Judge Linda Bruening reviewed the entries for the En Plein Air Exhibition on Wednesday, July 12. The artwork was judged blind, each piece identified only by number. Bruening was kind enough to provide comments on each piece she reviewed. She awarded First, Second and Third placements and three Honorable Mentions. The artist and title of each piece judge was added to the transcript after the Opening Reception.

AWARDS

First Place
Nila Chamberlain for Le Dèzin En Plein Air

Second Place
Charlotte Thompson for Rest and Reflect

Third Place
Jim Tripp for Lace and Queen Ann’s Lace

Honorable Mention

Linda Price for Down by the River
Lu Lewis for The Sounds of Nature
Kay Bradsher for Summer in the Lumber

Linda Bruening

It’s always an excitement and a joy for an artist when someone appreciates your work. Even if you don’t get a ribbon, just sit back and appreciate it. Remember the fact that artists don’t stop learning, they continue to learn more from their work and the better they get, the more involved they become. They find their own style, their own way of working, and it just kind of multiplies from there.

You have some very nice work here. Presentation-wise your artists need to be aware of professional presentation, just like the artists that meet at the league. My comments on the individual pieces also cover presentation.

#1 Jim Tripp, Lace and Queen Ann’s Lace

Starting with number 1, a very nice piece of pottery. I like the organic quality to the piece. I like the organic quality of that, a nice decorative piece on this one.

#2 Pamela Britt, Into the Woods

On number 2. The piece itself is very nicely done. I’m not sure exactly of the medium that the artist used. I can see some ink in there, perhaps colored pencil and a little bit of pastel. It’s a nice, tight, complex composition. What bothers me a bit about this piece is the choice of mat that the artist used, that almost takes away from the delicateness of the piece itself.

#3 Susan Moore, Working at the Lumber River

On number 3. Again, I think the matting is a bit heavy for the lightness in this watercolor. I’m just not sure that the dark mat along with the darker frame complements it well compositionally. In this particular one, the artist has kept our eye directly in the middle of those two heavy shapes on the right-hand side. I’m not sure that necessarily works very well with what the artist may have wanted to do for the composition. Also, the person has very light usage of the watercolor, so there is not much variety of value. Yet, there is a little bit of deeper value in this one tree trunk on the left-hand side, maybe more than the other but, but overall, when you squint at that the values are all basically the same on this one.

#4 Jim Tripp, Pink Without a Doubt

Onto number 4. When I first looked at this, I thought it was a tea tray, then I realized that it was the glass on top of the ceramic piece. The frame is heavily ornate, perhaps too much so. Unfortunately, the mat has slipped and the presentation is a little bit off as to the artwork itself. Again, a very nice organic feel to the clay and to the way he’s worked with it. It almost looks like it’s porcelain although I can’t be sure. It has a nice organic feel again.

#5 Dinese Siracusa, Flowing River View

Now number 5. Again, I think a heavy frame on a very light, delicate piece of artwork and maybe that frame is a little bit too heavy. The watercolor that the artist has used, very linear, not a lot of volume to the forms. The linework in the piece, some of that is very nice and maybe artists should have -concentrated more on the linework, with more of a calligraphy-type effect with her watercolor. An interesting breakup of space on that one.

#6 Denise Siracusa, Hidden Green

Number 6. I’m not sure if this is acrylic or oil. The artist has used the paint in such a way that there is a great deal of texture in this piece. There’s some good color usage in this particular one. She has some good values, you get the sense that it’s in the woods, and there’s not much light, not much sunlight, simply nice atmosphere. There is a nice step-in feel and she’s handled those trees in the back as specific shapes, they look solid and don’t look like they’re going to float away. Her Canvas is beginning to look worked just a little bit there

#7 Bobbie Britt, At the Beach

On number 7 you definitely get a sense of nature in this one, a sense of landscape, a sense of some depth in there, too. There’s some interesting texture on this particular one. For those of you that would be looking for something that’s very representational, obviously, this would not be it, this is something that’s more of a contemporary abstraction for the master. She’s got some good texture and some good depth in that particular one. Again, I’m not sure about that white frame.

#8 Linda Price, Down by the River

Number 8. A nice little watercolor, there’s a great deal of depth in this particular one. There’s also a good use of values, she’s emphasized some of the areas with her pen lines, which also makes it nice.

#9 Charlotte Thompson, Rest and Reflect

Number 9 has good use of pictorial space, the eye moves very easily through that particular painting. On some of the paintings that we’ve looked at the eye tends to stop and not go deeper into the image that’s there. In this particular one, you’ve got a good sense of depth. very detailed, very delicate looking in that sense. And also some nice texture, she appears to use maybe an airbrush to spray some of those dots on there or another technique.

