A Little Healthy Competition
“Never be afraid of competition. Competition breeds excellence and quality. Without it, complacency and neglect will grow.”
~ Dennis Carradin
A little healthy competition can help you push yourself to do your very best. I consider my primary competition to be myself – the painter I was last week, last year, etc. It’s always good to try to be better than THAT artist. That said though, a couple of times each year, I like to push myself and test my artwork against my peers. So, I enter my artwork in a juried show. (In the art world judging is called jurying, so a juried show is one in which a qualified judge critiques the art and selects the award winners.) It’s a great chance to see how my art stacks up and to see and learn from other artists’ work.
One of the shows I always enter is the local Crooked Creek Art League Annual Juried Show. I’m fortunate that despite being a relatively small community, Chapin hosts one of the largest, oldest and most active art leagues in South Carolina. Its show is always great.
This year, I have entered two pieces in the “Masters Division” which puts my work in direct competition with other skilled (and mostly professional) artists. The competition is always tough with a lot of wonderful artwork across multiple media.
The first is “Misty Morro”. It’s a large piece at 16” by 40”. You may recognize it from the smaller study piece I did recently in preparation for creating this one. It’s interesting to me how doing a second version from the same reference yields a painting that is ‘the same’ and yet also quite different.
The second piece I entered is one that I completed over the summer. It’s happily owned by a marvelous collector now but he was gracious enough to agree when he bought it to let me borrow it back to enter into the show. He has his fingers crossed it will win an award!
The full show will be on display at Crooked Creek Park until March 27. The award winning pieces will then be on extended display until April 15. There are over a hundred pieces of beautiful art (many for sale), so go by and visit it if you can! Art ALWAYS looks better in person J.
Note: Due to COVID, the park requires masks and social distancing as you tour the show.
That’s it for now. I hope you have a fabulous week ahead! Until next time, I’ll be here in my studio working on new paintings for you to enjoy.
Barbara
In other news...
Some new artwork is being displayed in the Crooked Creek Art League Gallery at Palmetto Fine Arts in Chapin until March 31. The new pieces replace artwork that has sold.
What’s next?
My art will be included in a new exhibit, the “My Favorite Vacation Show” at Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea in downtown Columbia in April. This is a great venue with tasty beverages and snacks as well. I’ll have more to share on this show in my next message.
Stay tuned!
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