I was delighted to receive notification from the International Watercolour Masters that I’ve made it through the first round of their judging. Apparently, they received 2755 entries from 105 countries, but as people were allowed to submit up to five paintings, I’m not clear as to whether the 2755 is individuals, or the number of paintings submitted! Either way, it’s nice to have made it through the first selection round.
As far as I can tell from the information provided, everyone that made it through the first round, will now proceed to the ‘final awards’ judging. As they released all of the first round winners in alphabetical order over a number of days, it would appear that a lot of people made it through the initial judging! Here’s the notification that was posted on their social channels:
And here’s what’s up for grabs in the ‘final awards’ judging:
- Top 200 Winners, 10 Risings Stars, 10 Future Masters Announced on FB + by Email on 8th September 2023 With Award Certificates sent by email
- 10 First Place Winners will be notified on 20th September 2023 by Email
- Jury: The IWM contest jury will consist of 24 masters and Industry professionals thereby ensuring total honesty, integrity and fairness in the judging process
The last time I entered this competition was in 2022, when I was thrilled to receive a Top 200 Merit Award for my ‘pursuit of excellence’:
It looks like I’ve got about a month to wait now to find out if I can match this again!
Off camping
As I’m busily trying to pack and write this post before I head off on a week’s camping my time for painting has, once again, been very limited! As I’m was packing up a little sketching kit to take with me though, I thought the least I should do is a quick sketch, just so I’ve got something new to share!
Here’s a little A5 study of a baker at work. The white areas to the right of the figure are supposed to indicate plumes of flour in the air, not smoke for a cigarette balanced on the end of the table!
I was quite pleased with this little sketch and hope that I’ll have some more to share with you when I’m back from camping!
8 thoughts on “International Watercolour Masters – first round of judging”
Congratulations and best wishes for the 2023 results. Your sketch of the baker is dynamic and full of energy. I often think that quick sketches, often executed in a relaxed frame of mind, turn out to be more successful than paintings which we take much longer to do.
Hi June and thanks so much for this, so pleased you like the sketch and I totally agree about sketches often being more successful than ‘finished paintings’ that take much longer! I find is a real challenge to keep the freshness, freedom and spontaneity of a sketch when I’m painting larger paintings!
Congratulations on making it through. I love your baker!!!! It is beautiful!
Thanks so much for this Jo, I’m so pleased you like the baker sketch – I really should try to do more studies like this because I do really enjoy painting them as they feel a bit more carefree, so often end up much more successful than paintings that I labour over!
You must be such a happy soul, John! Success with your painting, keeping up with the sketches (clever you!) AND camping! Well done!!Hope the weather stays decent for you, it’s lovely today. Best wishes,
Pat
Haha, thanks so much for this Patricia, I’m certainly a more happy soul when I’m camping (and especially so if it’s not raining!). The weather wasn’t spectacular, but it was fine with the odd burst of sunshine. All in all, it was a wonderfully restorative trip!
Woo hoo!! Good luck 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Thanks so much Louise, and yes, I’ll also be keeping my fingers crossed too!