VAA Exhibition

Jane Troesch assessing arrangement of works in the VAA exhbition.

Cheryl Gates adjusting a painting in the VAA exhibition.

Hey All,

These are photos of the Villages Art Association (VAA) Exhibition that we were asked to judge yesterday at the Villages Annex. As always we were happy to have an opportunity to look at the artists work, but let me say, in case you have never juried or judged an art show, it really is work. It's always difficult to make a choices when you are comparing pieces of artwork by various artists, but this one caused us a little extra time in decision making as we changed our minds numerous times.

We were very pleased to have plenty of award worthy pieces to choose from. The first, second and third awards were fairly easy to pick. The problem came when we found 5 pieces that had to be reduced to 3 for merit awards. After much deliberation, it was down to 4 then we changed our minds many times as all 4 were meritorious in our opinions. Finally, with reluctance we narrowed it to 3 and moved on to choosing 5 pieces for Honorable Mention.

There may be some judges that take this job lightly, we never do. In Carlynne's words, "It matters a lot to the artist." Judging is not just choosing winning artwork. One must know why the work was chosen beyond just the personal taste of the judge. If a judge tells you his/her personal taste never enters into it, they are wrong. Much as we try to leave it out, it is always there. Our personal criteria generally allows for technique and technical skill, creativity and composition, and of course must fall within the parameters of the requirements of the exhibition.

Choices are made based on how well the artist used the picture plane compared to their fellow exhibiting artist. In this particular show, we were comparing all media as opposed to others that divide the awards into categories based on media. Experimental as Carlynne and I are as artists, we have used most all media and have a pretty good idea what is involved in each piece. This is extremely helpful when it comes to a exhibit that groups all media together.





Here is a list of the top award winners in the VAA Exhibition, located in the Villages Annex:


First Place: "C" Delight, by Rich Davis We loved this abstract piece in blue. The compositionwas flawless. We would not change a thing.


Second Place: "Independent Woman" by Barbara Wensel Severns A beautiful portrait in pastel. Lovely job.


Third Place: "Bugsy" by Donna Caputo A little colored pencil portrait of her dog in an interesting pose. Wonderful textures.


As you can see, all of these works are different media, subject matter and technique. We were happy it came out that way.


Cheryl Gates and Jane Troesch of the VAA hired us to judge and were wonderfully accommodating to our needs as we performed our job. The members of the VAA that we met on Sunday could not have been more gracious. We are grateful to them for making our job as easy as possible and yes, we will be back to do a demo or workshop for you any time.



Peace and happy painting,
Kelli