The Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts will host the American Watercolor Society 142nd Annual International Exhibition from March 16 through May 23.

Each year since 1867, the American Watercolor Society (AWS) has hosted a juried exhibition of outstanding watercolors by artist members of the organization. The Society’s 142nd traveling exhibition, selected from a larger New York show, features 33 artists from throughout the United States, plus Canada, Singapore and Uruguay. Portraits, cityscapes, still life paintings and abstract works will be featured. The paintings in the exhibition illustrate the fine detail and depth of color that can be rendered in this challenging and striking medium.

The founding members of the New York-based AWS joined forces shortly after the end of the Civil War to promote the art of watercolor painting which previously had been viewed as purely a sketching medium. Traveling shows, then called “rotary shows,” were instituted in 1905. The organization boasts such past members as the artists Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, J.G. Brown, John LaFarge, and Andrew Wyeth. The exhibition catalogue features a memoriam to Wyeth, who died last year.