Saturday, August 8, 2009

PWS Gold Medal 2009

Nassau #4: Bay St. Girl - 38" x 38" (97 x 97 cm)


I learned this week from Debi Watson that this painting won the 30th annual Pennsylvania Watercolor Society exhibition, which is a major show with international entries. I got the same award last year for Tokyo Express, so I'm very surprised and of course very honored. There is some fantastic work represented: John Salminen (2nd), George James (3rd), and a number of other name painters. Carol Pickle, one of my favorite artists, judge.

The opening and awards are tomorrow at Goggleworks, a totally boss art center in Reading, PA.

PART II

The opening at Goggleworks was very well-attended, there must have been hundreds of people going through the Cohen Gallery and the rest of the complex. This show has a lot of outstanding work, I saw other paintings by Denny Bond, Dottie Burton, Jeanne Dobie, Z.L. Feng, Andrew Kish, Chris Krupinski, Jean Uhl Spicer (judge 2008), Mel Stabin, James Toogood, Patrick Varriano, and many other noted watercolorists -- too many names to list. Bay St. Girl is hanging at the entrance of Goggleworks, a nice location! Thanks again to PWS, Pat Cook (juror of selection), and Carole Pickle (juror of awards). The show hangs until September 11.

42 comments:

Deb Cohan said...

Way to go, Nick.

RH Carpenter said...

Congratulations, Nick! Oh, you must be dancing on air - or maybe just playing air guitar? :)

William K. Moore said...

As beautiful as ever Nicholas - and now with proper props. It's good to see a less conventional out of the ordinary painting take top prize. It also demonstrates the judge's "in-the-know" facility and seems he/she left the show politics outside the door where it belongs. Great to see fresh work on a consistent basis - keep delivering the goods my friend.

Annaquarel.les said...

What a wonderful surprise! Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations,

Nicely done once again!!

Just wanted you to know the link for George James go to the John Salminen site.

Great job Nick, got to feel good and rewarding.

Billie Crain said...

Nick, you are on fire! Congratulations again on yet another award!

Sandy said...

Hey Nick! I didn't realize you had won another award or I would have congratulated you personally on Skype.
Well done! A beautiful painting... and as W.k.M states it is so good to see the "less conventional out of the ordinary painting take top prize"

Lori Barton said...

Bravo Nick, very well done and well deserved!

lupus said...

Nick, I feel happy as one of your friends.....¡¡Congratulations!! It's a genial work, and the award well given....I'm proud to be among your followers...your art is simply that....A R T , but good, very good art.

A big hug.

Enrique.

David Burge said...

It's one of your finest paintings and well deserving of the top award. Congratulations mate!

Deb Townsend said...

Fantastic Nick! Congrats!

Sandy Maudlin said...

Oh Yeah! Way to go!!! So glad your art is being recognized in these top shows. You are such an inspiration. (Love C. Pickle's work too.)

perugina said...

What more can one say Congratulations NNG! YAY!!!
Well deserved & Keep on rockin. Your pieces are just awesome and this one is no exception.
pg

Sandeep Khedkar said...

Hi Nick
Congratulations!!! Glad to know you topped the participants!

Myrna Wacknov said...

Congratulations! This is one of my very favorites of yours. Keep the accolades coming.

Anders Andersson said...

Great Nick!
I have scan the Internet for your paintings and you do fantastic works. I wish I sometime in the future have the luck to see one.

Fernando Pena said...

Congratulations Nick !!!! well deserved. Un abrazo

Nick said...

Deb - great to see you here, thanks!

Rhonda - thankfully I've been able to give the air guitar up, my hand is recovering from surgery and I'm playing again (real guitar!)

Bill - yes there is a lot of that in watercolor and I've been on the receiving end of it more than once. But then we all have, I expect. We should have a town hall meeting on the subject. ;)

Anna - I saw the Brioude entry and will be back over to comment very soon

Paul - thanks for the link info and the post

Bille - and I thought the a/c was broken, ha ha

Sandy - it was great talking to you, we'll connect again soon

Lori - thanks very much

Enrique - always appreciate your abrazos querido amigo

Dake - I like it, but it was blown out of a couple other shows. See above to WKM. :)

Deb - hello, always nice to see you!

