Canadian Waters Online Exhibition 2026

Doris McCarthy Award (Best in Show)
State/Province: Alberta
Country: Canada

Artist's Statement: Tyson Lake is a 20" x 60" piece on stretcher bars with a varnished finish. The piece requires no glass or matte.
Year painting was created: 2026

CSPWC/SCPA Members Award
State/Province: Shanghai
Country: China

Dimensions: 14.4 x 21.7
Artist's Statement: The scene depicts ordinary life moments, with bedsheets of different colors drying at the doorstep, the shadows of trees and bedsheets swaying in the bright sunlight... Time seems to have stopped.
Year painting was created: 2025

President's Award
State/Province: Alberta
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 20.5 x 30 x 0.1
Artist's Statement: Inspired by a canoe trip on the Bowron Lakes Provinical Park circuit in the Caribou Mountains of British Columbia. The snow-capped mountains, clear lakes and countless waterfalls are awe-inspiring, but there is also lush plant life all around, deserving of one’s admiration including these giant water lilies with saffron blooms and water droplets resting on leathery leaves. Stems trail into the depths, ripples from our paddle strokes stir up abstract surface patterns, intense green and gold against fathomless clear dark water is an irresistible contrast.
Year painting was created: 2022

Stoneground Paint Company (Product Award)
State/Province: BC
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 22 x 15
Artist's Statement: This watercolor of Vernazza captures the rhythmic interplay between the rugged Ligurian landscape and the vibrant energy of its streets. Through an impressionistic lens, the painting prioritizes the movement of light and the atmospheric weight of shadows over rigid architectural detail. Large, expressive washes define the steep coastal buildings, while the deliberate use of "uncontrollable control" allows the pigments to bleed and mingle, echoing the organic beauty of the Italian Riviera. The high-contrast values emphasize the Mediterranean sun, casting long, dramatic shadows that ground the figures in a fleeting moment of daily life. By balancing the permanence of the mountains with the transient motion of the crowd, this work seeks to convey the living pulse of the urban environment and the poetic quality of light in a shared space.
Year painting was created: 2025

Above Ground Art Supplies (Product Award)
State/Province: ON
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 14 x 22 x 1
Artist's Statement: Jefferson Forest is my neighborhood, and I am constantly fascinated by how a fresh blanket of snow transforms the familiar landscape into something ethereal and still. In this watercolor, I sought to balance the crisp, geometric lines of the rooftops with soft, atmospheric washes to evoke a sense of profound silence. My goal was to capture that fleeting moment of 'hush' following a storm—where the world feels paused, peaceful, and perfectly balanced in white.
Year painting was created: 2026

Honourable Mention
State/Province: Alberta
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 22 x 33 x 1.5
Artist's Statement: Went to Chicago Nearly got run over Painted this
Year painting was created: 2024

Honourable Mention
State/Province: TX
Country: United States

Dimensions: 15 x 22
Artist's Statement: A colorful take on a wild looking exotic palm from the San Diego Botanical Gardens
Year painting was created: 2026

Honourable Mention
State/Province: Nova Scotia
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 9.5 x 12.25
Artist's Statement: My work is inspired by a lifelong connection to both art and the natural world, and by the quiet, ever-changing beauty of the Maritimes. Working primarily in watercolour, often combined with pastel and pencil, I’m drawn to the balance between control and spontaneity, an interplay that reflects the rhythms of nature. Painting en plein air is central to my process, encouraging me to slow down, observe, and respond intuitively. While the landscape provides the starting point, my focus is on expressing the feeling of a place, its atmosphere, its essence, and our connection to it. Through my work, I hope to inspire a sense of appreciation, reflection, and connection.
Year painting was created: 2023

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Artist's Statement: We cannot always see the burdens carried, but the weight of their consequences remains. This piece was the first time I had tried applying watercolour with a calligraphy pen, a technique that worked well for depicting the fine hairs on this King Vulture's head.
Year painting was created: 2024

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Artist's Statement: When on a precipice, our conflicting priorities create a constant back and forth tug of war that must be handled delicately. I struggled with the sky background for this piece, and after a graduated layer of gouache wasn't hitting right, I decided on extreme action: aggressively sponging off the entire background. I ended up loving the stone-washed colour left behind.
Year painting was created: 2023

