3rd Place (Traditional)
Jasmine Elliott

In her wildlife paintings, self-taught painter Jasmine Masako Elliott wields bold colors and represents animals as conscious beautiful beings, while also honoring the connection humans create and project onto the natural world. Jasmine—a Colorado native and current resident—earned her formal degree in Finance, from the University of Colorado at Denver, but attributes her success at “self-teaching” to the discerning qualities utilized in number analysis and manipulation as well as her lifelong practice of the martial arts. Her youthful attraction to Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ and Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ led Jasmine to gravitate towards painting instructors (via books, magazines and video) who also embrace strong color. Self-expression has always been an integral part of Jasmine’s make-up, and she continues to evolve. Although acrylic is her favorite medium, Jasmine also paints in watercolor, oil, and pastels; creates lino or woodblock prints; sculpts figurines in polymer clay; and experiments with different mold making and casting techniques.

To see more of Jasmine’s work please visit her website.

4th Place (Traditional)
Vanessa Jongebloet

Born in Amsterdam in 1969, Vanessa Jongebloet was trained as a decorative painter and worked doing faux marble finishing in de ancient canal houses of Amsterdam while exploring in her own paintings new ways to paint and express her vision of the world. Today she has two main series: her quixotic landscapes, in oil on canvas, and her impossibly realistic oil paint & resin pieces; tree dimensional mineral-shaped canvasses, both representing organic structures, which she sees as the ‘Structures of Life’ To Vanessa, ‘Life’ is the primal force that moves everything in the universe, from one physical state to the next. With the possibilities we have today to study life from the tiniest particle to the largest scale it’s amazing to see how the same structures appear everywhere: a walnut looks like a human brain, frozen fish like marble while some stone species. resemble aerial photos of the Nordic fjords.. and when we see pictures of neurons we wonder about their delicate plant-like ‘roots’. From microscopic details to the largest scale in space, life seems to manifest itself everywhere in similar structures. And since no matter ever disappears, all the components of which it exists are over and over rearranged, structuring and forming patterns, cycle after cycle. In this light, is there even a distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ ? If a spider builds a web, we call it natural, so if big animals like ourselves create things isn’t that just part of one big system, recycling all matter that exists infinitely? For her, this vision needs to be explored, questioned, visualized!

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Vanessa’s work, please visit her website.

4th Place
(Digital & Photography)
Debi Pickler

Debi knows exactly who to thank for her successful career as an artist, her mom. Inspired by her artistic talent, Debi began drawing/painting when she was five. She drew all the time. “I had so many drawings, I decided to have an art show in our back yard. My dad worked with me to make a sign for our mailbox announcing the show, and I hung up all of my art on our back yard fence. But before the show saw its first visitor, a sudden downpour from a rainstorm ruined all of her work. “Dad came to the rescue though, and bought the whole collection for 2 dollars. And that, was the beginning, of my artistic career.”

Debi continued to develop her skills, becoming adept in a variety of different media. After earning a BFA from Kansas University, she ventured into the world of commercial art. Now, after more than 20 years as a designer, she has worked for several organizations while running her own business. Regardless of the media, there is a common thread that run through nearly all of her artwork. Debi is obsessive about detail and loves putting extremely fine detail into everything she creates. While Debi’s path has taken many twists and turns throughout her artistic life, she still looks back to where that path began, at a backyard art show in New Jersey, where a dad and his little girl turned a rain-out into a life.

To see more of Debi’s work, please visit her website.

4th Place
(3-Dimensional)
Marlene Siff

My paintings, works on paper, and sculpture depict imagery of personal events and psychological issues. They are expressed through geometric shapes, color, light, space, texture, edges and movement each interplaying with one another engaging the viewer to participate . . . Women are the caretakers of the world. It’s in our genes, compelling me to communicate a sense of harmony, balance, order and spirituality in my work.

Siff’s work often blur the boundaries between sculpture and painting. Siff, a Westport resident, has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including the U.S. Capitol Building, Columbia/Barnard University, NY, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, Washington DC, Aldrich Museum, CT and Galerie Musée in Nagoya, Japan, and the New Britain Museum of American Art, CT.

To see more of Marlene’s work, please visit her website.

5th Place (Traditional)
Hannah Apps

Hannah Apps started painting as a child and has continued throughout her life. Her art took a back seat during early career and active parenting years. Today, painting is a major focus in her life. Apps has studied in an atelier setting with Kenneth Freed, a nationally known oil painter. She has also studied with various pastel and oil painters in workshop settings. Apps works primarily in oils, acrylics, and pastels. She works primarily in oil, acrylic, and pastel on panels, canvases, and papers she usually makes herself. She experiments with texture and color using a variety of mediums, underpaintings, and glazes. She is always learning about what the old masters did to achieve particular effects and what new masters do to achieve theirs. She does mostly figurative work and portraits. She lives in Kalamazoo Michigan with her husband and two very spoiled black cats.

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more to Hannah’s work, please visit her website.

5th Place
(Digital & Photography)
Sheila Archer

For Sheila Archer, night street photography is like jazz — spontaneous, sometimes raw, always in the moment. Camera in hand, in silence and solitude, she walks through the city, along the urban byways, seeking to capture the mystery and milliseconds of time and memory. Night Riffs is an ongoing series in which she utilizes photomontage. This allows her the freedom to create nuances of nights that are edgy and dreamlike. Dreams with a lingering yet almost forgotten emotion. Ms. Archer is a street photographer trained at The International School for Photography. She has also taught street photography. Recent Exhibitions: IPA, “As Time Bends Around”; Light Space & Time Gallery, “Women Artists Only”; Light Space & Time Gallery, “Cityscapes”

To see more of Sheila’s work, please visit her website.

5th Place
(3-Dimensional)
Katty Smith

 Born and raised in the small town of Halifax, VA, Katty left home to attend the University of N.C. Women’s College, but ended up marrying her high school sweetheart two years later. The journey in life began that would include two children, an MBA, three grandchildren and twenty-six moves. At age 65 she discovered her passion in life, sculpting in clay. After studying sculpture two years at Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA, she moved to Florida and continued instruction for three years at Crealde School of Art. Katty is currently a studio artist in New Smyrna Beach where she is affiliated with various artists’ organizations and shows her work at The Hub on Canal. Her work been accepted for numerous juried exhibits, where she has won awards to include five “Best in Show” awards.

To see more of Katty’s work, please visit her website.