President’s Palette

Darn! Time surely goes quickly when you’re having fun. Or some such nonsense. Anyway, it’s time for one of my immortal missives, aka my President’s Letter. (I figured that if I put it in caps, it gains in importance.)

Let’s see. What’s been going on in BWS? Well, our very fine newsletter editor, Devin Lulu, has decided to pay some attention to his own art life and has resigned. BUT, being Devin, he picked a very fine new newsletter editor, Kia Penso, to take over for him. Welcome, Kia! We’re so happy and thankful to have you as a member of our board. And while I’m thinking of thankfulness, I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! I’m thankful that you all, each and every one of you, is a Baltimore Watercolor Society member.

Also, we had our jurying for signature membership at the end of October and approved the greatest number of new signature artists ever! YAY! I loved seeing all the beautiful watercolors that were submitted and wished, with the rest of our board members, that we could have approved every single applicant but alas, it’s not possible. Truly, a lot of outstanding work was seen and discussed. And discussed, and discussed. All of us boardies take this job very seriously. As we should, because you’ve had the courage to put your work out there. It’s critical that we pay attention.

Which leads me to another point: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I hate to see people discouraged. We have Signature Artist jurying twice a year; if you didn’t make it in October, don’t give up. Try at the end of February. You can do it! Don’t count how many attempts you’ve made. Count only your joy when you’re accepted as a Signature Artist.

Today, I went to our Mid-Atlantic Competition exhibit. And I learned something. What did I learn? That there are many valid ways to paint in watercolor; there is no one right way. Do what you like but do it well. And do yourself a favor. Don’t miss this beautiful once-a-year show. It’s truly awesome, in the original sense of the word. One hundred different paintings with different subjects and styles. Outstanding!

Speaking of the Mid-Atlantic, when I went to Kentlands Mansion to meet the juror, a few of us boardies sat out in the garden and had lunch together. We ate and we chatted and we compared notes on different materials, such as paper and paint and brushes, when all of a sudden, Betty Myers piped up and said, this has been so much fun. I wish we could get together and hang out again. Thus was BWS Schmoozer’s Society born. Starting in the new year, let’s have pop-up meetups all over our region. To be continued... but who wouldn’t want to eat and schmooze?! To be continued.

By the time this letter is published, our 140^th birthday celebration will be over. Knowing Timbuktu and our members, we will have had a rousing good time. More next month.

And, that’s all she wrote. Always remember, we are ALL Baltimore Watercolor Society.

Jennifer Kohn Murtha
President, Baltimore Watercolor Society

Luis Perez accepts the BWS Silver Medal in Memory of Alice Webb (courtesy of Glen Webb) from BWS President Jennifer Kohn Murtha.

Donor Ron Spicer displays the Jean Spicer Memorial Award package, awarded to E. Jane Stoddard (who was unable to attend).

Takayo Hatakeyama accepts her BWS Excellence Award.

Mimi Hegler accepts the Ginny (Virginia) Baier Memorial Award from Donor Rebecca Rothney.

An Invitation to Contribute to Allen Abend’s Book about The Baltimore Water Color Club

Jim Sandford, Mid-Atlantic Exhibition Chair

BWS is working with Allen Abend, a local author who is writing a book about the Baltimore Watercolor Society (BWS) and its predecessor, the Baltimore Water Color Club (BWCC).  We are helping him by sharing our historical records and putting him in contact with members who wish to contribute.  The project is expected to take another year or two to complete.

Allen is a retiree/author who has written several books about Baltimore art history including

• Baltimore's Forgotten Women: Painters and Printmakers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
  
• The Charcoal Club of Baltimore: 138 Years of Mastery & Merriment
  
• Maryland's Treasure and Burden: Baltimore's Peabody Institute Art Collection
  
• Louis Rosenthal. Baltimore Sculptor
  

Allen does the work because he loves it.  He self publishes and jokes that the more books he sells, the more money it costs him.  

