WOMAN'S ART CLUB OPENING RECEPTION

The Artist with her Painting - "Red Paisley Scarf" winner of the Cherry Bender Memorial Award

Last Sunday was the opening of the Woman’s Art Club 120th Annual Juried Exhibition. Wow, 120 years. And if you look at the Cincinnati Art Club’s longevity, you will see they are 121 years old. Hmmmm . . . . guess you can figure out that at that time the gals decided that if they couldn’t be in “the” art club, then they would just create their own!

The group currently has its home in “The Barn”! Sounds goofy, right? Well, the official name is the Woman's Art Club Cultural Center, and it’s actually beautiful. It’s an old dairy barn that has been beautifully renovated, located in the community of Mariemont, Ohio (pronounded Mary Mont for you non-Cincinnatians – which is pronounced Sin Sin Nat Ee, not Sin Sin Nat Ah! – unless you hail from Cincinnati, in which case that is an acceptable pronunciation!) As you can tell, the city can be confusing to furriners.

But I digress . . .

Sunday was a beautiful day for an art show, or anything else you wanted to do. My husband drove me out as he had promised he would if I won an award. The juror this year was Chris Leeper who does all media, especially a lot of watercolor, so I figured I had a fighting chance! I think he juried in a good show, not predominately any one medium or genre – and there were 21 watercolors in the mix! I did win the Cherry Bender Memorial Award, so I was very pleased. Each time I’ve entered the show my work has gotten in, but this was my first award.

As usual, the opening was well attended. It’s always fun to see people I don’t often see and catch up on what they are up to.



Some of the crowd, following the awards ceremony.

On our way home we stopped at Graeter’s (yes, again, for you non-Cincinnatians, that’s the correct spelling!) for ice cream. I was a good girl and ordered one dip of something Mike would also like and he ate half – however, I was not allowed to get “any of that coffee junk” which meant I missed out on the best mocha chip I’ve every had, anywhere! Then we also made a short diversion when we got to Columbia-Tusculum area since he was interested in looking at a few of the old Victorian houses up on the hill. Wow, and I thought Mt. Adams’ streets were steep!

My painting, behind the musicians - who were quite good!

Anyhoo . . . then it was home where I could “slip into something comfortable” for the rest of the day!