Until 1974, the AWI met in a variety of places and the annual exhibitions were held in different galleries.
In that year, it received a grant enabling the AWI to rent space in a building on Sydney's Sussex Street.
The international presence expanded to include Mexico City, Mexico; Spain; Vancouver, Canada; Hong Kong; and Korea (4th Asian Grand Watercolour Festival, Busan Biennale).
[2] The founding members were J. Bennett, Alfred James Daplyn, Albert Henry Fullwood, Benjamin Edwin Minns, Martin Stainforth and Charles Ephraim Smith Tindall.
Invited foundation members included Albert Collins, John Eldershaw, Hans Heysen, Norman Lindsay, Sydney Long, Arthur Streeton, John D Moore, J. W. Tristram and Blamire Young.