2022 VPS Members Exhibition – The Awards

VPS MidState hosted the annual Member Show with the Awards on Saturday June 11. The show took over the three downstairs galleries of the Chaffee Art Center. The awards were presented by Kate Gridley. Kate is a conceptual realist painter living in Middlebury.
 Click here to watch the Awards Introduction by Kate Gridley

Juror of Awards

Kate Gridley https://www.kategridley.com/

Judge’s First Place Award

Judge's First Place

Wild Branch Morning, Sharon Moffatt

 

 

This small, yet confident piece works on an abstract level with its strong, unified dark and light shapes, diverse edges and subtle color notes. Lovely piece.

 

 

 


Judge’s Second Place Award

Full Bloom, Lisa Kent

 

Confident gestures with your mark making and color choices evoke a constellation of iris quivering in the garden, simultaneously conveying their fragile, temporal beauty.

 

 

 


Judge’s Third Place Award

Sophia’s World, Alla Hiser

 

 

There is a beautiful attention to detail and texture in this loving, carefully crafted piece. The qualitative differences between the surfaces of the stuffed animal, the wooden blocks and the child’s face are impressive.

 

 

 

 


Luminous Landscape Award

Looking East, Ellyn Mack

 

Your color choices and diverse edges help the viewer feel the early morning cold air that has settled into this valley overnight. The distant light of the background is luminous.

 

 

 


Reflective Waterscape Award

Like a River, Jill V. Burke

 

 

There are some beautiful color choices in this piece, particularly in the foreground. Also of note are the varied kinds of marks to create the illusion of ripples, glistening water, rocks and grasses.

 

 

 

 


Lively Still Life Award

Strawberry Pink, Linda Kiniry

 

 

Is it a still life, a landscape, a whimsy? The playfulness of the bright colors, curving lines and shapes add a happy energy to this still life.

 

 

 


Figuratively Speaking Award

A Private Conversation, Judy Albright

 

 

Inside the beautifully colored world of this restaurant are two figures in conversation. The standing figure is particularly confidently rendered. Of note is how the actual “conversation” is placed in the framing of this composition – at a distance, isolated. It doesn’t need a title!

 

 

 


Abstractly Appealing Award

Portrait of Miss X
Susan Tucker

 

This quiet painting was a contender for the tonal award as the complicated color notes that create this composition are subtle and beautiful. Here’s the thing: all painting is abstract. Portraits are innately abstract, though few viewers will believe that. You have captured this tension of belief and disbelief.

 

 

 

 


Totally Tonal Award

Home for the Wake
Josephine Herrera

 

 

The complex, muted color notes convey the somber mood of this quiet, winter landscape.

 

 

 

 

 


Touchingly Textural Award

Primaries, Matthew Peake

 

 

The massing of the subject matter is bold, the color mixing in the upper right quadrant is beautiful, and the coral notes in the upper left space inject light.

 

 

 

 


Colorfully Crafted Award

Tenacity, Kristen Varian

 

 

Your use of reddish and purple tones in the foreground is riveting and refreshing, along with the bold lines of your composition. Also of note is your mark making using the broad side of your pastels.

 


Lovely Lines Award

Golden Path, Jocelyn Randles

 

In this quiet landscape you have used a variety of lines and shapes to convey the grey light, the massing of autumn colors just before the world goes into the muted greys, purples and browns of stick season. Of particular note is the drawing of bare tree branches in the foreground on the right contrasted with the soft edged masses of distant leafless trees.

 

 

 


Shapely and Edgy Award

134, Linda Francis

 

 

Bold framing of your subject matter, and the contrast between the foreground and the background of your mark making and color choices strengthen this unusual piece.