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What a brawl

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Dermot Brennan

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Posted
Oh dear, all I want is the quiet life an I end up in a very unseemly brawl . I've never being a member of any art societies and indeed have avoided them up to now ; my name was put forward by quiet a famous watercolour artist who spied my work online and was very complimentary about it he asked would I be interested in joining the IWS and I gave it thought for 6 months before saying ok . An online application process took place and it goes into master painter and painter i applied for master as I seemed to tick all the boxes and gave evidence phone numbers and links to three galleries I'm with , they then asked for workshops given again I gave evidence but they wanted three recent workshops , then another email asking for three posters of solo shows ... I threw my hands in the air and told them forget it I've had enough . They told me they already processed and sent a magazine in the post and therefore would only pay back part my fee ; I told them I would take matters further , they are now paying back in full . What a bloody Palava Is it only me or have others had a similar experience ?

Sylvia Evans

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Posted
Very un proffesional . Glad they paid up.

Pat Harrison

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Posted
They should have given you a list of everything that was required with your application form. You would have saved a lot of time and effort. Glad you managed to get your money back.
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Posted
Happily - no! The only art society I've ever joined, local art clubs (which have come and gone because too few people did all the work, usually) apart, has been the National Association of Painters in Acrylic - and I joined them because they seemed so refreshingly free of bureaucracy (which, having been a bureaucrat, I hate: I like clear rules, properly explained, and a minimum of them) or the sort of airy-fairy nonsense which would have people divided into categories like "master painter" - the very question would have sent me scurrying back to my woodland burrow, I'm afraid. I'm not a very active member of the N.A.P.A., but enjoy being kept in touch and looking in to have a wander around their website - it can be very helpful to feel you're not entirely alone; and a professional association for acrylic painters is needed, with oil painters and watercolourists hogging the field: I've never felt any yearning to join those national societies which exist for them - don't know why, except I suppose that they do tend to bear the stamp of the Establishment, with which I am not comfortable; but I'm probably prejudiced... I wouldn't be rushing to join the Irish Watercolour Society on the strength of your experience, but I daresay they've their own side of the story! It never does you any harm to be a member of a professional body - looks to me as if you just fell foul of a rather clumsy application process which didn't define its terms properly. Not for me to advise you, but maybe you'll think again about joining them one of these days, and they'll look to the procedures which drove you away - or at least explain them properly before you find yourself wandering around a labyrinth and getting increasingly frustrated.

Peter Davison

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Posted
Sounds like a very clumsy administration Dermot and you are probably well keeping clear of them. I wonder how beneficial a society based in HK would have been to you, they are maybe spreading themselves a bit thin? Don't write off all societies though, I'm sure some of them conduct themselves on a better footing.