IWS Canada

Richmond Hill Creative Eye Awards!

The Richmond Hill Creative Eye have made these four beautiful Love and Peace themed pendants as awards for four lucky artists in our ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ Exhibition (September 28-October 27, 2018). The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green.

Thank you Richmond Hill Creative Eye from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA.

Love and Peace Awards by Richmond Hill Creative Eye

For more information about our five day event view our 5 day event pdf or for a summary, see the image below:

The painting in this graphic, Colour of Music, is by one of our jurors, Anne McCartney CSPWC, AWS, TWSA

Burr House – Tea and Art Together!

This is our second exhibition venue and is also where local spinners, weavers and potters create their masterpieces. You can see them at work when we visit the part of the exhibition there.

Burr House is another heritage building within Richmond Hill. It has plenty of parking at the back and is located beside a ravine. Traditional tea and scones will be offered from 6-8 pm on the evening of September 28. They also have a store selling local artisans’ work.

530 Carrville Road, Richmond Hill, ON L4C 6E6

Da Vinci Paint Company Awards!

Da Vinci Paint Company have very kindly donated FIVE of these awesome travel palettes as awards for our ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ Exhibition. The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green. Da Vinci will also have a representative at our opening event to demonstrate their products to visiting artists.

Thank you Da Vinci Paint company for your generous sponsorship from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA.

For more information about our five day event view our 5 day event pdf , or for a summary of the events see the image below:

Boynton House, Richmond Hill

Boynton House is an art exhibition space in Richmond Hill with four display rooms. The house is an historic site under the Ontario Heritage Act and dates back to about 1875. It is an example of the classic Ontario farmhouse, with unique details of its era.

Our Opening Day event begins at 12 noon and is open to the public. After the formal ribbon cutting this part of the exhibition will be available to view here at your leisure and it may be possible to have photographs taken with visiting master artists. Representatives from Winsor & Newton, QoR Watercolours, Daniel Smith, DeSerres Art Store, Da Vinci paints and RockWell Art Supplies will be in tent booths in the fenced garden area of Boynton House where they will demo products. Several will also have free samples for visiting artists.

Throughout the afternoon there will be opportunities for Plein Air painting with the masters at various locations around Richmond Green. Our Official Opening and Awards Presentation will be at 3pm, either on the main porch/garden area or within Boynton House, depending on the weather.

Refreshments and cold beverages will be available throughout the afternoon. There will also be live music by a chamber ensemble from the Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra.

The opening day will continue with tea in the evening at the second venue – more on that later! (Or, you can find more information here)

Daniel Smith Awards!

DANIEL SMITH: Artists’ Materials have very kindly donated 3 awards for our Symphony in Watercolour Exhibition. The awards will be announced at our opening event on September 28th at Boynton House on Richmond Green. Katherine Taylor will also be there to demo Daniel Smith products to our visitors.

Awards for specially selected ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ finalists

Thank you Daniel Smith from all of us at IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA.

For more information about our 5 day event please navigate to the link by clicking on the picture below.

Featured Member – Renee Lippa

Renee is a Canadian mixed media landscape artist painting out of her studio in Sherwood Park, Alberta. At a very early age, Renee began to take a strong interest in sketching and drawing often sitting with her mother while she painted in oils. She initially started with drawing but after proving to have a natural talent and a sharp eye for detail, quickly advanced to paintings in watercolor and acrylic. In a short time, Renee started entering in competitions receiving various top awards.

At the age of 17, Picture This Framing and Gallery sponsored her to take a class with renowned artist Sue-Ellen Ross. Almost immediately, Renee fell in love with Sue-Ellen’s mixed media style and decided to implement some of the same technique into her own work.

Since then, Renee has been recognized in various art competitions across North America receiving multiple awards for her work. In 2009, she was chosen by a unanimous panel of judges to commission a painting for the University of Alberta’s Graduate Engineering Department. The piece called “Unity” can be viewed in the ETLC building at the University of Alberta. After this point, Renee took a short break to pursue dancing competitively as a ballroom dancer winning a Canadian Championship and placing in the top 25 at the world championships in Belgium. She retired in 2015.

