JURIED SHOW 2014
Compliments to all the Entrants in the 15th Annual Show. To those of you who were accepted to exhibit, it was a joy to view your work. The calibre of art work was incredible.
With special congratulations for the achievement of our winners. First place went to Susan Dain for “The Clown”, second to Karin Lynn Cumming for “Foothills” and third to Margaret Stawicki for “Which Way”. There were 3 Honourable Mentions to Rena Sava, Inge Tajik and Doreen Renner.
Please take a moment to read the Jurors comments below. We were grateful to have the talented Margaret Glew and Dawn White Beatty judge our show this year.
Margaret Glew
I would like to thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to see and jury the work for ArtWorks. The overall quality of the work submitted was excellent and it was not an easy task to eliminate more than half of the pieces submitted. One of the pleasures for me in the process was selecting work that was not only strong in its own right, but that spoke to other work in the show. The final choices reflect a large variety of styles and media, and I think create some interesting conversations between pieces.
Awarding prizes (and limiting ourselves to only three honourable mentions) was equally challenging. The first place painting by Susan Dain is loose and lovely, with a psychological edginess that compliments its painterly bravura. Second prizewinner, Karin Lynn Cumming, has a deft, sensitive touch and manages to say a lot with a remarkable economy of means. Margaret Stawicki’s third place painting is a marvel of minimalism: a beautiful, subtle geometry made mysterious by the three small, isolated figures it contains. Honourable mentions went to Rena Sava for her marvelous, somewhat austere, and layered print, to Doreen Renner for a lively, gestural abstraction, and to Inge Tajik for her beautifully rendered, and somewhat mysterious doll portrait.
My thanks to the organizers and volunteers who worked so hard, and to all the artists who submitted their work. It is not an easy thing to put your work out there to be judged. To those of you who were successful, congratulations. To those of you who did not make it into this year’s show, you all brought strong work, so please do not stop trying!
Dawn White Beatty
The quality of the entries was impressive with a strong showing of large-scale paintings in abstract and realistic formats. Also memorable were technically beautiful photographs, a striking group of portraits rendered in a variety of styles, a small but funky assortment of sculptures and some brave and humorous mixed media work that challenged us. The wonderful quality of light and high ceilings of the Queen Elizabeth Park Gallery, where the show will hang, will provide a special environment for this exciting show.
The high caliber of the works entered reflect a vibrant arts community busy with the challenging but rewarding task of making original art. The gallery’s size determined the number limit of our choices and provided us with a difficult task. Many excellent pieces did not find a place in the exhibition, but this abundance of riches should be a cause for celebration at this 15th Annual Exhibition. My memory of the selection day spins with joyous colour, exuberant brushwork, bold design and exquisite rendering; my mind’s eye reflects on small jewel-box like pieces, subtle layers and transformations and sensitive observations of light and colour shifts.
The works we selected for awards represent the unique visions of this show’s entries.
First prize was awarded to Susan Dain’s ‘The Clown’, an exciting and exuberant portrait study in paint that captured us with its originality, vibrant colours and bold handling.
Karin Lynn Cumming’s ‘Foothills (Utah)’ received Second prize; a small jewel of a landscape in golds and reds, its technical excellence shone through in its lovely glowing colours and minimal brushstrokes.
Third prize was awarded to Margaret Stawicki’s ‘Which Way’, a finely rendered and subtle study of an urban landscape; the work’s soft textures and precise angles intrigued us and kept the eye moving within the composition in a very satisfying way.
Honourable Mentions:
-to Rena Sava for her glowing and carefully designed relief print ‘Cityscape 1’; this lovely study of greens and transparency was technically beautiful and visually intriguing.
-to Doreen Renner’s ‘Inferno’; this vibrant and dynamically balanced work moved the viewer’s eye about the composition in an exciting way with colour and form.
-to Inge Kjeldgaard Tagik’s ‘The Girl Puppet’, a beautifully realized portrait in traditional egg tempera…both haunting and detailed, this work probed the viewer by conjuring personal memories and emotions through its realism and nostalgia.
Congratulations to all those artists who entered the show. Thank you to all for the opportunity to meet you and your wonderful works.