Ablaze captures the eye with the intense sunset reflecting in the clouds, the water and rocks, appearing in some ways to be setting them on fire.
Embracing the beauty of moments that come after storms—when everything feels renewed, yet hushed.
🏆 Honourable Mention (Green)
The inspiration image was taken by KJ in the Fall of 2021 as a late afternoon storm approached. The fading sunlight highlighted the wheat stems. The painting is on an old stretcher frame that is 4” deep.
I wanted the clouds and colours of this sky to speak of strength and potential danger, creating awe and even some fear of a coming storm. The painting was inspired by a photo I took of a fabulous sky just after arriving by plane in Cairns on the east cost of Australia.
🏆 Crystal Award (Gallery Ring :Land Sky Water" 🌐)
Blue Horizon #1 is, as named the first in a series of paintings of Lake Huron looking west from the beach in Southampton. The sky and water on a sunny day are magical and can be captured in a variety of styles. I used rough stokes to capture the energy of the clouds and water and kept the shape of Chantry Island purposely blurred.
The big, big skies of Alberta are a perfect background to the yellow and green fields of canola.
Shaking it up a bit and letting my imagination flow
I focused on the vibrant energy of magenta, adding invigorating yellows and greens to make it come alive. Each layer and brushstroke is a spontaneous expression, encouraging you to find your own story within.
This painting reminds me of the relationship between fire and water during the forest fires of 2023. Both can destroy, and both can refresh. Water can smother fire even while fire tries to move around and over it.
🏆 Winner (Blue Art 🌐) • Bronze Award (Abstracts)
This painting’s name came into my head and would not go away. The subject is the view at dusk in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Galehead Hut is the most remote in the Appalachian Mountain Club hut system, with views that are well worth the day’s climb to reach it.
Dusk in Cairns Australia after a storm and the beginning of a lovely evening.
Imagine a vibrant green landscape nestled under a playful pink sky, with a mysterious pink tint in the water replacing the usual blues and greens.
Daylight is fading as night falls, and the first star makes itself known.
The full-sized painting based on the study Marsh Morning, both inspired by a photograph by @GilbertScottHaldane
Inspired by the same sunset cruise as for Okavango Mellow, I kept this small painting very simple with suggestions of light and shadow.
Floating on the Okavango River watching as the light of the setting sun put everything into shadow. I chose to paint it with a very smooth surface and a focus on the light and its reflection in the river.
Red sky in evening #1 is one of three paintings I made inspired by a photograph taken at Calgary airport. This version focuses on the brightness of the sky.
A vibrant explosion of textured red hues dances like a forest ablaze, setting the scene aglow with an irresistible warmth.
Although the colour of the sky is not red it appears somewhat ominous.
I love the lines and shadows of the dock and the reflection of the red ramp in the water on a December day. As with View from the Dock, I carefully blended the paint onto the slightly pebbled surface of the paneled board.
Another painting on paper created in our weekly challenges during the first year of the Covid lockdowns. I loved using a palette knife to create the sharp outline of the barn and the softness of the trees and fields and the energy of the sky.
I created this as an experiment in combining colours that remained on my palette, leftovers from other paintings. It developed over a couple of sessions until I saw the flames, reminding me of the Arenal volcano exhausting flames into a cloudy sky.
A vibrant forest of greens and yellows whispers secrets below a sky shifting from bold blues to warm sunset hues.
🏆 Finalist (Artist International 11 🌐)
Where There’s Hope was inspired by a photo taken as the sun set in Hope, BC. I made the clouds and mountains softer and enhanced the pinks and purples. The title of the painting is a reference to its locale and to a thought of finding inspiration in the colours and shapes of the sky and land.
For Northerners, the winter escape is epitomized by bright blue water, sunshine and a beach. Picture yourself here.