Transparent Watercolor Society of America 46th Annual National Juried Exhibition

Eighty paintings from transparent watercolor artists from across the country are on display. Works include a wide variety of subjects from landscapes and portraits to abstracts.

According to the Transparent Watercolor Society of America (TWSA):

All watercolor pigments applied in a transparent manner allow light to penetrate the layers of glazes and reflect back through the pigments from the paper below. The whites are brilliant paper left unpainted. This light, reflecting off the white of the paper, makes the medium work.

White paint is by its very nature opaque, not transparent; it covers up what is underneath. It also permanently changes the surface of the area it has covered and its use can be both noticeable and unattractive. No white paint is accepted. Artists are required to preserve the white of the paper’s surface wherever a white statement is intended.

While white paint interferes with the natural transparency of the medium, the use of transparent watercolor paint includes pigments classified as ‘opaque’ , such as the cadmiums and others which are acceptable as long as they are applied largely in a transparent manner. The focus on the way paint is applied to the paper, ‘in a transparent manner’, is to allow the white paper to create luminosity rather than, ‘in an opaque manner’, which obscures the reflected light. This shifts the emphasis from a discussion of pigment to the way in which pigment is applied. In practical terms, if the texture of the paper can be seen through a dark area of the painting, or there is an undulation of value or color(s) within it, then it is not ‘opaque’. However, if the area shines, then the light is reflecting off of the pigment and not from the paper underneath.