Sandy - the first ptg of Carole's I saw a few yrs ago almost knocked me off my feet, man would I love to own it

Patricia - glad to see you back in the B-sphere, I'll be over soon :)

Sandeep - I'd say it's all an illusion, just like the paintings

Myrna - it's portraitists like you who keep us all on our toes and striving to do better (read: creativity and imagination)

Anders - thank you and nice to meet you, I'll check out the blog asap

Fernando - I hope you might travel up here sometime, bring Alex with you!

Pablo Villicaña Lara said...

Dude! totally awesome, I'm not surprised at all! congratulations.

Susan Liles said...

Congrats on the award! Not surprised though. Great painting!

Jose Antonio G. Villarrubia said...

Congratulations Nick!
I hope that we meet in his visit Spain.
Un abrazo.

Nick said...

Pablo - gracias amigo

Susan - gracias amiga (did I get that right? :) )

Jose - very much looking forward to meeting you there. I know I'll be in Madrid and Barcelona, maybe elsewhere too. I need to visit the Alhambra for an upcoming project, and I'd like of course to see the museum in Bilbao.

Angela said...

Congratulations Nick! This is one of my favorites of yours!

Pilar Álamo said...

Very interesting your work and your painting. I like very much your work.
An embrace from Aranjuez (Madrid)

Tonya Vollertsen said...

Congratulations on your win! I follow your blog but when I saw this painting I had to finally comment. It's my favorite one so far! I vary rarely see a painting that I would say "I wish I had done that painting".
Thanks for the interesting and inspiring blog!

Nick said...

Angela - glad you like it, thanks for stopping by

Morisot - muchas gracias, I know another Pilar from Hispacuarela. Are you on that site too? I'll be in Madrid in October, hope to meet you and other friends.

Tonya - well, I'm the opposite, heheh. I see lots of paintings I wish I had done, but I'm past the stage of allowing them to distract my direction. (usually!)

Micah Neff said...

Congrats Nick!

Nick said...

Micah - nice to see you again, thanks for posting!

milindmulick said...

great!great!the painting and the award..cheers!!
what paper do you use normally or for this one in particular.

Nick said...

Hello Milind, this is on 140 hot press, probably Fabriano. I use hot press mostly, sometimes cold, rarely rough. alway 140, don't like the heavier stuff, it doesn't even feel like paper to me.

Unknown said...

Congrats Nick! terrific double champion!!!

now I am following this blog, I won't miss this news again

Nick said...

Alex - always great to hear from you, still looking forward to that Argentine-US summit meeting!

José Antonio Sánchez Rumí said...

Nick deserved congratulations for this award, work and do good with the brush gives its fruits and that is very rewarding.
Saludos .-

Nick said...

Jose - nice to hear from you amigo, maybe we'll meet in October

Don Coker said...

Very cool piece, Nick!

Wayne said...

Hi Nick,
Congrats on winning the PWS "'Gold Medal" 'Quinella'!! It would be exceedingly rare (if not unprecedented) for an artist to take out top honours in an international major, back to back. The painting is clearly a winner, and virtuosic on many levels, not least being the fact that you have, in 'flow-aquamedia' on paper, tackled a challenging subject on a large scale.

once again, congrats!
Wayne

Nick said...

Don - sorry to have missed your post until now, thanks for stopping!

Wayne - actually I'm not sure if that's been done before. I really should also been awarded their special Sylvan Grouse medal which you need 6 lifetime points for, and I already have 10 in less than a calendar year. Unfortunately, nobody ever told me I had to be a paid member of PWS to get that. I hear something might be done about it, that would be nice. And fair.

dbond said...

It's no surprise to me that you won that award, Nick. You consistently excel in your choice of subject matter, composition and painting technique. You're setting some higher standards for the watercolor hierarchy. Keep them coming.

Nick said...

Denny - I was hoping to see you there, you're one of the handful of best painters out there that I feel a kinship with, and one of the few who keeps me inspired and nervous (if you know what I mean!). Great place for the show, much better than last year. Hope to see you around sometime soon, tovarish.

Nathalie Paradis said...

Maybe not a magazine cover but a medal !!! Not so bad !! LOL !
I love it !

Mary Lou said...

Congratulations Nick! PWS signature AND the Sylvan Grouse Guild medal in one year! Glad they came to their senses... well deserved my friend...

Nick said...

Nathalie - it was a surprise to see that preliminary cover, got the story on it

Mary Lou - wish you could have seen this show, there was a lot of really impressive work. I don't know how you judge something of this depth/quality, practically impossible.