President's Message - November 2011

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Last Updated on Monday, 14 November 2011 20:23

Dear Fellow Members,

I would like to offer you all some encouragement. We all need some from time to time. Entering contests and shows is a great way to get noticed by the art world. However, it does come with the possibility of having your work declined. Oh, those letters and e-mails we open with such anticipation, only to be crushed when it informs us we were declined.

What we must all remember is that this is the opinion of the juror (or jurors), on this day. If it is a national show, there may be thousands of entries. For this show, the juror had to choose 150 or 200 works out of several thousand. With such a large number of high quality works, it could come down to numbers. This is one possibility. Another is an unconscious preference for a medium or category of painting. If the juror is an artist working in watercolor, the likelihood is they love that medium and are drawn to it. Or, they could be aware of their attraction and avoid choosing watercolor no matter how wonderful it is.

If you can get a critical review from the juror it can be very helpful to you. Most of the time this is not possible, so go to a more accomplished artist than you or a former instructor and ask them to be your critic. This can help you to find areas you need to work on before entering your next contest. Keep learning, and work every day if you can. Art is like any other skill - practice, practice and more practice. The more you work, the better you get.

Keep on submitting. We have all received those letters - very well known artists get them too. Remember, you are never defeated until you quit. Keep on working!

Lin La Mer
EAFA President