Watercolors  by   Steve Rogers AWS, NWS

                                 Janet Rogers AWS

watercolor workshops, landscape, marine, portrait, and floral paintings

The following is a recent juror's statement about the Tri-State exhibition put on for Florida, Georgia and Alabama. It reflects my attitude as a juror.

Juror’s Statement

I’d like to thank Ann Kromhout and the Tallahassee Watercolor Society for having me serve as the juror for the 16^th Tri-State Juried Water Media Exhibition. It has been an honor and privilege to view the excellent work submitted and to select the show. All the artists represented in the exhibition should feel proud of their accomplishment. The overall high quality of the art and the fact that two pieces from each artist could be selected meant that many fine paintings were declined. I truly agonized over my choices and I would like to explain the process for the benefit of those fine artists whose work was not among the 70 accepted paintings, but space does not permit. Suffice to say that I reviewed ALL slides many times before making any decisions and even revisited the declined paintings after the final selection to be sure I was confident in my decision.

With three slides available from so many prominent artists, I chose to include two paintings from only those artists being considered for awards. There are a few acceptations to this, but my objective in doing this and in hanging the maximum number of paintings possible was to be able to include a few nice little honest paintings by some of the “non pros”. I selected these because the merit of their simple integrity outweighed including the extra piece by one of the already represented artists. Limiting the show to a smaller number of works or including more “2^nd paintings”, I feel, would have not have significantly increased  the overall quality of the exhibit without sacrificing the diversity and range of participation. This exhibit reflects the variety of subject matter and painting styles I found so attractive in the body of paintings which were entered.

I judge paintings with my heart and gut as much as with my head. This is true in the case of both abstract and representational work and it really involves a lot of subjective feeling on the part of the juror. Visual communication is a two way street and I do apologize where the failure to understand a given work lies with my insensitivity or natural bias. I sincerely tried to divorce myself from any prejudices of which I am aware, but if we choose to participate in figure skating or painting for a competition we have to accept the subjective nature of the beast. The nice thing about most watercolor competitions is that I, like most judges, will have to put on my other hat as a submitting painter, go to the mailbox and feel my “self-addressed stamped envelope” to see if my slides were returned or whether I made the next show I apply to.

As I write this I am looking forward to coming to Tallahassee to complete the very difficult job selecting the awards. I remember doing my first public demo at the Florida Watercolor Society when the exhibit was at the Capitol Gallery in 1982. I had rarely painted in front of anyone let alone such a notable group of artists. I was nervous as hell and my painting hand shook so much I had to steady it with my left. This demo led to teaching a workshop at FSU for Mary Jo Weale, which led to other workshops, which led to occasionally serving as a juror. Her name was written in magic marker on the Kodak carousel box Ann sent me to return the selected paintings. Small world!

Again Congratulations to all you exhibiters and all the award winners!

Steve Rogers

 Steve is available to serve as Juror / Judge. He has been the sole Juror and Judge for the following watercolor societies:

Suncoast Watercolor Society, Longboat Key Center for the Arts, Longboat Key, FL. 2004

Tri-State Watercolor Society, LeMoyne Art Foundation, Tallahassee, FL 2004

Miami Watercolor Society, One Brickell Square, Miami, FL 2001

Palm Beach Watercolor Society, Crest Theater Galleries, Delray Beach, FL 2000

Jacksonville Watercolor Society, St. Augustine Art Center, St. Augustine, FL 2000

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Copyright © 2003 Rogers Art All paintings and photographs
Last modified: October 30, 2007