Liz Snyder
The Journal Times
Thursday, January, 18, 2024

Local artists featured in “Watercolor Wisconsin” at Racine’s Wustum Museum

RACINE — The biggest surprise about “Watercolor Wisconsin” is that it’s more than just watercolors.

The show — running through April 13 at the Wustum Museum of Fine Arts — is also open to other water-based media, including acrylic paint, egg tempera, gouache, ink, graphite and pastel.

The expansive show, which has been popular every year since it started in 1966, spreads across five galleries on two floors.

The show is different every year because the jurors change each year, too.

The Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, a campus of the Racine Art Museum at 2519 Northwestern Ave., hosts the annual statewide competition.

Limited only by their materials — aqueous media such as acrylic and watercolor — artists are free to create two- and three-dimensional works on paper.

Contemporary artists from communities throughout the state bring both traditional and experimental approaches to the established guidelines, “resulting in a varied and dynamic exhibition each year,” organizers said.

This show features 96 works by 80 artists.

Jurors for the 2023 competition are Allison Peters Quinn and Beth Shadur, who selected the works on display as well as the awards recipients.

Quinn is director of exhibitions and residency programs at Hyde Park Art Center, a past holder of the International Curator Residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin, and a recipient of a Ramapo College Curatorial Prize.

Shadur is an artist who serves on both the Board of Trustees of the Illinois State Museum and the Board of the National Watercolor Honor Society, along with working as the gallery director at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Ill.

Prizes awarded include Merit, Merchandise and the distinguished Memorial Purchase Awards. Each year, three to six works are awarded this distinction and are purchased for RAM’s collection, adding to the museum’s holdings of works by Wisconsin artists and watercolor works that date back to the 1930s.

“Most of these acquisitions are made thanks to memorial contributions friends and family members have made to the museum in honor of loved ones who have died," said Bruce W. Pepich, the museum's executive director and curator of collections. "These pieces are frequently exhibited at both of our campuses and are lent to other museums for shows.

"This is a wonderful way for the museum to document the history of Wisconsin art and to honor people who have been valued members of our families and communities.”

Area artists

Participating artists from this area include:

  • Burlington: Dave Jewell.

  • Franksville: Elizabeth Haegerl.

  • Kenosha: Dean Habegger, Diane Levesque, Carlotta Miller, Don Ricchio, Sujit Sudhi, John “Unicorn” Terhardt, Dyan Tishuk and Greg Uttech.

  • Mount Pleasant: Jerrold Belland, Richard Berns, Elena Crumbaugh, Lisa Martin, Jamie McFarland and Cory Potter.

  • Racine: Regina Baker, Doris Beaudry, Christine Bohn, Margo Cuisinier, Deedee Dumont, Mary Dwyer, Lisa Englander, Alexander Greiveldinger, Ann Henkes, Paula Kalke, Jeff Kosmala, Alex Mandli, Karen Mathis, Penny Nichols, John Nowicki, Lance Raichert, Susan M. Sorenson and Kelly Witte.

  • Wind Lake: Ann Schubert.

  • Wind Point: Caye Christensen

Awards

Award winners recently announced are:

  • First Award: Christine B. Miller, Whitewater — "Mags Hosts St. Ag’s 'Loaves & Fishes' Social"

  • Second Award: Lisa Englander, Racine — "Vessel Series No. 15"

  • Third Award: Harold E. Hansen, Hartford — "Postcards I Never Sent"

  • Cassandra A. Coley Memorial Purchase Award: Helen Klebesadel, Madison — "High Summer Prairie I"

  • Edwin C. Kalke Memorial Purchase Award: Dean Habegger, Kenosha — "Tuesday Afternoon." This painting also won an Award of Merit.

  • Dr. Charles H. Patton Memorial Purchase Award: Richard Berns, Mount Pleasant — "Robert of Washington Island." This painting also won an Award of Merit.

  • Award of Merit: Carlotta Miller, Kenosha — "Harborside"

Wustum Museum is open noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, go to ramart.org.