#10 Charlotte Thompson, By the Lumber River

Number 10. The breakout space in this one is more unusual than the other watercolors that we’ve seen. In this case, it makes it to me more interesting because you’ve got this main tree. Very strong, very forward, and yet the eye will go back into the background. There’s a good sense of space, she’s got some opening there through the trees, a good sense of depth in that. Maybe more variation in the greens in those trees in the back would be the only thing I would suggest, it has some good texture on that tree.

#11 Susie Brady, Prisms After the Rain

Number 11, is a contemporary piece, a very abstract piece. Since the idea of the exhibit was nature or the idea of observing nature, and I get a sense of nature with the brightness with the, could be flowers, could be just the artist’s interpretation of a field of flowers, or it could be completely something else. Because contemporary art is abstract art, it’s the viewer who puts their interpretation into the piece, and the artist may have had some completely other ideas of what I was supposed to read. This one has a good use of color, bright, strong, I like the calligraphy of the splashing of the paint that she or he put on there. It’s a nice whole piece.

#12 Nila Chamberlain, Le Dèzin En Plein Air

Number 12. On this one, really good sense of depth, and a really good sense of movement throughout that whole painting. I like the different medium that has been used in there, with the gold paint or a spray used along with the pastel work. Some line work, the way the trees are done, almost reminded me of early Van Gogh in a way, of one that I had seen, oh, this past year, where his trees were always gnarled and sometimes very close up, and that sort of thing. And that’s kind of what that particular piece reminds me of. The person has a very, very good sense of division of space, depth of pathway, movement balance, and that sort of thing that’s in their eye.

#13 Bobbie Britt, My Father’s Blacksmith Shop

Number 13. Again, I’m not sure if this is oil, or acrylic, which actually doesn’t matter. Again, an interesting approach to composition with that kind of L shape that we have there. We have most of the subject matter, the focus, and that sort of thing, particularly in the foreground, and then after that, it’s a very flat space, which is good, which can be very good. She’s got some interesting, the particular artist has interesting use of brushwork and stroke.

#14 Lu Lewis, The Sounds of Nature

Number 14, the portrait of the young lady definitely has a good sense of sunlight on her face. It’s that face that draws you in, that’s the first thing that that I saw, that most people would see. Again, there’s a good sense of rhythm there, a good sense of balance. And, again, a very good use of color. She’s got some nice values in the dress, in the colors of the dress.

#15 Kay Bradsher, Summer in the Lumber

Number 15. Again, an interesting approach to the way she chose to do this and her placement of the tree. Again, directly in the center, the emphasis is in the lower third of the painting. And then we’ve got equal Cypress stumps on both sides in the front that sometimes will act as a block because the eye will pick up those two sets of cypress stumps before we get into what the main focus is, which is back in that particular area with the tree. Some really nice values within the tree itself, some really nice line work that’s in there. She’s also done some very nice work on the branch, on the foliage that’s there in the tree. Very nice. She’s also, as she goes back into the background, used softening on those edges, we don’t see any hard edges in that background. Which is as it should be where the atmosphere is softer.

#16 Pamela Britt, Breath of Spring

Number 16. The framing and the mat is, for me, a bit strong, because again, it takes my eye away from what the images are on this. And again, some nice individual detail work in there. We see the little bird that she’s got there down the left hand corner, there’s a strong diagonal thrust, which takes you from one corner directly out of the picture frame again on the upper left, so we’re not really able to stay within that space, we’re kind of sent on the driver line right up to that corner and then out again.

#17 Pamela Britt, Watching Time Float By

Okay, number 17. Again, an interesting use of media, especially in that cypress tree, the chunk on the left-hand side. Again, I’m not sure if this is water, well, it is watercolor, and then they have used other mediums on top, which is a nice combination when people are working with the sky, and this particular one is very, very nicely done. We have on the left-hand side, between the large cypress trunk and this smaller tree on the right-hand side, there’s an area there that is not defined enough, it’s kind of like a large shape. And we’re not sure exactly what’s happening there. We have some strong light coming in from the upper right-hand area with the sky, the path and then it gets very, very dark as it comes into the foreground. And our eye is attracted to this very light area on the right-hand side where that path, beachy area might be.

#18 Carole Blaney, Crisis of Nature

Number 18. Good color, nice and bright. With the flowing of the watercolor or the ink you have some nice harmony, you have some nice lines in there, that yellow area in the upper left-hand corner is nice. I’m not sure why we have the black Y shape there in the middle. That kind of detracts from those reds, and the yellows that are there. But overall, good. Overall, nice.

#19 Denise Siracusa, Koi Love Box

Now, for number 19 we have a little box with a lot of decorative painting. Glitter glazes, little stones added so that we have a very strong nature piece. Yes, it’s a very strong nature piece. The brightness, especially on the lid, the lid is really nicely done with the brightness that’s there and the colors used.