Myself, Bonnie Barrett and Jean Watson, President of the Alaska Watercolor Society

During a few days we were in Anchorage we were given the opportunity to meet members of the Alaska Watercolor Society. Anchorage is a large city with a small population. Flat with wide streets and open fields the city seems to go on forever even though only a little over 200,000 people live there. Alaskans are proudly independent and can seem somewhat eccentric, Alaska is truly the last American frontier. The pictures below are from the 2007 exhibition. The winners of the 2008 exhibition can be seen here. The 2007 exhibition was hung in the Anchorage Museum, a world class museum downtown with a gallery dedicated to state arts organizations and exhibition. To my mind this is indicative of the pride the state has in the local culture and their own artists. I choose only the paintings that represented ways Alaskans see themselves and their state. These paintings, I can say from personal experience, are representative of the state, her people and landscape.

The Alaska Watercolor Society has about 400 members with most of the members residents of the state but including artists from throughout the United States. The interest of the organization is in giving back to the community, opening the membership to more people, supporting art education, providing workshops from nationally known instructors, providing scholarships and generally promoting Alaskan art in their state and world wide.

Membership is open to residents of the United States 18 years old and older, membership information can be found at: http://www.akws.org/membership.htm.

Paintings from the 2007 Juried Exhibition.

"Why the Team Wins, 2007 Iditarod Cachet" - Sharon Palmer	"Refuge Cove Marina" - Marilyn Lee
"Moose Pass" - Elizabeth Hatton	"September Glory" - Linda M Spearman
"Five Crows" - Teiko Shimazaki	"Reeds in Current" - Sue Zajac
"The Hunter" - Lura Elverson White	"Peachy Keen Glacier" - Chris Tower Zafren

The Alaska Watercolor Society can be contacted at:

Alaska Watercolor Society
P. O. Box 90714
Anchorage, AK 99509-0714

http://www.akws.org/

Past Featured Societies :

---