so, from time to time, I make an image with a positive spin on the idea of returning to the stone age.
I feel I’m doing a modern version of Rousseau; his imaginary goddesses in his imaginary jungles.
Because hey, If you can’t create a mythic-fantasy as art-therapy – well, what is the point of being an artist?
So, there you have it. The very best reason to paint; knowing you will probably be rejected, but you do it anyway :)
“Après nous,” she said, setting down her glass, “le déluge.”
2025, 44×30″, diptych, watercolor on cotton rag.