Master watercolor realist Ian McEwan has been awarded first place in the PleinAir Salon’s monthly competition for his painting, “Morning Calm.” McEwan is president of the watercolor division of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters.

Ian McEwan, Early Morning Calm, 57×38 cm, watercolor – Winner, First place overall, August 2023 Winner-PleinAir Salon Art Competition

McEwan was born in Dundee, Scotland and studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College Art, graduating in Fine Art and printmaking with a Post Graduate Diploma in the same discipline. He also has a Merit in a teaching Certificate- Post Graduate Certificate in Secondary Education, Scotland. In 2021 Angus was elected a member of the National Watercolour Society (NWS) in California and won the NWS Masters Cash Award at the102nd International Open Exhibition in 2022. In 2022 Angus was elected President of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours.

“Morning Calm” strikes one immediately as a masterful study in light, shadow, and composition. Whether McEwan used one or not, it is instructive to impose an “armature,” meaning a diagram of the geometry underlying the major shapes and lines, onto the work. Doing so shows the painting’s apparent chaos is really energy contained. 

With the diagram in place, one sees the play between large vertical and horizontal symmetries in the backdrop architecture (gridded out with yellow lines) behind a frenetic dance of short diagonals (the canvas edges and wall shelves) crackling with oncoming energy at center stage (red lines). Perhaps this interplay between sober background spaces and clattering foreground diagonals contributes to the sense of calm before the storm the painting suggests: on one hand the motionless quiet of the studio and on the other the anticipation before the daily battle between artist and muse begins.

Ian McEwan’s Early Morning Calm with an armature imposed over top of it to highlight the composition’s geometry.

Second place went to Radhika Srinivas, PWCS, PWS, for her watercolor rendering of the statue of Mercury (in his capacity as guardian of travelers) atop the façade of New York City’s Grand Central station.

Radhika Srinivas, Mercury, 15” x 11,” watercolor. Second-Place-Overall, August 2023 Winner PleinAir Salon Art Competition

Srinivas is a signature member and the Past President of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, a signature member of the Pennsylvania watercolor Society and affiliated to the National Watercolor Society and the American Impressionist Society. She has gallery representation at the Square Pear Gallery, Kennett Square, PA.

Sheryl Knight took third place overall for Evening Glory, her oil painting of an orange, pink, and violet sunset over a watery marsh.

Sheryl Knight, Evening Glory, 12” x 16,” oil -Third-Place-Overall, August 2023 Winner PleinAir Salon Art Competition

The judge recognized Cher Pruys’s The Bubble as top entry in the “artist over 65” category. Pruys entered a painting, at once whimsical and intriguing, of urban pedestrians seemingly enveloped by a giant soap bubble streaming out of a bubble-hoop being apparatus carried by someone outside the frame.

Cher Pruys, The Bubble, oil, Painter Over 65, August 2023 Winner PleinAir Salon Art Competition.

Pastellist Albert Handell was the month’s judge. Here’s his advice on entering contests: “By all means do so if it’s by computer. You get a sense of where you fit in, or where you don’t fit in. And there’s no money for framing and shipping. It’s a good way to start.” 

The monthly PleinAir Salon rewards artists with over $50,000 in cash prizes and exposure of their work. A winning painting, chosen annually from the monthly winners, is featured on the cover of PleinAir magazine. The deadline for October is soon, so visit PleinAirSalon.com now to learn more.

 

Keep Your Eyes Wide for Realism Live

Nanci France-Vaz, Parliament of One, 7” x 5”

Whooo painted that owl? Realist artist Nanci France-Vaz did. As a figurative storyteller and modern Renaissance artists, much of her work uses allegorical symbolism to create visual stories on canvas, she says. France-Vaz draws inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelite and Naturalist periods of art, poetry, and classic literature, and film. She combines her strong foundation in life painting with imaginative backgrounds fusing classical with contemporary realism. 

France-Vas will be among the outstanding artist faculty of the fourth annual Realism Live online conference taking place next month, November 8 – 11, 2023. Review the rest of the extraordinary faculty and learn how to participate right here.