The International Watercolour Masters (IWM) is an organization that, through annual competitions, features paintings by the world’s elite watercolour stars. IWM Masters are officially recognised as being at the pinnacle of their art. In the 2022 competition, San Diego Watercolor Society (SDWS) member Keming Chen was recognized as one of the “Top 200” artists who had entries for the competition. His painting “Desolate Garden” was given the “Top 200 Merit Award” by the IWM out of 3725 entries. The IWM Competition is open to all watercolor artists worldwide, once a year. Paintings must be pure watercolor, utilizing no acrylic, collage, oil, pastel or crayon.  The submitted works may have been painted at any time.

Entry dates for 2022 IWM were from 9/16/2021 to 10/25/2021. The Contest was judged by an esteemed and honorable jury of 24 distinguished judges, Masters, and watercolor experts. The contest first stage selected the top 300 artists, from all 3725 entrants, on 11/26/2021. The second and final stage of judging narrowed winners down to the top 200 artists on 12/22/2021. The Top 200 Merit Awards Certificates (see below) were sent to winners through Facebook Messenger or email from David Poxon of the IWM. What an honor for Mr. Chen to have received one of those notices!

No gallery exhibition took place in 2021 because of COVID-19. This year, however, there is a plan to have an exhibition of the six First Place winners’ paintings together with 39 pre-selected Masters in Lilleshall Hall, Shropshire, England from May 16 to May 29 2022.

More information may be found from IWM website:  www.InternationalWatercolourMasters.com

This entry was posted on Monday, January 10th, 2022 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.