Anyone know who won at PSOA TX?
 

Hoping someone at the convention can post the results of the competition!

TIA
Linda

Admin note: I moved this thread here from the Portrait World News area. Chris

Sorry Linda if you were expecting some information but it isn't going to be coming from me. I think those who went agreed to keep the rest of us wondering.

I keep coming back to my computer to see if anyone posted anything. I finally decided
to post something here so I will get email notification (and a door bell) if and when someone finally does.

Forgive me, I'm terrible, I know.

Janel

I was there, but Im afraid I dont have names and titles handy and I havent downloaded any photos yet. I dont think my photos will be too great anyway.

Alex's painting did well - I want to say it was around 3rd or 4th place out of the VERY impressive 12. Marvin won First Place with his painting and the Grand Prize was a painting of what I believe was a woman from INdia.

It was wonderful to meet everyone and I was proud to know so many award winners like Linda and Garth.

I know Chris was taking a lot of photos so perhaps she will post some. I wandered from demo to demo and saw that hers was by far the most well attended. (the others at that time were Ryder, Clark & Liberace).

Thanks for the info Kim,

I am not very good at links so I hope this works in case the attached
photo is not the best color.

http://fineartportrait.com/egan.html

Huge congratulations to everyone who received an award. I wish I could have seen the paintings in person.

I am SO sorry, I forgot to add this is Marvin Mattelson's portrait that won First Prize.
Congratulations Marvin!

It was a really fun conference and I'm so glad I got to meet some people in person, like Kim, Chris, David Draime, Tom Edgerton, Marvin, and many others!

I'm afraid I can't remember the exact order of who got what. I believe it was the Draper Prize that went to an artist from India who painted his wife sitting in a chair. And I think Best of Show went to Jeremy Lipking. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Actually my painting didn't place very high in the 12--maybe 5th or 6th. I think they called it "2nd Honors Award" and it was one step above plain "Honors." One of my favorite paintings was a biker lady in braids, which only got honors, to my disappointment. John Ennis couldn't make it at the last minute, so we don't know what he would have won had he been able to be there! Garth couldn't make it either! So the PA contingent was small this year.

I'm also so proud that our friends won so many awards. Congrats, Linda and Garth! Even though your paintings weren't there in person (too sleepy, perhaps?) they looked great up there on the screen and I felt so glad to know you and know the work and inspiration you put into those pieces.

Here are the finalists names, but I don't have complete information re: places, especially in the Honors awards. I will only list the ones I'm sure about, and you all can help me with the rankings:

Vasudeo Taranath Kamath--Grand Prize
Jeremy Lipking--Best in Show
Marvin Mattelson--First Place
Kay Polk--Second Place
Jamie McMahan--People's Choice
Paul Newton--First Honors
(Our Own) Alexandra Tyng--Second Honors

Jeffery Watts
Jean-Paul Tibbles
Ted Reed
John Ennis
Jeanne Ciravolo

(Note: the finalists' paintings, with other awards, are now posted on the PSOA site.)

Congratulation to all! And to second Alex's sentiments, it was great to meet our Forum winners face to face. We all missed Garth...

Big Congrats to Alex and Marvin and all other that made it to the top :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
It

It was wonderful to meet so many new faces and talk to so many artists from all over the world. I would like to add my congratulations to all the terrific finalists whose paintings were at the convention - it really was a stellar show of talent.

Most of my photos are incredibly bad, but here's what I have so far:
A few finalists: Marvin Mattelson, Alex Tyng, Jeremy Lipking:

Chris Saper, teaching Juan Maritnez (Certificate of Excellence Award winner) how to use a camera. :)

Me, Tom Edgerton.
I had to post this photo. Neither Tom nor I will ever look this good again.

Congratulations to all!

Please post images of the paintings that received recognition. It is great to see so many SOG artists receiving honors!

I am so sorry I couldn't attend this year but I hope that my congratulations and salutations will be heard by everyone.

