April Issue 2002
SC Watercolor Society Members Win Prestigious Awards
The American Watercolor Society has announced winners for its 135th Annual International Exhibition and two South Carolina artists are included this year. From the 1,700 entries, 112 were selected for the exhibition that will be on public display from Apr. 9 through May 5, 2002, at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. Randolph New Armstrong from Greer, SC, has won the Mary S. Litt Memorial Award of $500 for her painting, Blue Chair. Angela Bradburn from Columbia, SC, has not only been juried into the exhibition with her painting, Ripe, but also awarded signature membership into the Society.
Randolph New Amstrong
These are both outstanding accomplishments for artists working in watermedia. Of the 525 SC Watercolor Society (SCWS) members, only JoAnne Anderson, Steven Jordan, and Betty Walker have been awarded AWS signature membership. In recent years, Alex Powers and Sherry Silvers have been top exhibition award winners. Randolph New Armstrong earned her signature membership in the Georgia Watercolor Society this year but also has this status with the National Watercolor Society and the SC Watercolor Society. She has served as SCWS President in 1993 and served as Founder and first president of Friends of the Zoo and Past President of the Junior League of Greenville. Armstrong is a contemporary artist who works primarily in watermedia and collage. She said, "My art is a lifelong adventure, a gift and a joy a colorful expression to share." Her work may be found in Highlands, NC and at Gallery 5 in Rock Hill, SC. She will also have work included in an exhibit featuring Converse College alumnae to open in a new art building at Converse College, on view from Apr. 11 through May 1, 2002.
Angela
Bradburn
Angela Bradburn received a BS degree from the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a signature
member of the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor
Society, Southern Watercolor Society, and SCWS and also served
as president of SCWS in 1997. Recently, she has won Best of Show
awards in the South Carolina and Southern Watercolor Societies
annual exhibitions and last year she received the Margery Soroka
Memorial Award in the AWS 134th Annual Exhibition. Her paintings
have been included the publications such as The Collected Best
of Watercolor, Best of Watercolor, Vol. 3, and Best of
Watercolor, Painting Light and Shadow by Rockport Publishers
and South Carolina Wildlife Magazine, Mar./Apr. 1999. She
is represented by Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, SC, City Art
in Columbia, SC, and Gallery 5 in Rock Hill, SC.
The oil and watercolor paintings of Bradburn invite the viewer
to participate in her intriguing observation of light, color,
form, and texture found in nature. She pushes these relationships
to draw attention to objects often overlooked and to evoke a personal
response from the viewer. "My mother was a painter and I
remember, as a youngster, being fascinated as I watched her paint.
Today I continue to be fascinated as the process of painting challenges
me."
The American Watercolor Society (AWS) has a long-standing and prestigious reputation and has held an annual juried competition since 1867. In 1866, AWS began in New York as The American Painters in Water Color. The name changed to the American Watercolor Society in 1878. Traveling shows, first termed "rotary shows," were initiated in 1906, visiting Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and several other venues. This Traveling Exhibition continues today and is a popular booking nationally. The annual juried exhibition is open to all artists worldwide and awards now exceed $30,000 annually. Signature members number more than 500, with almost 2000 associates. At the 100th Anniversary exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1967, AWS president, Mario Cooper, proclaimed, " It is the hope of AWS that the present exhibition will make the public more conscious of the long and continuing tradition of the art of watercolor painting in American." .. a statement which remains true to this day.
Though SCWS has a shorter history than AWS, it will celebrate its 25th Anniversary this spring as it opens its 25th Annual Exhibition at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC. Dean Mitchell, who is also an AWS signature member and a past award winner, is the juror and will present a lecture on June 1.
For more information about SCWS and upcoming programs, contact Kim Richards at (richards@owt.com) or Jim Finch, SCWS President, at 803/736-2797.
Editor's Note: We tried to get similar information about NC artists included as AWS signature members.
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