Endorphine Art School

1st International Watercolor Festival
Rivers of Color

ANNOUNCEMENT

The International Watercolor Society (IWS) represented by IWS Irina Endorphine Art in coordination with IWS Mexico and the Secretary of Culture of Alcaldía Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, call on watercolor artists of all nationalities to participate in its 1° International Watercolor Festival “Rivers of Color” that will take place from September 28 to October 19, 2023.

During the festival there will be an exhibition of 100 previously selected works, as well as competitions and live demonstrations of artists.

RULES OF THE EXHIBITION:

Theme: Free, all themes are welcome

Participating: artists of all nationalities over 18 years old.

Size: 56 x 38 cm in horizontal or vertical format.

Maximum number of works: participants may submit a maximum of 3 works of their authorship.

Medium: 95% transparent watercolor on paper.

Other characteristics:

Collage, pastel, Indian ink, gouache, stylographs, and other media will not be accepted.  Digital images or any form of digital editing, reproduction, or printing will not be accepted, either.

The work must be original, made in the years 2022-2023 and should not have been previously exhibited in any IWS exhibition.

Works made in class, copies or works similar to those of other artists or based on public sources or references not attributed to the author will not be accepted.

Registration deadline: August 1.

The individual registration of each participating work must be made by filling out the form at the following link: https://endorphine-art.com/exposicion.

Image of the work: in the registry only one image per work will be accepted which must be perfectly cropped without including passepartout (mat) or frame. 

Image format: 3 to 5 MB, 300 dpi resolution with a minimum of 1500 pixels on its longest side.  

File name: “Country Author_Title_Measures_Yearofproduction.jpg”

Participation fee: 

The general participation fee will be $1,300 Mexican pesos or US$70 per work.  

The fee for current and former students of IWS Irina Endorphine.Art School will be $1,100 Mexican pesos or US$60 per work.

Fees will only be paid for works selected by the jury for exhibition.

Sale of the works: The exhibited works may be sold at the price indicated by the artist during their registration. If this field is left blank, it will be assumed that they are not for sale.

For each work sold during the exhibition, the Organizing Committee will retain 30% of the price indicated in the registration form. The sale amount received will be sent to the artist discounting the commission retained by the Organizing Committee. 

Copyright: The Organizing Committee reserves the right to exhibit and record video of the participating works for promotional purposes only.

Reception and return of works: The selected works must be delivered or sent to the physical address indicated in the selection notification. If the artist prefers to send his work already framed, he must inform the Organizing Committee.  Deadline for receipt of selected works in physical (framed): September 22.  

Once the exhibition is over, the works will be returned, directly to the gallery or sent to the address recorded in the registry.

Each participating artist will assume the shipping and return costs of their work (s).

Printing of works: The Organizing Committee has considered the printing of works in high quality EXCLUSIVELY for artists living outside Mexico who wish to do so. The printing will have an additional cost of $450 Mexican pesos (US$25 US dollars) per work. After the event, the prints can also be sent to the artist who must pay the shipping costs.

Virtual exhibition: all the works selected for the physical exhibition (on-site) and winning works of all competitions will be published free of charge in the virtual version of the Festival (website) open to the public.

Discounts:

  • Current and former students of IWS Irina Endorphine.Art School will have a discount of $200 Mexican pesos (US$10 USD) on the general participation fee as indicated above.
  • The selected works that are sent already framed, wil be validated by the Organizing Committee, and if the frame is accepted, they will have a discount per work of $ 300 Mexican pesos (US $ 15 US dollars).
  • There will be no discounts on participation fees for contests.

JURY:

The jury who will evaluate the works for the international exhibition will be composed of prestigious international artists and members of the International Watercolor Society (IWS), who will select the 100 works that will participate in the exhibition and determine the winners of this contest. 

The rating will be completely anonymous.  The decisions of the jury are final.

Evaluation criteria:

  • Watercolor technique
  • Quality based on artistic skills according to the type of each work (for example: anatomy, perspective, composition, color, etc.)
  • Artistic expressiveness
  • Outstaning idea

Jury members:

  • Atanur Dogan (IWS President and Founder), Turkey-Canada
  • Tere Lojero (IWS Mexico Leader and IWS Vice President), Mexico
  • Sareh Mohebeian Zadeh (IWS Sareh Art Gallery Leader and IWS Vice President), Russia
  • Hong Chan (IWS China Leader and IWS Vice President), China
  • Amit Kapoor (IWS India Leader and IWS Vice President), India
  • Isabel Moreno Alosete (IWS Spain Leader), Spain
  • Zahra Hamze (IWS MoonArt Demy Leader), Iran
  • Kauser Hossain (IWS Bangladesh Leader), Bangladesh
  • Elizabeth Uribe (IWS Titicaca Puno Peru Leader and IWS Manager), Peru
  • Gonzalo Vargas Garrido (IWS Chile Leader), Chile

AWARDS:

Five works from the international exhibition will be awarded:

  • First place: $20,000 Mexican pesos (US$1,000 US dollars).
  • Second place: $10,000 Mexican pesos (US$500 US dollars).
  • Third place: $5,000 Mexican pesos (US$250 US dollars).
  • Fourth and Fifth places: art supplies.
  • The top 20 works will receive a special Top 20 certificate.
The prizes will be awarded in cash to the winners or by PayPal for artists abroad.

Creditors of prizes who, due to various circumstances, cannot attend the awards, may send a representative, attaching a power of attorney letter with autograph signature, in which they are empowered to receive the corresponding prize in their name. In case of doubts, please contact the Organizing Committee.

All participating artists will receive a participation certificate.

