Award winners at our studio show The Art of Watercolor

Brenda Kidera

Awards:  The Art of Watercolor

  May 12 – August 19 2012 

Our awards judge for the show was Brenda Kidera from Woodbine, Maryland, an admired and respected painter and former board member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society.  Here are the awards she decided upon:  (awards are gift certificates to ARThouse, to be used for any purpose)

1st Place:  Barbara Scheihing for “Roots”
2nd Place:  Mimi Hegler for “Kitchen Staples”
3rd Place:  Cecile Kirkpatrick for “Beets, Carrots, and Asparagus”

Honorable Mention:  Janet M. Epstein for “Rooted Matter”
Honorable Mention:  Renée Moneyhun for “Abstract with Two Suns”
Honorable Mention:  Sally Drew for “Rocks and Roots”
Honorable Mention:  Linda Daniels for “Lirio de Agua”
Honorable Mention:  Jean Perretta for “Hiawatha” 
Honorable Mention:  Tanya Rostovtseva for “St. Sebastian” 

Brenda was very impressed with the overall quality of work.  She said that choosing award winners was very difficult and that it took a long time and a lot of serious thought!  Judging was based mainly on technical ability and there were many other worthy paintings.  I thank Brenda Kidera for her kind and careful attention to the job at hand!

Congratulations to the award winners!     --Susan Murphy, ARThouse, May 12, 2012
 
Here are all the award winners, with Brenda's comments below each image:

1st Place:  Barbara Scheihing for “Roots”

This still life has a great composition, exhibits confident handling of the paint, has a nice variation of color and value within shapes, and a lovely background with wonderful subtle texture.  Well done!

2nd Place:  Mimi Hegler for “Kitchen Staples”

I was immediately struck by the strong graphic shapes.  I love the edge quality.  The color palette is beautiful, with repetition of colors throughout the painting.  Nice confident handling of the paint; great use of the white paper in the highlights; uses the full value scale which makes the scene dynamic.

Third Place:  Cecile Kirkpatrick for “Beets, Carrots, and Asparagus” 

Lovely, delicate handling of paint, values and shapes, especially in the asparagus; nice full range of values; interesting composition.  [photo is inaccurate—painting now has dark background—sm]

Honorable Mention:  Janet M. Epstein for “Rooted Matter”

Wonderful abstracted interpretation of roots!  Great handling of color and shape; nice range of values.

Honorable Mention:  Linda Daniels for “Lirio de Agua”

I love this quiet, subtle painting with the shapes emerging and receding.  Lovely colors and use of the rice paper.

Honorable Mention:  Tanya Rostovtseva for “St. Sebastian”

Excellent lifting and modeling of the figure.  Love the color palette and positioning of the figure in the composition.

Honorable Mention:  Sally Drew for “Rocks and Roots”

Nice handling of the paint, especially in the shadow areas.  You’ve been successful in keeping these dark areas interesting, lively, and most of all, not muddy.  A subtle lifted swash of light across the glass on the side would be nice.  Lovely handling of paint -- letting the colors float together without forcing it with the brush.

Honorable Mention:  Jean Perretta for “Hiawatha”

Very nice handling of the colors, working in conjunction with the poured background.  I especially like the use of turquoise darks in the few chosen spots.  The pencil lines have a nice varied quality, light into dark, coming and going, which work well.

Honorable Mention:  Renée Moneyhun for “Abstract with Two Suns”

Nice composition with interesting and successful color choices; good value range and use of whites and black.  I especially like the variation of texture, color and value in the “green” area—would like to see a bit more of this pushed in a few other areas.

Thanks for inviting me to jury this excellent show!

Brenda Kidera,  at ARThouse,  May 10, 2012