Watercolor West History
The catalyst for the birth of Watercolor West took place at Mt. Carmel, Utah when a group of California painters from Redlands California were taking a workshop with Milford Zornes in May, 1967. These students enjoyed the transparent watercolor techniques they were taught and complained to Zornes about how little transparent watercolor was being taught along with the lack of exhibits at the time. At the time, most exhibits included a majority of water based media such as acrylic, ink, gouache, tempera and mixed media. Zornes suggested that they should start a watercolor society that would promote and exhibit only transparent watercolor and he offered to be their advisor.
Upon their return to Southern California, informal meetings began and in 1967 Watercolor West was born. The founding members were Ann Blessner, Doris Cook, Pat Fullerton, Rosemary Hite, Signe Holechek, Millie Purvis and Mary Rabe. Others soon joined including Joanna Mersereau who designed the logo for the society which is still used today.
Our First Annual Exhibit was held in an empty storefront in Redlands, California. It was a non-juried show that featured the work of ten watercolor artists. In January 1969, officers were elected and later that year the first juried exhibit took place in the Lyons Gallery in Redlands. The following year, distinguished watercolorists Rex Brandt and Joan Irving Brandt were invited to act as jurors for the Annual Exhibit which was now held at the Riverside Art Center in Riverside, California (now known as the Riverside Museum of Art). Thus began a tradition to invite some of the nation’s most renowned watercolorists to jury the show.
In 1973, at the suggestion of Robert E. Wood, Watercolor West established Signature membership status and invited members that had exhibited in three juried annuals to become Signature members. That August the organization was incorporated.
In 2022 , Watercolor West included a new Masters category for all those who had been in ten or more Juried Annual shows.
Starting in the early 1970’s annual catalogs were printed. They were in a 5.5 x 11.5 inch format in black and white showing the award winning paintings. In 1991, the entire show was shown in black and white and in 1997 the award winners were in color. In 1998 the format size was doubled and the entire show was printed in color.
Throughout our history Watercolor West has moved to various venues. In 1985 we moved from Riverside Museum to The City of Brea Gallery then to Coastline College Art Gallery in Newport Beach. This year, 2025, the 57th International Juried Show will be held at Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in the city of Orange.
Watercolor West Medallions
You have probably noticed the beautiful ceramic medallions hanging next to the award winning paintings at the annual exhibitions. At the end of each show they go home with the fortunate artist. Wondering about their history we contacted Bonnie Beaux Fullerton, the maker of many of the medallions. Bonnie Beaux is an artist and teacher and is the daughter-in-law of Pat Fullerton, one of the founding members of Watercolor West. Here is her reply:
“The medallions have been around since almost the beginning. Pat made the original press mold out of plaster and pressed a wad of clay into it, pulled it out, cleaned it, dried it and fired it in kiln. It was very laborious. I took over in 2004 and made multiple molds from that one master and slip cast them with low fire liquid clay to speed up the process. I also added the mother of pearl luster coat, which requires a third firing and really good ventilation and lots of electricity to power the kiln. I have always loved the style of font she created in that original medallion. It’s classic Pat.”
