Open Juried Paint, Print & Drawing Exhibit
Results of Juror Selection

​Juror: Lilla Samson

First Place
Gallery for Mortise and Tenon
Vic Coelho

Second Place
Kidding Around
Mi Ok Song

Third Place
Bob's Your Uncle
Wells Moore

Honorable Mentions
New Beginnings by Diane Brown
Wildfire by Michelle Henning
Home by Janet Maher

​Thank you to all the artists who submitted work for our Open Juried Paint, Print and Drawing Exhibit.  Of the 142 submissions we received, 59 pieces were selected for the show.  The following entry numbers are accepted:
​
3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 41, 43, 44, 45, 56, 58, 65, 66, 67, 68, 71, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 83, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 106, 107, 118, 121, 122, 123, 124, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 155

The exhibit will be open to the puplic beginning on Thursday, September 23.
Unfortunately due to Covid-19 we will not be holding an opening reception for this exhibit.

Work that was not included in the show may be picked up during regular gallery hours (Wed. - Sun. from 1 to 5 pm each day)
Accepted work should be picked up on Sunday, October 17. 1-5 PM.

Juror’s Statement
 
It was my pleasure to jury this exhibition for the South County Art Association and I would like to thank Jason Fong, the Exhibitions Director, for the invitation to do so. My intention was to select works that fit together well in the gallery and showcase the most highly ambitious and accomplished pieces. As this is an exhibition celebrating all three of my loves – printmaking, painting, and drawing – it was also my aim to find a balance, as much as possible, in the representation of all those media, as well as, a balance of abstract and representational works. Jurying this exhibition was an exciting, yet challenging process. There were often difficult decisions where, out of a very large field, many very good works did not make the final cut, so I would like to commend and thank all artists who submitted their work. It is often said that evaluating art is an entirely subjective endeavor, and while there certainly are specific, objective criteria that can be applied in the analysis of works, the juror’s own artistic sensibilities and idiosyncratic biases are ultimately baked into the selection process. Nature and landscape always speak to me, but I look for pieces that are sensitively adept in their use of materials beyond just technical skill, and that seek to transcend representation through being evocative of a mood, time, atmosphere, memory or narrative. I delight in “paint about paint” – color and the sensuous surface qualities of texture and brushwork. Compositional rhythm and density of line, value and mark-making in drawing always excite, and it is always hard to resist playfulness, inventiveness and quirky humor in any artwork.
 
Choosing pieces for the six awards from such a large, diverse and competent field was possibly even more challenging, as there were so many works that were deserving of recognition. Vic Coelho’s large linear watercolor drawing, “Gallery for Mortis and Tenon”, earned 1st place for its sheer ambitious scale and its imaginative and surreal interplay between architectural and forest elements. For 2nd place, I found Mi Ok Song’s color drawing, “Kidding Around”, to be wonderfully obsessive in mark and patterning, as well as, whimsically playful in subject. I viewed it and the two accompanying drawings in the context of a triptych. I loved the intensity of color and densely layered expressive brushwork in the mixed media piece by Wells Moore, “Bob’s Your Uncle”, which came in at 3rd place. For Honorable Mentions, I chose “Wildfire” by Michelle Henning, “New Beginnings” by Diane Brown, and “Home” by Janet Maher. The oil painting, “Wildfire”, beautifully conveys a mountain ridge consumed in smoke. Its softly seductive surface belies the more ominous threat that the current crisis of climate change imposes on our forests. The oil and cold wax painting, “New Beginnings”, resonated with me in terms of textured surface and color. It has an interesting interplay between layered atmosphere and the intentionality of little geometric shapes sgraffittoed into the surface. And finally, “Home”, an altered lithograph collage, speaks to my love of printmaking and especially lithography, with both its drawn and textural components.
 
Lilla Samson