Who can enter a painting?
- Annual Juried Exhibition is open to non-members.
- Signature Member Exhibition is for Signature Members only.
- All other exhibitions are for members only; Treasurer’s record is used to determine who is a member in good standing.
NOTE: Becoming a STLWS member can be accomplished at exhibit receiving by downloading and completing a Membership Application from stlws.org. Memberships are $35 and expire on June 30th of each year with no proration of dues.
Which paintings are accepted?
- Original works only. No copies or work done under instruction or from copyrighted photos/artwork; no prints from originals, giclee prints, digital reproductions, and computer art.
- Paintings must be completed within the last three years to qualify for Annual Juried Exhibition and Big Splash – the Annual Membership Awards Exhibition.
- Paintings must be executed in water media on paper – organic or synthetic paper, no canvas. Water media includes, but is not limited to watercolor, gouache, acrylic, tempera, and casein. No water based oils. No animal parts may be used in any painting. Mixed media paintings must be 80% or more water based.
- Not eligible: any painting which was accepted in a previous STLWS juried exhibit or which has received an STLWS award, including honorable mention. The only exception is the Signature Member Exhibition where the artist may enter any original water media painting: it does not have to be completed in the last three years, it may have been accepted in a previous juried show and won a STLWS award.
- There is a file size limit of 4 MB on artwork submitted to the virtual exhibition but no physical size limit on artwork.
- Call for entries will indicate if works featuring the nude figure are excluded.
How many paintings can be entered? What fees?
- Big Splash: one entry per member; entry fee of $10 for our 2021 virtual exhibition.
- Annual Juried Exhibition: 2 entries per artist.
– Member fees: $21 for 1 entry; $31 for 2 entries
– Nonmember fees: $73 for 1 entry or $83 for 2 entries. - Signature Member Exhibition: one framed painting with an entry fee of $15 and up to 3 additional pieces of matted artwork for a bin sale with no additional entry fee.
- Diptychs and triptychs in one frame will be considered one entry. If in separate frames, for entry fee and judging purposes they are considered separate paintings.
What are the framing requirements? Note: This section is not applicable for our virtual exhibitions.
- Paintings must be securely and appropriately framed with a white mat and under unscratched acrylic/Plexiglas or glass. Colored under mats shall be limited to a ¼” reveal.
- Paintings may be floated on mat board.
- No saw tooth hangers.
- Screw eyes or D rings and wire, adequate for hanging weight, are required.
- Maximum framed dimensions on the longest side shall not exceed: 32” with 1/4” allowance, for all exhibitions except the Signature Member Exhibit which allows full sheet artwork with bin sale artwork matted and encased in a plastic sleeve, no larger than 16” by 20” with mat.
- All artwork must have the name of the artist, title of the artwork and price on the back.
- The exhibition committee may disallow work not appropriately matted and framed.
- The only CJ Muggs exhibit requirement is the use of acrylic/Plexiglas glazing. There is no size limitation.
What about receiving and retrieval?
- Receiving information can be found on the STLWS website under Exhibits >> Call for Entries. All artwork is uploaded and entrant information gathered electronically.
- At the time of entry, registration forms shall be completed online and require an upload of a photo of each painting entered. Entries are not considered complete until payment is made through the STLWS website under the STLWS Shop tab.
- Each artist will adhere to the specified times for receiving for virtual exhibitions, and receiving and retrieval for gallery exhibitions. Paintings in gallery exhibitions cannot be hung after or removed before specified times.
- All accepted work will remain posted on the STLWS website until virtual exhibitions close, and installed in gallery exhibitions until the designated retrieval time . This applies to all STLWS shows, except CJ Muggs where sold paintings may be replaced with a comparable painting, and the Annual Juried Exhibition where the gallery may remove sold artwork when the buyer lives out of town.
- STLWS is not responsible for damaged or stolen artwork.
What about sales and commissions?
- Artwork in the Annual Juried Exhibition, Big Splash, and Signature Member Exhibition displayed in galleries must be for sale. Exception: Virtual exhibitions will allow paintings submitted to be designated for sale or not for sale (NFS).
- Any venue commissions will be clearly addressed in each exhibit prospectus which can be found at stlws.org.
- There are no commissions on sales from CJ Muggs exhibits.
Last Revised 10/24/21