Sterling Edwards Watercolor Workshop

Last week I traveled to Fort Worth, Texas to attend a 3-day watercolor workshop given by Sterling Edwards under the auspices of the Society of Watercolor Artists (SWA). It was an excellent workshop with about 20 mostly local artists. Sterling is one of the best teachers I have experienced.

In addition to a birch forest scene demo at the SWA meeting the evening before, Sterling did many demonstrations at the workshop: a barn scene, a monochromatic value study, tree demos, flowers, a waterfall, examples of three different dramatic skies, a European street scene, several demos of negative painting, and an abstract. He was willing to demonstrate anything people asked about. Sterling teaches a “4-step process” that describes the sequence that he works in. He also demonstrated a unique method of using bristle brushes for watercolor paintings, and an interesting physical palette design that I’ll be trying out. He provided individual help, a critique on the final day, and lots of philosophy and jokes along the way. I painted two half-sheets and two quarter-sheets during the “free time”. I’m holding one of these with Sterling in the accompanying image.

Sterling also paints in acrylics and oils, and is a founding member and teacher of Art Academy Live. He would be an excellent teacher for one of our arts organizations to host in central Arkansas.

Mid-Southern Watercolorists Gold Award

This year the 37th Annual Mid-Southern Watercolorists Juried Exhibition included 38 paintings selected from 172 entries submitted by members from 9 states, and I felt fortunate to have my painting Biker juried into the exhibit. The exhibit is ongoing until May 19 at the Cox Creative Center, 2nd floor, 120 Commerce Street, Little Rock, AR 72201. It is a terrific venue... one can stand in the center of the exhibit area and see almost all of the paintings without having to walk from room to room.

Last night awards were announced, and I was extremely pleased to receive the Gold Award, the top award, for my painting. It was a real honor to be highly placed among so many excellent watercolor artists, and an experience that I won't forget for a long time.

Biker was also selected by the Arkansas Art Center as part of an 18-painting traveling exhibit that will be shown in vairous venues around Arkansas during the rest of 2007.

Welcome to my new blog

Well, I've finally decided to put a blog on my website. It should be a simple way for me to update people on news and events related to my painting activities. This is still somewhat of an experiment; I'm not sure just how useful it will be, but I decided I'd never know without trying it out. I'm not planning to post regularly, just when there's a good reason, as I still need to protect some time for my painting.

You can get to this blog directly, using the path http://www.jimoberst.com/blog.html, or by choosing the Blog link at the top of any of my website pages. I welcome your comments.

If you'd like to sign up to receive email updates whenever there is a new post, there is a button at the bottom of the page for this purpose.