The exhibit awards ceremony and Festival inauguration will take place on Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 6:00 p.m Central Time, at the Casa de Cultura San Rafael in Colonia San Rafael, Mexico City, Mexico.

The exhibition will be open to the public from October 1 to 19, 2023 from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

FESTIVAL CALENDAR AND TIMES:

Activity

Date

Deadline for receipt of images and registration in application form

August 1, 2023

Notice to the artists of the 100 selected works

August 14, 2023

Deadline for requesting works to be printed (artists abroad)

August 27, 2023

Deadline for receipt of exhibition fees for selected works 

August 27, 2023

Deadline for receipt of selected works in physical (framed)

September 22, 2023

Awards Ceremony for Expo Winners and Festival Inauguration

September 28, 2023

Contests and live demonstrations

September 28 to October 1, 2023

Awards Ceremony for Contests Winners 

October 1, 2023

Closing of the Festival

October 19, 2023

CONTESTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS:

During the Festival, 5 on-site watercolor competitions and various artists’ live painting demonstrations will be held on the set dates and times. 

General rules to participate in the contests:

Theme: The theme will be specified for each contest as appropriate: human figure, landscape, portrait, still life, or abstract art.

Participating: artists of all nationalities over 18 years old.

Registration: must be done via website together with the contest payment at

https://endorphine-art.com/concursos-iws no later than the day before each contest.  One hour before the start of the contest, participants must show up with an official identification to validate their registration.

Capacity: limited.

Materials: during the registration to the contest, the Organizing Committee will give each participant paper (half sheet of professional watercolor paper 56 x 38 cm, 300 g / m2 with individual registration number) at no additional cost.  The rest of the materials are at the participant’s expense.

Medium: 95% transparent watercolor on paper. Collage, pastel, Indian ink, gouache, stylographs, and other media, digital images or any form of digital editing, reproduction or printing will not be accepted.

Format: horizontal or vertical. 

For the human figure, portrait and still life contests, participants will be distributed in several groups with a model for each group in order to facilitate visibility for all artists.

For the landscape contest, a comfortable and safe space is considered. Artists must bring their own materials for plein-air except for paper (easel, chair, paintings, etc.). The cost of transportation is included in the contest fee.

Duration and place of each contest: 4 hours.  Each participant may submit only 1 work for each contest which must be carried out in the indicated facilities.

Delivery of works: when finishing the works, no later than the date and time specified for the end of the contest, they must be delivered for review by the jury. 

During the competitions there will be access to drinking water, bathrooms, and sinks.

Lunch food: Food is not included in the contest costs, but there will be suggestions for nearby places.

Participation: each artist can participate in one or several competitions in addition to the international exhibition.  Participation is optional in either case.

Fees:

Contest

Fee

1.Human Figure

$950 Mexican pesos (US$55 American dollars)

2.Landscape

$700 Mexican pesos (US$40 American dollars)

3.Portrait

$950 Mexican pesos (US$55 American dollars)

4.Abstract Art

$500 Mexican pesos (US$25 American dollars)

5.Still Life

$500 Mexican pesos (US$25 American dollars)

Exhibition of works: all the winning works of each contest will be exhibited in the same space as the international exhibition at no additional cost. Likewise, the works will be published in the virtual version of the Festival (website) open to the public.

Sale of the works: In case of being interested in selling their work, at the end of the contest, the participant must write the desired price with pencil on the back of their work and notify the Organizing Committee.  The sale of works of competitions will be governed by the same guidelines of the sale of works of the international exhibition indicated above.

Copyright: The Organizing Committee reserves the right to exhibit and record video of the participating works and their creation process during the contest for promotional purposes only.

Return of works of competitions: at the end of the exhibition, the winning works of competitions that are exhibited and have not been sold, will be returned to the artists under the same guidelines of the international exhibition indicated above. The costs for sending works will be covered by the artists who cannot collect them directly.

The non-winning works created during competitions will be delivered to artists at the end of the contests awards ceremony.

Evaluation of competitions works and awards: to determine the winners, the works created during competitions will be evaluated by a jury composed of prestigious artists with experience in each of the themes of the contests.

Evaluation criteria: they will be the same as the evaluation criteria of the international exhibition indicated above.

Awards of the contests:

3 works from each contest will be awarded prizes:

  • First place: $5,000 Mexican pesos (US$250 US dollars).
  • Second and Third places: art supplies.

The prizes will be awarded in cash to the winners or by PayPal for artists abroad who are not present during the awards.

Creditors of prizes who, due to various circumstances, cannot attend the awards, may send a representative, attaching a power of attorney letter with autograph signature, in which they are empowered to receive the corresponding prize in their name.

All participating artists will receive a participation certificate.

The awards ceremony for all contests will take place on Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 18:00 hrs, at the Casa de Cultura San Rafael in Colonia San Rafael, Mexico City, Mexico.

CONTACT:

For MORE INFORMATION please contact the Organizing Committee:

Email: [email protected]

Web Page:  https://endorphine-art.com/convocatorias

Name/Language

Phone

Irina Yushmánova  IWS EndorphineArt 

Spanish – English – Russian

+525561442806  (only WhatsApp)

Ivette Herrera

Spanish – English

+525554033391

Fanny Álvarez

Spanish – English

+525521487458

Silvia Luna

Spanish – English

+525527533686

Patricia González

Spanish

+525527023757

Claudia Hernández

Spanish – English

+525566080286

SPONSORS

In-kind prizes are provided by the following sponsors.

UNETE AL GRUPO DE PINTURA AL AIRE LIBRE EN LA CDMX (PLEIN AIR) CON PROFESORA IRINA

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