LANDSCAPE - STILL LIFE
APRIL 2020

BEST IN SHOW
LANDSCAPE
"ON A FOGGY DAY"
MANUELA MOLDOVAN

Mixed media (24 x 20 inches)$480.00
ionanapoda@gmail.com
www.manuelamoldovan.com

JUROR'S COMMENTS

"ON A FOGGY DAY is a novel paradise.  Unfamiliar, earth tones with accents of deluxe, mature colours soak, stain and deposit information wherever they walk, leaving behind a fascinating record of their rich ancestry.  These colours replace the vibrant types, which buoyantly float on the surface of common depictions of flowers, trees and ponds elsewhere.  Indistinct forms and misty, soft edges, which easily dissolve and escape when grasped in hand, create a vague and unstable impression here.  This dreamy experience is brilliantly and successfully steadied with contradictory heavy and concrete material.  A thick, gritty and sandy texture throughout enhanced with random scratches, scrapes, marks and torn paper constructs a rugged, sculptural quality, which talks back to the ethereal atmosphere.  The equally-processed reflection of the trees in the water, which incidentally is not blue, plays with the visual message transmitted in this luxurious, eccentric and captivating painting." -- GALLERY RING  

BEST IN SHOW
STILL LIFE
"IN THE BAG"
JOEL SOBELSON

Pastel (22 x 17 inches) $3500.00
www.jsobelson.wixsite.com/joel-sobelson

JUROR'S COMMENTS

"IN THE BAG is perfect.  Impressive mastery of the medium and a dramatic presentation of a banal subject combine to create immediate visual energy and excitement while a subconscious, deeper meaning awaits to reveal itself when ready.  The uncommon and excessive darkness in the background serves not only to highlight the well-lit subject but also develops an unsettling atmosphere and sense of foreboding that recalls 17th-century vanitas paintings.  The presence of the contemporary, plastic bag disturbs and distorts this connection with the past bumping the viewer into an almost imperceptible state of discomfort.  Its permanence is contrasted with the organic and ephemeral produce it contains, which acts as the memento mori in the picture.  In a clever twist it warns of the death of the planet instead of the viewer.  This balancing act between natural and unnatural is echoed in the unstable position of the bag, which has been left unattended and is in danger of relaxing and collapsing at any moment in this exceptional and outstanding artwork." -- GALLERY RING

RUBY AWARD
"LES GRENADES"
DEBORAH KOMMALAN

Oil (11 x 14 inches)
deborah@deborahkommalan.com
www.deborahkommalan.com

SAPPHIRE AWARD
"COPPER KETTLES"
ELIZABETH BURIN

Watercolour (10 x 20 inches) $525.00
www.elizabethburin.com

EMERALD AWARD
"MORNING"
GABRIELE GRACINE

Digital Metal Print (10 x 10 inches) $150.00
www.abstractgaby.strikingly.com

CRYSTAL AWARD OF MERIT
(in random order)