State/Province: AB
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 18 x 24 x 0.5
Artist's Statement: This watercolor reflects the quiet power of the winter solstice—the shortest day of the year, when darkness begins to give way to light. I was inspired by the moment when the low sun breaks through the cold forest, casting a warm glow across the snow and water. Cool blues and soft neutrals capture the stillness of winter, while touches of gold and orange bring warmth and renewal. The reflection in the water suggests movement beneath the frozen surface, a quiet promise of change. In this work, I explore the balance between darkness and light, stillness and transformation. The winter solstice becomes a symbol of hope—the turning point where light slowly returns, even in the deepest cold.
Year painting was created: 2024

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Artist's Statement: One of my favourite places is the rocky shoreline of Craigleith, near my home in Collingwood. On sunny days, gentle waves create a shape-shifting light show rippling over and under the shallow water. The patterns are mesmerizing. I have done several paintings featuring this interplay between light, water and rock, but the technical challenge and intense focus required of THIS painting was unique.
Year painting was created: 2025

State/Province: Alberta
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 24 x 48 x 2
Artist's Statement: A hauntingly calm evening on our last night of a week long back-country canoe trip produced this sharp reflection in a protected inlet near the beach we were camped on. A fringe of silhouetted trees write their black signatures in water - an almost-perfect surface but for a few tiny ripples made by surfacing minnows. Loon song was the evening's accompaniment to a fiery sunset, turning trees crimson, spotlighting pools of light on sand. The Caribou mountains in the distance provide a cool backdrop and atmospheric perspective, a hint to the vastness of this wilderness.
Year painting was created: 2024

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 12 x 9
Artist's Statement: following an injury to my right hand, this painting was also created entirely with my left hand
Year painting was created: 2026

State/Province: NS
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 15 x 22
Artist's Statement: This studio watercolour is based on several plein air studies. Light filtered through humid Caribbean atmosphere as clouds broke and formed overhead. Sunlight moved across the islands, highlighting and hiding details as it went. The rushing sound of waves breaking on shore before me added to the experience.
Year painting was created: 2026

State/Province: NS
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 15 x 22
Artist's Statement: The action of water on rocks is a theme that I enjoy exploring in all its various presentations. In this case I was painting the effect of backlit waves, in early morning sunlight. I painted this in the studio after painting on location at Bass Rocks in Massachusetts. I’d long known of the location as a spot painted by artist heroes such as Frederick Judd Waugh and Winslow Homer, so it was an absolute pleasure to bring my own interpretation the location.
Year painting was created: 2025

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 19 x 14
Artist's Statement: I have long had a love affair with transparent watercolour. The magic of building up colour while maintaining luminosity thrills me, and this slow layering process, combined with detailed drawing, is my meditation. I am interested in exploring the play of sunlight and the patterns it creates in everyday life. By focusing on capturing the transient sunshine, particularly in early morning or late afternoon, compelling compositions are found and I am inspired to pay tribute to these fleeting moments.
Year painting was created: 2026

State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 19 x 14
Artist's Statement: I have long had a love affair with transparent watercolour. The magic of building up colour while maintaining luminosity thrills me, and this slow layering process, combined with detailed drawing, is my meditation. I am interested in exploring the play of sunlight and the patterns it creates in everyday life. By focusing on capturing the transient sunshine, particularly in early morning or late afternoon, compelling compositions are found and I am inspired to pay tribute to these fleeting moments.
Year painting was created: 2025

State/Province: Quebec
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 15 x 19 x 2.9
Artist's Statement: There are many cornfields around where I live. They are at their most beautiful at the end of the season. In this painting, I wanted to convey the sound of the dried corn on the windy day that I witnessed this scene.
Year painting was created: 2025

State/Province: Quebec
Country: Canada

Dimensions: 12 x 19 x 5.1
Artist's Statement: This painting is a scene from Elliston, Newfoundland, from a trip I took with my sister and my father. I loved the angles and the hard edges of the layered rocks sandwiched between two layers of waves — one from the water and one from the rolling hills in the distance.
Year painting was created: 2024