Win in acrylic paints with high end artwork. Every painting, no matter the subject or medium, begins with a spark of inspiration. These sparks could come from something specific: a roundup of wild mustangs, Edward Hopper’s paintings, a walk through the hutongs of Beijing, or something more intuitive, a memory, a mood, the intense gaze of a model. AcrylicWorks 8 is a beautiful and colorful collection of 116 paintings that started with that creative spark. While the individual uniquely experiences artistic inspiration, the quick-drying properties and flexible nature of acrylic are universally accepted by the more than 100 leading experts featured in this particular issue.
Artists will find the arts in this cabinet recognizable. Each is deeply grounded in our common experience as human beings and how we interact with the world around us. During the unprecedented and challenging times we have lived through, art has been a refuge for many artists featured on these pages. We appreciate that the AcrylicWorks 8 artists have chosen to share with us not only their beautiful and imaginative works of art but that very personal experience, philosophy, or feeling that sparked each piece and process from the beginning.
First place winner
Ken Goldman’s grand prize winner, A Touch of Red, stands out in all the right ways. In this captivating portrait, elements of a cool-toned palette, fluid patterns, and powerful composition come together to reveal something of the ineffable: a riveting interpretation of dazzling female beauty. The play features a young woman sitting upright but relaxed. Her intent gaze is fixed immediately on the observer. A bright light bathes her and hers in her summer dress with floral print. Goldman notes that similar floral motifs subtly repeat themselves in the background, creating a dynamic structural echo. A simple triangular composition provides stability to the subject, while the predominance of cool neutrals brings out her warm red hair.
According to Goldman, A Touch of Red is based on a photo of the design in the early 2000s during a design study class he developed at the Athenaeum Art Center in San Diego. Intended to help the model resume the pose during the next lesson, the shallow photo was truly a lucky shot. Normally, I can’t paint the carriages that I have prepared for a class. Years later, I decided that I had to paint this.
From the jury
For the Stephen Quiller jury, A Touch of Red (Serenity), expertly translated from idea to realization, lifted it to a decisive first-place victory. I love the fundamentally symmetrical composition that makes a regal, rhythmic, universal statement. It shows an impossible use of acrylic color. The subordinate notes of red-orange highlight the pa great letter of yellow-green to blue. It is a very powerful piece that deserves the highest recognition.
Second place winner
The title of Susan’s Second Place award-winning business, Divine Union, is both a record and a play on words. The subject comes from my photograph of two trees on a wooded hill, inextricably linked by vines. The resulting composition, reduced to its essence, defines this connection and highlights the spaces between them. He reveals that the red and growing vines on each tree have been joined together, as if connected, over many years of friendship. It was the complex textures and colors of the subject that inspired Martin to paint this piece.
She was always draw some rare drawing ideas to color, even going so far as to dip into a five-gallon can of moody paint when she was a kid. That love of color matches her search for textures. I’m drawn to the way light plays with the surfaces of any subject, whether its leaves and herbs, bark and plants, or crumpled soda cans—the more chaotic, the better. Much of my botanical material is found in my garden and my neighborhood.
From the jury
This intricate detail is what drew the attention of AcrylicWorks 8 jury Stephen Quiller to the piece. It is a fabric enhanced with composition and color, a treat to observe. I like the smooth diagonal movement and curvilinear flow from bottom left to top right and the variety of shapes throughout the composition. Quiller also emphasizes the abstract quality of the piece, which is at the heart of Martin’s work. There is no focal point. I love the details of light that are small notes in the central part of the composition, giving a feeling of outside beyond.
Third place
The line begins at a clear turquoise puddle and makes a path between the sunlit rock standing on the left and a different rock face caught in the shadow on the right. It continues its descent into a small dark green basin, set against an amber background, gushes into a swift white with a sharp turn, and finally falls into a deep aquamarine pool, obscured by shadow. The lighting was perfect for creating a stunning scene on the canvas, says Lynn Neuman, behind the third-place winner Canyon Song artwork. The golden light at the piece’s height draws attention up and then downstream to the beautiful pools of emerald water. It takes you into the canyon, guiding your eye through the composition.