"On High" Wins Best of Show

I attended the reception for the artReston 17th Annual Juried Exhibition ... where three of my pieces are hanging from June 7 to July 6 ... and guess what? Okay, I suppose the title of the post gives it away. My painting "On High" won Best of Show!

Daniel Wise, an award-winning pastel painter, was the juror and he commented on each award winners' work. What he liked about "On High" ... and this is not a direct quote but paraphrased to the best of my memory ... interesting composition (off center), my brushstrokes (I must use some BIG brushes), the painting's not overworked, texture of fabrics (satin looks like satin), color (richness of the skin tones), and in addition to liking it just for its qualities as a painting ... he appreciated the subject matter. It wasn't just a beautiful portrait. It was a portrait of a woman who was slightly older, and sensual, beautiful, confident of who she is. He imagined that she was more beautiful today than she was when she was 18. I'm sure that is true. That's what I saw and imagined when I was painting her.

So, I admit. When someone is admiring one of your paintings... And that someone is the juror... You listen better than normal.

Happy bias aside, I thought Daniel Wise did a great job jurying. He was thoughtful about the process and his selections. First Place went to painter Kirsten Schneider for her powerful portrait "Johnny Rotten" ... and one of Daniel's comments was how much he was affected by seeing it in person. (He selected pieces for the show via electronic submissions -- from photos -- and chose award winners after the show was hung -- in person.) Scale matters. It's tough to tell what an artwork really looks like from a photo.

Second Place went to artist Katie Cassidy for her painting, "September Morning." I thought of Katie's painting as an abstract, but saw it differently (better) through Daniel's comments. He saw it as a landscape (it is) and loved its depth and mystery. Wow. When I saw it (as an abstract), I focused on it being a painting about color (warm glowing yellows). Katie pushed the painting to just the right spot.

More award winners:
Third Place: Allen Hart, "Cedar Waxwing", photography
Honorable Mention: Louise Gantas, "Butterfly Splendor" an amazing piece done in ink and goauche that has all of these "wonderful surprises" in it.
Honorable Mention: Lori Goll, "Peacock Blue" a pastel that Daniel Wise admired for the artist's gentle touch, almost lacelike quality given to the surface.

One last note on this long post (sorry ... but I don't win Best of Shows all that often) is that it was great to meet some very nice fellow artists at the reception.

"On High", oil on linen, 36"h x 30"w, copyright Jill Banks 2007.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

Lots of Web Site Updates

Instead of working on the painting of my dining room last night, I decided to sit down and make some planned changes to my web site. There's still more to do, as always, but I made huge progress. Yea!

What's new?
You can find out for yourself by just visiting the home page: www.jillbanks.com.
But, here's what's new

• A preview of my upcoming July solo show "Painting the Town" (I've included too many paintings there ... some will be "edited" out before the show hangs ... but you'll get the idea.)
• Updated main gallery page
• Market Series Gallery page -- all new
• New Still Life Gallery page
• Pricing and additional info added to new individual pages in the still life and market series galleries plus new paintings have been added
• Updated info on Summer workshops -- I've changed two of the dates for the "Painting the Town" workshop (I'm moving and have two visits to NYC for Salmagundi Club shows)

Still left to do: updating my portrait gallery and maybe the drawing pages. But, hey ... another day.

I'm off to take paintings to the artReston Annual Juried Exhibition sponsored by the League of Reston Artists. There will be a reception for that show Sunday, June 13, 2-4pm at the JoAnn Rose Gallery in Lake Anne, Reston, VA.

Randy and I did buy our new house ... so we'll actually have someplace to live next month. An exciting but busy time in the Banks household.

"Lemons, Sunflowers and the Blue Teakettle", oil on linen, 30"h x 24"w, copyright Jill Banks 2010 is one of the new additions to my still life gallery pages ... and depicts a scene from my "current" kitchen. Seemed appropriate for this post.

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435

"Five Umbrellas" New NYC Street Scene Today

I've been painting away ... this week ... in addition to house hunting, but this is the first I've wanted to show you. While this is a work in progress (like all the rest I've touched this week), I'm pleased with it at this stage. (I will add in my warm brights: yellows and reds. Coming soon.)

My inspiration for this one? "Rainy Day in NYC" getting accepted into the Salmagundi Club's Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition ... that coincides with my July solo show at the Old Brogue Irish Pub in Great Falls, VA. I really wanted "Rainy Day in NYC" to be part of that show (though I'm very excited about it getting accepted to the Salmagundi Club!). The only solution was to paint another rainy New York City street scene.

I'm sure I was also inspired by last weekend's trip to the city and the fact I was discouraged with my progress on other paintings. I just read an article about staying productive and the author shared her method. She allows herself to procrastinate ... put off one art task ... but only by substituting it with another art task. Brilliant!

A confession. I did use Photoshop Elements to touch up this work in progress since the photo I took (at dusk) looked, well, dusky. I "despeckled" it and then "unsharp masked" it. So, this isn't completely true to the painting at this stage but I like it. Now I know a bit more of what I want to do with this next painting session.

I did hear today that three of my paintings were accepted into artReston, the League of Reston Artists Annual Juried Open Exhibition. The exhibit runs from Monday, June 7 to July 6th at the JoAnn Rose Gallery. Lake Anne Reston Community Center, 1609-A Washington Plaza, Reston, VA 20190. A reception is being held Sunday, June 13th, 2-4pm. Daniel Wise is the juror.

"Five Umbrellas" work in progress scene from Chelsea in NYC, 18"h x 24"w, oil on Senso linen, copyright Jill Banks 2010.


Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435