We have a diverse range of watercolour talents, and members, both professional and amateur, number about 450, take part in yearly events including workshops, critiques, painting days and major exhibitions. Whether artist, student, art lover or collector you will find much of interest here.

The society is based in Wellington but new members from throughout New Zealand are welcome.

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BROWSE ARTISTS DIRECTORY

FROM THE PRESIDENT

It has been a full summer with great events and lots of painting! Charlotte Hird hosted a memorable four-day Paintaway on Ruapehu in December, which was attended by members from all over New Zealand; you can find the details in a wonderful article by Pete and Maryann James.

We also ran our annual Winsor & Newton NZ Summer Competition and had a record number of 58 entries! I expect this is a good reflection of a busy summer of painting; congratulations to all who entered and those who won. You can see all the entries here.

We are steaming full ahead with watercolour activities into late summer and autumn. We have an exciting outdoor painting week planned for 1–5 March around the Wellington area, and Jacky Pearson’s beginner workshop at the end of March is already fully booked.

Finally, our AGM is coming up on Sunday, 7th March in Karori, Wellington - see details. This year, for those based in other regions that would like to attend our AGM, we are offering a remote connection via Zoom. If you are interested in attending the AGM remotely, please email bookings@watercolournewzealand.nz with the subject line “AGM Online,” by 10am on Sunday 7th March.

As a society we are definitely seeing that it is an exciting time for watercolour; we have experienced record numbers of participation and sales over the last six months and it’s not stopping. Janine Gallizia (editor of The Art of Watercolour magazine) proposes we are on the cusp of a cyclic watercolour boom and encourages us to take advantage of this opportunity to reposition watercolour in the art world; have a read of Sue’s article in this newsletter - will you join the Watercolour Renaissance?

Hannah Martis
President, Watercolour New Zealand Inc.