Hope to see you all next year.

It was so great to see all the SOG and Forum buds at this conference, and make new friends - I'm still buzzing from it. And I am so excited and anxious and inspired to get back to work, to improve. The talks were really wonderful, I got so much out of them. The demos were fabulous - Thurs. night I wished I were 4 people, to be able to sit through all of them. I would like to share a quick story - I suspect others will find it amusing, as I have:

My brother lives in Taos, New Mexico, and is also an artist. A little more than two years ago, he and his wife bought a house, that has a very large studio space attached. It's all a bit unfinished, but they are remodelling it a little at a time. It's huge. I visited them the summer before last and, as they did not have a finished guest room, I was brought into the studio. My brother had put a futon, some sheets, blankets and a pillow on this model's stand which was situated against a large wall. This was my bed for two weeks. Well, in a few days I was told to "clean up." It was Thursday and every Thursday evening the studio is opened to area artists for a live model drawing session. So I cleared off my "bed," put my clothes and stuff away, etc. That evening, about twelve or so artists and a beautiful model showed up... and so we all got started. During one of the breaks, I walked around and saw a drawing that this older guy was working on. It was incredible. I told my brother, "this guy is really good." He said, "yeah, he's a pretty good artist."

Well, last Sunday morning, as I was listening to David Leffel and Sherrie McGraw's talk, I was thinking, David Leffel sure looks familiar. Then he or she mentioned they were now living in Taos...and then it dawned on me. It was like "Oh...my... God! I can't believe it." That "pretty good artist" was David Leffel. I had heard of him for years, and admired his work but never knew what he looked like. Then as I was musing, I came to this realization, this seminal fact - (this is just how my brain works):

David Leffel was in my bedroom, drawing a naked lady who was standing on my bed!

Wow! How many people can say that!?! And, yet, I didn't even know it at the time. Well a few hours ago I called my brother and said, "you know when I was visiting, that drawing group, that guy....etc? Do you realize who he is?!?" And he replied, "yeah, that was David. David Leffel...Art Student's League. What about him?"

- Do you ever have those moments where you feel like the stupidest person on the planet?

But what really impresses me is that even though David and Sherrie could certainly hire a model themselves whenever they want to, they go to this Thursday night drawing group at my brother's studio - and fairly regularly, according to my brother. It's very cool. To me that speaks volumes about the dedication, the character, the spirit of these two incredible artists, these two incredible people. Anyway, I'm going to go to Taos this summer to attend a workshop with both David and Sherrie (hopefully, if they are not already full). And I can't wait.

David

Canadians!

Enzie, I had a lot of trouble getting good photos of the Finalist paintings. I'm glad that Janel posted Marvin's so that we can take a good look at it here.

Here is the one for which John Ennis won an Honors award (I grabbed it from his website):

Gee, I wish I could have seen these in person. I am very envious of all who were able to make it. Thanks for posting this, Linda.

I forgot to mention, if you go to the link I attached that takes you to Marvin's website you can click on the portrait for enlargements and close ups. It is worth a trip there to get a good look up close (as I know all of us artists like to do)

Amazing stuff.

Same thing happened at my place.

Mr. Leffel -- if indeed it is he -- may have some explaining to do.

Meanwhile, the Taos geography and arts community has brought me back a number of times and your description of the possibilities has me staring off into the space outside this window . . .

Thursday Night Demo of Katy
 

I don't have any in-process shots of my demo, but perhaps I will get some eventually - I'll add them if possible.

This is Katy, oil on a New Traditions panel, 20 x 16. She did a wonderful job, and is as lovely on the inside as she is on the outside.

As it turned out, it was really quite fun to do this, and I so appreciated the PSA providing me the opportunity.

PS David, great story!

Hearty congratulations to all of you! How exciting for everyone, and wow Chris, getting to do demo - which looks great too!