Progress on the book is moving right along.  Allen has interviewed a number of current and past BWS members and has been systematically working through the historical archives.  Some of you have met Allen at recent BWS events.  The book will also feature some of the artwork of past and present BWS/BWCC members.

If you have memories, stories, old photos, records, exhibition catalogs, or other materials that could help reconstruct the history of BWS and BWCC, these could be of great interest to Allen and we’d love to hear from you.  (We’d also like to capture any records (or copies of them) in the BWS archives.)  Please contact Jim Sandford, sandford.jim@baltimorewatercolorsociety.org, or text or call 667-786-2105 and so I can put you in touch with Allen or work with you to gather or borrow historical materials you might have.

If you know others who you think would be good contributors, please encourage them to come forward, as well.

For your information, Allen sells his books via the Kelmscott bookshop in Savage Mill (formerly on 25th St. in Balto.)  It’s not a shop you can walk into, but you shop on their website kelmscottbookshop.com and they ship books to you or you can pick them up at Savage Mill.

Thanks for considering this request.  We are really looking forward to seeing Allen’s book—it’s going to be great.

The record shows that the Baltimore Water Color Club (BWCC, the predecessor to the Baltimore Water Color Society) held no Annual Exhibition in 1907. The 13th Annual Exhibition took place in March 1906, probably at the YWCA, and the 14th Annual Exhibition was held at the Maryland Institute in April 1908.

The main source for this information about BWCC exhibitions is the American Art Annual, a semi-regular (not quite “annual)” publication chronicling arts organizations across the country between 1898 and the 1920s.  The 1908 edition cites both the 1906 exhibition and the anticipated 1908 exhibition. I’ve left a few of the other Baltimore entries in the list so you can see other things that were going on at the time.

We don’t have an explanation for the missing annual exhibition in 1907, so when in doubt, change the subject.  This was apparently a time of change for the club and the arts in Baltimore in general.  I can find no newspaper reviews of the 1906 show but 1908 reviews were very enthusiastic.  

(Let’s agree to set aside the use of the word “dainty” in the April 7 review.)  A subsequent April 25 article concluded that there was a strong positive trend in the BWCC’s activities and the Baltimore arts scene in general.

We can also note from the 1908 American Arts Annual that Dora Murdoch was BWCC president at the time.  Dora is generally agreed to be the second BWCC President.  We can use other American Arts Annual editions to narrow down the transition from Swan Harvey Beacham (a.k.a. Mrs. Harrison T. Beacham) to Dora Murdoch.  Listings in 1898, 1899, and 1900 name Beacham as BWCC President.  1903 lists Dora Murdoch.  The switch from Beacham to Murdoch happened between 1900 and 1903.  

By 1920 Lilian GIffen was President (note that Murdoch remains on the leadership team as Correspondence Secretary).  Lilian is generally considered to be a charter member of BWCC, but not considered a founder since she was not present at the original BWCC meeting (she was 15 in 1885).

It may be that there was a point in the mid-1910s when Dora Murdoch needed to step down from the Presidency but a replacement was not immediately available.  So perhaps Beacham reassumed the role on a temporary basis to fill the gap, until Giffen stepped up.  

With plenty of room for adjustment, we can use the following as a framework for the first four BWCC Presidencies:

1. Swan Harvey Beacham   1885 to early 1900s
   
2. Dora Murdoch   early 1900s to mid 1910s
   
3. Swan Harvey Beacham  mid-1910s to late-1910s 
   
4. Lilian Giffen  late 1910s to TBD
   

We will try to refine these dates in future installments.

In addition to donating towards a Mid-Atlantic award, Holbein has provided 15ml sample paint tubes as hand-outs/door prizes for BWS workshops.

Learn about the Potomac Valley Watercolorists, one of our BWS Mid-Atlantic Sponsors of Awards. Perhaps you'll want to join them. Visit www.potomacvalleywatercolorists.org for more information.