2026 Member Exhibits and Jurying Deadlines

Interested in applying to be juried for Signature Membership?

The registration period is August 1, 2026–October 3, 2026. Jurying will take place October 17, 2026.

Nonmembers seeking information can find it on the BWS home page under "upcoming events." Drag down to open a listed subject with "jurying."

Associate members will be emailed a notification with a link to detailed information.

Our Summer Signature Member Exhibit opens August 7 at The Creative Alliance Gallery in Baltimore and runs to September 25.  

Stay tuned for details of the Winter Signature Member Exhibit at the Delaplaine Gallery in Frederick, MD. 

BWS Recognizes Winning Student Painters for 2026

To encourage Baltimore County high school students' continued interest in water media art, BWS grants awards to up to three students working in watercolor, acrylic, casein, egg tempera, or ink, which are the media we allow in our member exhibitions. The award winners for 2026 were:

Signature member Jim Kuhlman graciously made the selection of the award winners this year, and presented the awards, along with the following observations on the artworks:

Jayden’s mixed media piece, Unnatural Selection, checks every box for me as a judge and as an artist. It has a seemingly endless series of surprises for any viewer, from its variety of media, to its popping out of the mat, to its toying with scale to its unorthodox presentation and, finally, to its brilliantly involving social statement. There is no aspect of it that disappoints or bores. It really is a work of art.   Congratulations, Jayden.

Leslie’s acrylic painting, Dreams, is classical in almost every sense.   Combining one of her loves, dance, with another, painting, is a sure ticket to a meaningful and successful work. The color scheme seems deceptively simple at first, pink, until the viewer searches through the warms and cools in both the satin as well as the shadows and then revels in the subtleties and textures. The off-center composition unknowingly arrests any viewer, and the complexity of diagonals keep you there enjoying the glow emanating from the elegant shoes.   Congratulations, Leslie.

Casie’s painting, Handwash Microcosm, does justice to its title. It is a little world unto itself. It is also a painting within a painting, in which the joy with which she obviously approached the water itself merited a canvas to itself but she goes on to reward the viewer further with the play on scale in the miniature figures. The intersecting diagonals serve to keep the viewer’s eyes right where she wants them as we frolic and bathe just as her tiny population. Congratulations, Casie.

Jayden Cole, "Unnatural Selection"

Leslie Fletcher, "Dreams"

Casie Situ, "Handwash Microcosm"

Information on the Upcoming All-Member Online Exhibition

From Pigment to Pixels

Helping to bridge the gap as we transition from Fall to Spring Mid-Atlantic exhibitions, this online exhibition will be open to all BWS Members and will appear on the BWS Virtual Gallery beginning in November.  Each BWS member is invited to submit one watermedia painting image for inclusion in the exhibition.  The entry fee will be $20.

The juror of awards will be Pittsburgh-based artist Jeannie McGuire.  There will be two sets of awards, one set for Signature members, the other for Associate and Student members.  Each set will include: 1st place: $400, 2nd place: $300, 3rd place $200, plus three honorable mentions $100 each.  Award winners will be announced by mid-October.

Since this is an online exhibition, there will be no size restrictions for paintings (big or small).

Entry will be via CaFÉ September 1–30.  (We use CaFÉ because it provides the system to do the online awards jurying.)  An application code and instructions will be sent to all BWS members in late August.  The exhibition prospectus will be viewable on CaFÉ.

Taking advantage of the online format of the exhibition, your painting does not need to be for sale and may be framed or not.   When you apply, you will be asked to specify one of the following, which prospective buyers will be able to see:

• Price is for unframed painting
• Price is for unframed painting and will work with buyer to arrange framing at additional cost
• Price includes frame (artist will share information about framing with prospective buyers)
• Painting is not for sale

If BWS is contacted regarding purchase of an artwork, BWS will provide the artist with contact information for the prospective buyer. All sales are to be completed by the artist. The artist will notify BWS if the painting is purchased, so it can be marked as sold on the online presentation. There is no gallery commission (yay!) but BWS requires payment of a 10% commission on all sales paid within 30 days of the sale. Sales tax is the responsibility of the artist.  Sales inquiries received after March 1, 2027 will no longer require a 10% commission to BWS.

Note that we won't be posting images on the Baltimore Art Billboard as was done in the previous Pigment to Pixels exhibition.

And don’t forget to plan your submissions to the next Mid-Atlantic Regional Watercolor Exhibition which will take place April–May 2027 at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia.  CaFÉ will be open for Mid-Atlantic submissions (one or two submissions per artist) December 2026 through January 2027 (which is not that far off).

Questions or comments welcome, please contact sandford.jim@baltimorewatercolorsociety.org.

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.