The Annual Hawaii Watercolor Society Member’s Show opened this week and is on view at Ho’omaluhia Botannical Gardens, a favorite spot for members to draw inspiration from. On online catalogue of the winners and artists showing can be seen here.

HWS recently changed its focus to include water based media and to encourage experimentation and innovation in its membership. This means that acryllic paintings are now accepted and hopefully will change the breadth of both technique and approach to be seen in future shows. It was apparently a debated topic, but since I am relatively new to the group, I am unfamiliar with the views of my fellow members.

I think that innovation and challenging oneself as an artist is important, otherwise the risk is that you become technically accomplished but lose the emotional connection and rationale for your work. It becomes decorative or in the worst case, kitsch. So I am very curious to see the next show this fall and see what kind of new work will be submitted and accepted into the show.

HWS has sponsored several workshops to challenge working in different materials and genres and they will be continuing to hold other interactive workshops for members in the future, sharing within our membership in addition to inviting established masters to come to and give us a vitamin kick of inspiration and encouragement.

For myself, I have been experimenting with casein and other means of painting with water, not the least of which I discovered recently the beauty of oxides on ceramics.