Linda, great picture of you and Tom - I think you are both as pretty as I remember in person.

Thanks Linda!

David, that was a funny story. I too can relate to those "dah" moments! :)

Chris,

I would have loved to watch your demo. So sorry I missed it.

Chris's demo really was good. She had some very interesting things to say about light, shadow, and the use of complementary colors, which is one of my favorite topics. She spoke very clearly and captured everyone's interest. Not only that, she had prepared some informative handouts and she posted pictures of different stages of a sample demo on one of the walls so people could see the whole process. Judging from the turnout and the fact that hardly anyone left, I would say she really held people's interest. I went out for a while to see the watercolor demo, and when I came back, the room was overflowing with people eagerly watching. Plus, she captured an excellent likeness of her model!

Alex always says it so well! I talked to so many people who were big fans of Chris' book and even quoted some passages from it. :exclamati They were thrilled to finally get the chance to see her in action. It was all very impressive and Katy is indeed as lovely as her painting - big congratulations, Chris!

I have a photo of Chris' demo somewhere - I will locate it later and post it.

Walis/Gamblin demo
 

Last year I did an impromptu demo using oil on Wallis, a surface I really love for oil. As it was unexpected, I had to borrow paints from the Gamblin booth - so this year the Gamblin rep asked me to do it again, as did Kitty Wallis. Linda Brandon joined me and it was fun. The last image is from the 2005 demo.

Wow those AZ girls!

I have the BEST of the BEST edition of Chris' book - I bet I could get big money on ebay for it... but it's not leaving my hands. No matter how much I advance on this journey I still pull it out once a week.

Chris, maybe I shouldn't ask this here, but I can't remember if I ever learned or not... does the Wallis paper just eat your brushes? Do you prime it to soften the blow?

Bravo to you and Linda! Alex where are your pictures? I want to see some of Kim too!

I'm embarrassed to say I didn't take any. I was going to bring a throwaway digital camera but I forgot it, and also forgot to look for another one. I guess I was too caught up in the events!

The Wallis demo looks like fun.

Here are some photos I finally downloaded..

I have all of 2 minutes - so the first one is Chris' demo, the rest someone else can say, or you all can guess. :D

Beth, I dont know that I got in any photos. I seem to remember someone taking one, then the camera broke just as it captured my image.. ;)

Kim I have a pic of you:) Camera still works.

Alex, Kim, me, another person, and Alex's friend Eliza.

Must be present to win?
 

"John Ennis couldn't make it at the last minute, so we don't know what he would have won had he been able to be there! Garth couldn't make it either!"

I am wondering what's meant by this? I kind of figured that you have to be enrolled in the conference to place but do you have to be present to win?
Just wondering for next year.
I had a blast! It was soo enlightening and one of my favorite artists who I have studied with, Kay Polk, was the talk of our town winning second place.
Sixth time was the charm according to the papers although I think she placed 2nd years ago too.

Brenda Robson from Dallas

Finalists are chosen from the entire pool of entries, whether or not one is enrolled for the conference. Usually you have to be there if you're a finalist, to place further. But John Ennis was taken sick as he was boarding the plane to go down, so I imagine some accomodation would have been made.

Chris works wonders
 

Chris did an incredible job with this demo. Not only was she fast and precise, she entertained the audience and somehow slipped in some education too! Plus she's adorable ... am I right?


That was really fun, I was happy to be there. Plus you put this familiar face on that beautiful painting! I just love it, thank you.

And Chris, please stop and take a breather once and a while, or get some bigger springs. :D xxoo Katy

Katy, Thanks!

I'll look into stiletto springs and get back to you on that.

Stiletto springs
 

Yes, stiletto springs! That's the way to paint and look your best. Chris, we all know you already have a pair of these. Fess up. ;)

Saw your beautiful painting "Reflections" in the Gamblin ad in "the Artist's Magazine", July/Aug. Great spot and it really catches your eye.

Katy