Salon de l'Aquarelle de Belgique - The Watercolour Fair of Belgium

Every two years a major watercolour exhibition is held in Namur, Belgium. This is said to be one of the largest art exhibitions in Europe and attracts thousands of visitors.  It started in 1989 and the most recent in 2011 attracted artists from 20 countries. The artists are described as `prestigious artists selected during severe selections'. The biennial exhibition lasts three weeks and attracts visitors from far and wide. Namur is claimed by the organizers to be `the European Capital of watercolor (sic)' After each exhibition an Art Book, is published which presents:

 `a work in colour of each exhibiting artist and a series of articles highlighting the richness of watercolour in all its facets'. 'The next exhibition will be held from 11 May until 2 June 2013 in Namur-Expo, which is a new location first used by the association last year.The space, large and clear, give more relief and value to hundreds of works submitted by the watercolors (sic) of 20 different countries'.

The book (200 pages) can be purchased and costs 39 Euros. Postage ?

Two views of the Exhibition

`Winner Jose Mespouille'

I'm not sure exactly what this artist  has won, whether it be overall winner or in a particular section.  If any French or Belgium readers of the blog can tell me more I would like to hear from them. The painting to the right of him is by a different artist. I have looked at all the 198 paintings and none, as far as I can tell, are attributed to Jose Mespouille

Alexandra Prischedko

 Slawa Prischedko

Viktoria Prischedko

These are paintings from the Prischedko family, which are amongst the 198 shown on the website. They are a wonderfully varied set of paintings, full of colour and in many cases very adventurous. You can easily see the `realistic abstract' theme epitomised and given publicity by Keest van Aalts book `Realistic Abstracts'. The standard is generally very high. I have selected a number after looking at all 198 but I'm sure most of the others are equally worthy. Many of the artists are unknown to me and, while I haven't gone through the complete list, I was unable to find out much if anything on quite a few. Viktoria Prischedko is becoming very well known and my posts on her are the most popular on the blog. Enquiries on Google brought up information on a number but mostly from gallery or referral sites. I shall keep looking.

Roland Palmaerts

Eric Laurent

Yaohua Yan

Yves Rabin

Odette Feller

Stephan Heurion 

Gerdes Marijke Wiedijk

 Jean Verbecelte

Cao Bei An

Detlef Rhodius

I think that will have to do for now. I may do a second batch if there is sufficient interest but as I get relatively few comments it is difficult for me to judge. I may not have the names exactly right in some cases so apologies over that. Corrections welcome.

A word of warning the website www.salon-aquarelle.be/ is easy enough to access but has (largely) proved impossible for Google translate to change into English from the original French. Why? Somehow or other I did eventually get two pages to translate, including the important opening one,  but this was after much trial and error, and exactly how it came about I can't explain. It has proved difficult to repeat. To look at the paintings click on `photos' in the top right bar, then when they load click on each one individually to enlarge. 

I'm starting to wonder if I can organize a trip to Namur next year.