"I was stunned and delighted by the quantity, quality and sheer diversity of watercolors that I saw. It took me a moment to synthesize the concept that one person had this idea to make World Watercolor Month, and this was the result!
(PRWEB) June 15, 2017
In July, watercolor artists across the globe come together for the largest month-long celebration of watercolor in the world. Charlie O’Shields, the creator of Doodlewash®, is the founder of World Watercolor Month™. His own love of the medium led to the creation of a blog and social artist movement dedicated to promoting and connecting the vast community of watercolor artists all over the world.
After hosting a few early art challenges, celebrating various fun and obscure holidays, it became apparent to O'Shields that there wasn’t an official celebration exclusively for the medium of watercolor. He set out to change this, and through his dedicated efforts, July is now World Watercolor Month. Founded in 2016, over 4,500 artists participated in the 31 watercolors in 31 days art challenge during the first year. Since that time, the Facebook group created for the event has grown to include over 49,000 artists.
World Watercolor Month is meant to inspire people to paint with watercolor (watercolour, aquarelle) while raising awareness for the importance of art and creativity in the world. Everyone is invited to join the celebration from master watercolorists to artists just starting out with watercolor. Simply tag any art that uses watercolors (or gouache) with #WorldWatercolorMonth during the month of July. If the challenge of making 31 watercolors seems too daunting, artists are encouraged to simply make whatever they can during the month. “It’s really about maintaining a regular art practice and, of course, having a lot of fun!” says O’Shields.
Central to the event is a goal to help raise awareness for children in need of art supplies and art education around the globe. Doodlewash partners with The Dreaming Zebra Foundation to encourage people to donate money and art supplies during the event to help future artists.
Research has shown that art education has a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the learning field across socioeconomic boundaries. Unfortunately, arts education programs are too often the first to be cut when cuts are necessary, so more and more children each year are missing out on the important benefits of art classes.
Dreaming Zebra hopes to reverse this trend by providing support so that children and young adults are given an equal opportunity to explore and develop their creativity in the arts. The foundation is unique in that they provide an art recycling program that is free to the public. Reusable art & music supplies that would otherwise be discarded, along with new or unsold materials, are donated by individuals and businesses and matched to recipients who have requested those materials for arts education purposes in communities around the world. Limited edition World Watercolor Month souvenirs will be available for purchase during the month and 100% of proceeds will be donated to The Dreaming Zebra Foundation.
How to celebrate
Simply use watercolors to make a painting or sketch each day during the month (or whenever you can join in), and share your work online for others around the world to enjoy. Use the hashtag #WorldWatercolorMonth when posting your watercolor art.