NWS 2008 Annual Show

Call For Entries

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88th Annual Exhibition to be held August 30 – November 1, 2008 at the Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California. PLEASE NOTE: Postmark Deadline for Submissions is May 24.

Milford Zornes

With sad hearts we must inform you of the passing of an American watercolor icon Milford Zornes. The beloved painter and teacher passed away Sunday, February 24, 2008 at the age of 100. A longtime friend of artists, he was always eager to share his experience and process with other painters.

It was just a few days earlier, on Saturday, January 26, when Milford Zornes and 300 of his artist friends gathered to celebrate his life and his 100 years as a painter. The event was staged at the roof deck gallery of the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The party was sponsored by the National Watercolor Society, and aided by many of the art societies of Southern California.

Milford got out his paints and brushes and delighted his guests by working on several black and white drawings and then tackled a full sheet, full color painting. He kept up a witty commentary throughout, a lecture you would relate to a man half his age. Milford explored and explained his approach to his work: his search for an essential line, his 360 degree scene, the use of memory and sensory perceptions. As he worked he talked of his thoughts on color, on division of two-dimensional space, and of his belief that all art is “abstract.”

He closed to a standing ovation. Artists and collectors were there from Ireland, Colorado, New Mexico, from his home town of Norman, Oklahoma. The finished painting was auctioned for $7,000. Zornes donated the money to the PMCA venue and to the National Watercolor Society Building Fund.