IWM2024 REVIEW by Master JOE DOWDEN
Amazing skills were showcased live at
International Watercolour Masters 2024.
Some of the best Watercolour painters from around the world animated the big LED screens placed either side of the stage*.
As colours flowed from brushes, a hushed audience sat in comfort below the spectacular overall roof of the Ford Indoor Arena, part of the UK National Sports Centre.
This was IWM 2024, and it is coming again in 2026.
2022 marked the second IWM and the year people realized it was here to stay.
There were more artists, more paintings, more space, new competitions to get in, and the magnificent new venue, but this posed a question;
“Could IWM 2024 surpass it?”
In 2024 the answer came with lights – camera – action, literally. In-house television and a comprehensive TV channel,
IWMTV, had been built in complete secrecy over the previous two years, to be unleashed at IWM2024.
Broadcast television, and an on-site live stream team worked in unison to bring the show to the indoor audience, and to the world.
What will the innovations be in 2026? We will have to keep guessing.
All this came with a hidden bonus. It made the adrenaline flow for the masters themselves, not just the public, so they excelled even by their own standards.
It was evident that artist and organizer in chief David Poxon had marshalled his crew with experience deployed during a career managing music acts on the world’s biggest stages.
Discovering artists who have become household names in the past, is another ability which he continues to display.
The TV Channel arrived complete with recorded workshops from the exhibiting masters.
Then at the exhibition, live demonstrations went straight from stage to camera – both live streamed and uploaded to add to the recorded workshops – so this TV channel has become a vast creative resource.
In addition, 200 winners of the IWM2024 Contest global digital competition had another big screen display – so there was a second exhibition and likely fresh faces for 2026.
The 10 first prize winners all had their paintings beautifully framed by the IWM Master framer Tim Nash, and hung alongside the Masters in the main exhibition.
160 Paintings were hung in the IWM2024 Exhibition , seamlessly coordinated to look fantastic and placed with absolute precision on the purpose made exhibition walls.
It was a breath-taking display of the very best watercolours from the entire world.
No wonder all serious established and aspiring watercolour artists want to be in this show.
It is amazing what talent appears when given the opportunity, and because there is no long wait for acceptance, IWM has another asset, that of surprise.
When International Watercolour Master’s arrived in 2018, for me it meant no long-haul flight to see these artists overseas.
They were coming to Britain and suddenly, watercolour painters from everywhere wanted to be here.
This is one reason why IWM keeps expanding.
Much of the appeal lies in the fact that people don’t just see Masters on the stage, they can chat with them, maybe in one of the bars, the café or restaurant.
You can usually find someone painting in the Italianate gardens or arboretum.
The Lilleshall Hall setting is beautiful.
A short walk to the large car park brings long distance landscape views of Shropshire.
It is the most rural county in England, and yet its access to the whole of Britain is optimal – relatively easy for everyone. Parking is easy and who would want to drive to London?
Bringing IWM to the stately home and grounds of Lilleshall Hall has been an International Watercolour Masters masterstroke.
*Actually, the artists are in front of the stage on the level with the audience. This is absolutely brilliant because everyone can come up at the end of each demonstration, talk to the artist, take photos and see everything up close. You are surrounded by cameras and spotlights but no one minds.
INTERNATIONAL WATER COLOUR MASTERS – 1