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The best in watercolor

Times Observer photo by Stacey Gross Crary Gallery Board President Bob Anderson (left) and Pennsylvania Watercolor Society Event Chair John Walker (right) helped open this year’s 39th annual Pennsylvania Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition on Saturday.

For the fourth time, Warren’s Crary Art Gallery is hosting the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society’s (PWS) Juried Exhibition.

The longest-running exhibition of the Crary’s year, the PWS Juried Exhibition is a show of the state’s best watercolor artists each year. The highly-competitive show features pieces chosen by this year’s Juror of Selection Keiko Tanabe. Event Chair John Walker spoke a bit on Saturday following the show’s opening about just how competitive the show is.

“Anywhere from 400 to 700 submissions come in for this show each year,” said Walker. “Somewhere between 100 and 120 pieces are selected.” The selection process for the venue that hosts the show is equally selective, said Walker. He personally goes to each venue being considered to evaluate it for a list of criteria, including accessibility, size, and amenities. The most important criteria, however, is the amount of passion the venue has for hosting the show itself, said Walker. “We want to have this show at places where they really really want us there.”

“We really want them here,” said President of the Crary Gallery’s board of directors Bob Anderson. “This is the biggest show of our year and we’re very fortunate to have it here.”

Part of what has led Walker to select the Crary Gallery four times out of the past 39 years the show has been running, said Walker, is the setting itself. The Crary Gallery is a real asset to Warren County, said Walker, and the uniqueness of the building itself makes it an enticing venue, as to the amenities and the accessibility – the gallery is one level and meets ADA requirements. More than that, though, Walker said that it’s the gallery’s passion for art in general and the show itself that makes it an easy choice over other venues in larger cities such as Erie or Pittsburgh. The show rotates throughout the state each year, said Anderson, but could easily choose larger galleries to host it. The Crary is excited to have been chosen as the venue for the show this fourth time around, he said.

Walker himself is a watercolor artist and spoke a bit about what makes watercolor such a passion for the artists who produce it. “It’s a journey of discovery,” said Walker, who began his watercolor journey as a six-year-old child when a schoolteacher in his one-room-schoolhouse gave him a simple watercolor kit with a few colors and single brush. “I loved to paint birds and airplanes,” said Walker. Growing up during the Korean War, he said, “I really loved painting those airplanes.” Walker went on to explain that it’s the “fluidity of the whole process” that he loves most about watercolor. “You start with an idea in your mind of what you want it to turn out like, but you never know exactly what you’re going to wind up with.”

Anderson, too, loves the variety and the intricacy of the medium, which he said he feels is often misunderstood to be a simple one. “There’s a lot of work that goes into these pieces,” said Anderson, “and you look at some of them and they’re so intricate the lines.” Many of the pieces in this year’s show, said Anderson, are as complex and full-bodied as any painting or drawing in the style of photorealism.

The complexity of the event itself is also of interest, said Anderson. Vice President of the Crary’s board Annamarie Miller agreed. “This is the time to visit,” said Miller to those who may have wondered about the gallery but never made it in. “This is a must-see show.” The show runs two weeks longer than the rest of the gallery’s shows each year, coming in at six weeks in length, and also offers expanded gallery hours so that everyone can get a chance to take it in. The gallery will be open Tuesdays through Thursdays from noon to 6 p.m., Fridays from noon to 8 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. throughout the run of the PWS Juried Exhibition. The exhibition opened on Saturday, Sept. 15 and will run through Saturday, Oct. 20.

In addition to the Juror of Selection, Pittsburgh artist Ron Thurston served as this year’s Juror of Awards, assessing the 100 pieces selected for the exhibition to receive over $14,000 in prizes. A total of $3,500 of that award pot represents merchandise awards from art suppliers. The remainder is awarded in cash. In addition, said Anderson, the Crary began a tradition of awarding a $300 cash award to the winner of the People’s Choice watercolor. Every visit to the Crary during the PWS exhibition, said Anderson, gets visitors a chance to vote for their favorite work in the show, with the piece receiving the most votes at the end of the exhibition winning the People’s Choice award.

This year’s PWS Juried Exhibition features regional artists, as well as work from around the world, including work representing Singapore, Malaysia, and Canada as well as 33 states.

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