Currently, Renee is a full time artist creating original paintings and commissions. Being a self taught artist, she brings a unique style and technique to her work. Her love of vibrancy, texture and detail influences her paintings to have a living and breathing feel. Renee’s goal as an artist is to not only stimulate the mind with lucid imagery but to encourage the viewer to use their other senses. They say a picture can tell a thousand words but a painting can transport you to another place. Whether it is a memory of trees swaying in the wind on a warm summer day or a precious moment gazing over a field of flowers with a loved one, she aspires to draw the viewer in to create their own story.

Below is an example of Renee’s watercolour work. For more about Renee, please visit her website.

Featured Member – Sun Jiangang

Sun Jiangang, (孙建刚) male, was born in 1972 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. He graduated from Shanxi Normal University, with skills in painting, watercolor, and pen. He is now a member of the Chinese Artists Association, a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Literary and Art Circles Artists Association, a chairman of the Hong Kong International Artists Association pen painting committee and vice chairman of the oil painting art committee. He is a Taiwan World Watercolor Alliance member, an IWS Canada Member, and a director of Chinese pen Painting Association.

Below is an example of his work in transparent watercolour.

“Home” by Sun Jiangang. Watercolour. 41×56 cm. 2017

Our apologies for the gap in post publishing due to health problems and travel. Please look forward to regular posts in the future!

Featured Member – Jan Fraser

Our featured member this week is Jan Fraser, of Alberta. Says Jan:

“Art has been part of my life since childhood, with lessons at the Edmonton Art Gallery and encouragement from my Grand-Uncle, Murray MacDonald who was a former member of the Edmonton Art Club and a well known watercolourist. When Murray retired from the University of Alberta, he began teaching me every Sunday afternoon and eventually we had a three generation show with Murray, my Aunt and myself. There have been many shows since. My first job in education was teaching and writing Art courses for the Alberta Correspondence School. From there I moved on to Edmonton Public Schools with a varied career in which Art was always involved. I recently retired as Assistant Principal of an elementary school with a Fine Arts Focus. I have always preferred the spontaneity and experimentation possible with watercolor but in the past year I have been playing with carving modeling paste for a textured foreground with acrylic and watercolour paint. This allows me to play with texture and rock formations in the foreground.”

“The weather, landforms and atmosphere of Alberta have always been my inspiration. One maxim that I have is that painting material is all around us. We do not have to travel far to see and feel. Another is to approach art with a sense of play and experimentation in order to continue learning. I enjoy my three grandchildren (one of whom is autistic), travel with my husband Jud, gardening and golf. I am an active member of the Edmonton Art Club.”

Below is an example of Jan’s work. For more, please visit her website.

Your Invitation to our Festivities

IWS Canada and CSPWC/SCPA Invite you to a 5 Day Celebration Event – September 28 to October 3, 2018

(Exact times and details may change due to weather conditions or events beyond our control).

This event is a celebration of not only watercolour but of how diverse cultures, by working together, can strengthen and enhance a community.

During these five days we will unite to celebrate our history, our differences and our common interests.

A community such as Richmond Hill, with its mosaic of residents from diverse cultures, its combination of urban and rural environment and its strong historical roots is an ideal venue for our Symphony in Watercolour Event.

Use the info-graphic below for an outline of the five day celebration, and visit this link for details. Bring your sketchbook and some plein air painting supplies if you like – there will be several opportunities to create!

Finalists announced for A Symphony in Watercolour!

Our jurors Peter Marsh CSPWC, OSA, SCA, TWS, Anne McCartney CSPWC, AWS, TWSA and Rainbow Ze (youth juror) have completed their task in choosing the paintings that will be exhibited during our ‘A Symphony in Watercolour’ exhibition this fall, September 28th to October 27th, in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. A huge thank you to them – it must have been really hard to choose from all of the great entries we had – a total of 320 from 32 countries!

These paintings are listed on the page entitled ‘A Symphony in Watercolour‘, which can also be viewed at the bottom of our home page. Congratulations to all finalists!!

Also listed are paintings by the invited artists such as those who won our ‘150 Ways to Celebrate’ online contest last year, and the jurors and the presidents of our cooperating societies.

In addition to finalist paintings, there were many the jurors felt merited special mention. These will not be physically exhibited, but will also be posted on the website during the exhibition. They are listed below the finalist paintings.

Thank you to everyone around the world who entered our exhibition! Your enthusiasm and talent for watercolour, and your contributions to our understanding of your perspective through art, are why we exist. We couldn’t do this without you.

Peace and love through art!