2nd Place
(Digital & Photography)
Jessica Santos

Jessica Santos is a landscape and astrophotographer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a wanderer, adventurer, stargazer. Calling the desert her home but she considers herself a nomad, chasing the light as far as she can go. She has a passion for the outdoors and spends sleepless nights photographing the stars. Of all the places she has been thus far the wild wild west is her favorite, full of sand dunes and endless, interesting rocks and cacti.

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

3rd Place (Traditional)
John Jaster

John works with heavy body acrylics on fairly large canvases with a lot of detail and bold colors. He calls his style ‘realistic impressions’ because, while the overall feel of the work is definitely realism, he offsets the detail with impressionistic splashes of color. Instead of smooth blending, he likes to use puzzle pieces of color to emphasize the complex relationship of light and shadow over form. John’s inspiration comes from the hidden beauty in ordinary objects.

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

Honorable Mention (Traditional)
Sue Young

Our minds blend the colors we see in Sue’s impressionist style, just as happens when we view the thousand hues of a tree’s leaves. Sue Young, painter, anthropologist, and traveler, studied fine arts at Indiana University at Bloomington, and later studied pastels under Doug Dawson at Art Students League of Denver. The vivid and unblended colors in Sue’s landscapes draw one into the rural scenes of Northern England, France and the Colorado mountains. Sue’s playful interpretations of nature’s undisturbed beauty delight with her unique color combinations and perceptive capture of light.

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Sue’s work, please email her directly.

Honorable Mention
(Digital & Photography)
Brandie Ferguson

Artist Statement
My approach to photography is based on my belief in the beauty and majestic aspect of nature that God created with his hands. I want my photographs to give the feeling of wonder and mystery that are rarely seen in daily life. There are great photographs waiting to be found everywhere and in everything. One must always have his eyes open to the awesome world that we live in. It takes the vision and insight of the artist to bring out the grandeur, weather great or small, of what is seen through their lens.

I use photography as a means to capture the things people look at but don’t really see. My goal is to make my photographs draw viewers in and make them think about what I have captured. I create my photographs to express my interpretation of the world around me, whether it be a mountain range in Montana or the tiny flowers on the side of the road.

Bio
Raised in Hemphill, Texas, married to Martin Ferguson since 1992. She is the mother of two grown sons and a college aged daughter. She is the grandmother of one granddaughter. She has lived in the Minden, Louisiana, area since 2008. Brandie and her family have traveled extensively with her husband’s work, and she has seen many of God’s majestic wonders in nature which has inspired her to capture these sites in photography.

Brandie is currently working towards an Associate’s Degree in photography from Bossier Parish Community College. She is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa, she has been published in the 2016, 2017 Savior Faire and in the Photographers Forum for 2016, 2017. Her work has been in many gallery exhibits all over the USA.

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

Honorable Mention (Traditional)
Rana Baidas

BIOGRAPHY

When you unravel the diverse pieces of Rana’s background, education and experiences, a beautiful and rich talent emerges. Now living in Toronto, Rana is a Canadian artist of Jordanian & Palestinian roots. Earning her BFA from Jordan, Rana’s journey then took her to Dubai for almost a decade. Being a crossroads of cultures, Dubai was the place to explore various forms of Art. Later, relocating to Canada where she further enhanced and enriched her skills, practicing traditional oil painting techniques and acrylic painting with renowned Canadian artists.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

“These are glimpses or moments from life that I have captured, that have merged to create a composition between location and light that gave me a feeling of energy. This is the energy that I wished to capture as a memory that I would be able to revisit. Through the colours and light I began my journey with the canvas and I aim to convey my feelings so that the viewer can capture the essence of that moment as well.”

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

Honorable Mention
(Digital & Photography)
Ryan Chesla

“Taking daily life as his subject matter, photographer Ryan Chesla seduces his viewer into a world of equilibrium, which he then disrupts with images or moments that articulate the stream of daily events. His photography aims to punctuate the human drama in order to clarify our existence and to reveal the underlying poetry in everyday life.”

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Ryan’s work please email him directly.

Honorable Mention (Traditional)
Hattie Phillips

The artist uses the intangible and uncatchable; ever present, yet never-ending-always-changing nature of the horizon as a platform to explore emotion. Mundane sights, daily occurrences often taken for granted, are elevated to be the main topic. Mark making, color choice and depicted environment strive to accurately convey a visual representation of the vast, bursting, infinite and flitting spectrum of human emotion.

To see more of Hattie’s work, please email her directly.

Honorable Mention
(Digital & Photography)
Liz Ruest

Liz Ruest is a Canadian artist who’s been living in the Seattle area since 1989. Her work investigates landscape and memory, permanence, change, and regrowth. Do we remember a place, a view, or just a feeling? What of all the people before us who’ve stood in that spot? By collating multiple perceptions in a digital format, Liz creates modern abstractions that speak about timelessness, familiarity, and our sense of time passing. The underlying photographs, specific to a time and place, are obscured by layers of texture and symbols of aging, asking you to come with her on a journey of recognition.

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

Honorable Mention (Traditional)
Paul Gala

I have long been inspired by the magical and luminous artwork of the Old Masters, the Hudson River School artists, and others. My artistic journey was fueled by studying French Art and History in Paris, France in the early 1990s. I’ve walked the same terrain of some of the great artists, and painted at some of the same locations they did. My artistic journey continues to expand to broader strokes of color and a deeper appreciation of what the paint demands of me on the canvas, not a reflection of the landscape that lays out before me. These places give my work an initial direction, but the paintings always take a life of their own.

My paintings are a reflection of how I see the world and I often get lost in the creation. Through the use of different techniques, including abandoning the brush and using my hands and rags, I directly connect with the painting. There is a kind of magic that happens when you are completely in the moment of painting. A viewer’s enjoyment of my art is an individual experience. I provide an initial jumping off point, and then they are transported to their own special place.

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Paul’s work please visit his website.

Honorable Mention
(Digital & Photography)
Peter Lemiska

We can all learn from the great photographers, both by studying their works and by listening to their words. Twentieth-century photographer, Elliott Erwitt, saw photography as an art of observation. He said, “It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

Ansel Adams put it more succinctly. He said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”  How a photographer sees a scene and how he composes it – perspective and composition – is where the image begins. Those two elements are controlled exclusively by the photographer. Whether intending to tell a story, create a mood, capture nature’s artistry or just pique the viewer’s curiosity, we can all create more compelling images by listening to the masters, by looking for something interesting in ordinary places and by standing in the right place.
Peter Lemiska

After retiring from the federal government, this self-taught photographer finally found the time to indulge his long-time passion. His photographs have been displayed throughout the country, in juried exhibitions of the San Diego County Fair, the Cape Cod Art Association, and the Blue Ridge Mountains Art Association, as well as the prestigious Levy Gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He has been published in the 1996, 1998, 2007, and 2011 editions of “Best of Photography,” an annual publication highlighting selected images from international competitors. Peter’s work has been recognized in various photo competitions, receiving Honorable Mention in the 2004 San Diego County Fair Exhibition and the 2003 edition of “Best of Photography.” He was awarded First Place in the 2008 Shaker Village Photo Competition in New Hampshire. Several of his images have been acquired by the state of New Hampshire for permanent display in the Merrimack County Courthouse.

To purchase this award winning piece or to see more of Peter’s work, please email him directly.