Best of Show

Reflected Sunlight
by Dennis Rhoades, #166

"At first glance, this painting took my breath away. There are wonderful transitions here, physical and inferred. The inferred transition between summer and fall. The transition of loose abstract strokes to more precise and measured. The transition from foreground to background and beyond. This is a painting that should be studied. It is a classic example of color harmony, contrast, values and balance. Color harmony is achieved with a limited palette. I think it took me 4 times looking at it, to realize the water was not “blue” but “ochre.” The abstract handling of the background forest is excellent, including the dash of bright blue used to pull your eye up and around and back down to the orange-red tree at the far right, with the trunk pulling your eye back down to the rocks. The shape and weight of the rocks grounds the painting … the purple and brown mid-value rock shapes allow the sun-splashed rocks to take center stage. And take note of the strategically placed dabs of deep orange-red in the rocks – all to balance out that strong tree on the right."
- Jen Evenhaus

First Place

Long Shadows

by Lorraine Trenholm, #213

"This is a stunning, powerful painting. It’s a simple subject made exquisite by light. The time of day could be midnight with a full moon, or a transition from morning to late afternoon after an early winter storm. The colors used are few but effective, accentuated by bold strokes – the orange against blue, the yellow against purple, the light areas overlapping a lively underpainting. The dark areas lead the eye through the painting in a masterful way, and the dark blue sky creates wonderful contrast against the jagged rocks."

- Jen Evenhaus

Second Place

What Comes Around
by Peter Heineman, #94

"This speaks to my gut. My soul. I love that abstract or non-objective work reveals much about the artist himself or herself. It often reveals the journey taken in a plethora of mark-making. It reveals inner strength or fragility or bravery. This piece reveals emotion simmering just beneath the surface . . . a transition between anger and apathy, between a desert and an ocean, between known and unknown. It leaves me a little uneasy, but I keep coming back to learn more. To explore more."

- Jen Evenhaus

Third Place

Spartina by Eve Miller, #140

"This colorful landscape exemplifies all the magic and scintillation that pastel is capable of. I find the transition between the lively foreground grasses and reeds at the edge of a receding tide and the demure distant marsh laying quiet under the setting sun quite energizing. The heat of the mid-day sun has transitioned into the cool, yet still muggy, early evening, creating an iridescent glow in the foreground, inviting us to wade out just a little further, as we listen to bullfrogs and feel the tiny waft from a passing dragonfly."

- Jen Evenhaus