Annual Juried Exhibition:
Watercolor Ohio 2025

Open to OWS members, this competitive juried exhibition is a showcase for the talent, diversity and energy of artists working in water soluble mediums: watercolor, acrylic, casein, gouache and egg tempera. Awards of cash and materials totaling thousands of dollars makes this one of the premier art exhibits in the State of Ohio.  This year's exhibition will be displayed at the Springfield Museum of Art in Springfield, Ohio from September 20 through November 16, 2025.

A Travel Exhibition of 32 of the paintings, including alll of the award winners, will be on display at several venues in Ohio.

Juror's Statement:

Paul Jackson

It was a privilege to serve as juror for the 2025 Ohio Watercolor Society Exhibition ~ an experience that offered not only a front-row seat to exceptional artistry, but a renewed appreciation for the many ways this luminous medium continues to evolve.

Watercolor is a medium of endless possibility. It can whisper or shout, dazzle with precision or drift like memory across the page. What struck me most in reviewing this year’s submissions was the breadth of voices and approaches represented...each with something distinctly personal to say.

From traditional realism to experimental abstraction, from intimate studies to bold, expansive statements, the works in this exhibition are united by their mastery and conviction. I was especially intrigued by the diversity of surfaces explored—most notably, two of the top five award-winning pieces were painted on Yupo. That alone is rare. But even more rare is seeing the surface used so effectively, with the kind of control and intentionality that elevates difficulty into something seamless. When handled well, Yupo brings a unique vibrancy to watercolor, and those artists earned every accolade.

Judging a show of this caliber is never easy. I spent time returning to each piece, looking closely for design strength, technical skill, clarity of concept, and emotional resonance. I’m drawn to work that surprises me, that invites a second look and then a third. I hope every artist knows how much their work was valued in this process.

To the Ohio Watercolor Society, thank you for your commitment to celebrating and uplifting watercolor in all its forms. To the exhibiting artists, thank you for your courage, your craft, and your stories. You’ve made this exhibition a dynamic and inspiring snapshot of where watercolor is headed. And to everyone who took the time to enter, please keep painting! The world is better with your vision in it.