Amid el Haddad, Juror
Honorable Mentions
Full Bloom by Lori Pollack
A beautiful floral composition. The background with the leaves is beautifully executed with an infinite variety of greens. Shadow passages on the leaves are barely perceptible but deeply felt. The flowers painted in complementary colour, compared to the background, bring them forward and give them a lot of shine. The painting gives off a beautiful light and a sense of joy and peace.
Moon Showers by Kathleen Mooney
This abstract painting caught my attention by the brilliance of the light which emerges from this distant and mysterious background.The painting is renewed in the viewer’s eyes every time he looks at it. The seamless shapes seem to move and shift endlessly.
Apples by Carolina Dealy
This is a beautiful still life composition, highlighted by the deep background which is admirably reflected on the bottle. The whole painting is executed with accuracy and care. It engages the viewer in such a way that it makes him want to bite into apples. The composition releases an intense light by a superb balance of complementary colours.
Third Place
Urban Access by Janet Gilliland
This painting caught my attention with its technical and artistic performance. It shows the artist’s ability to organize and plan their work and this is a great quality in watercolor. The plunging perspective and the way of cutting the image gives a wonderful dynamic to the whole painting and draws our attention to the beautiful plate on the ground, which constitutes the point of interest of the painting. The details are executed with admirable care. The balance of values and the colour transition are masterfully achieved.
Second Place
Pedraforca by Cesc Sendrós
This painting caught my eye because it succeeded in transforming a common subject into a very beautiful piece of art. It is done in a classic impressionist style in the tradition of the great painters of the 19th century.
This painting explores an infinite variety of brushwork from soft edges to broken edges, exploring the consistency of the washes in relationship with the whiteness of the paper. The depth is so well expressed using a subtle balance between cool tones in the background and warm tones in the foreground. The texture rendering is admirable and testifies the great ability of the artist to abstract the shapes.
First Place
Close Company by Kathy Harder
This painting is executed with admirable accuracy and care. The design is very well balanced, and it engages the viewer giving the impression that the subjects are about to jump out of frame. We can feel both the strength of movement and the lightness, which gives to the painting a lot of elegance.
Technically the painting is admirably well done. The beautiful soft background puts the subject forward. The use of soft colours and subtle balance between warm and cold tones gives great harmony and homogeneity to the whole painting. The brushwork is confident and immediate. The smooth passages with colour transition in the background are beautifully done.
