First, Second, Third

Category: Leslie's Doings

I was pleased to be asked by Rogue Community College’s FireHouse Gallery to co-jury their Southern Oregon Art Show this week. It’s an historic community art show now in it’s 66th year, open to all, with categories in painting, watercolor, sculpture, ceramics etc. It’s a non-juried show but they award first, second and third places in each of the categories.  I did this once before about 10 years ago and was pleased they asked me again. Evidently they want people outside the area or a least fairly new to it, as I was then, to avoid recognition of the work submitted.

Dennis and I have juried shows before but it is usually the grueling process of looking at hundreds of digital entries and scoring them for possible inclusion in an art fair or show.  This was very different as the work was already hung. The show was open to all levels of expertise so it was relatively easy to pick the top contenders in each category and then interesting to talk about those entries with my co-juror Sarah Waldron.  We turned out to be a good pairing as Sarah, who has been painting much longer that I and has also taught painting, was most interested in technique and consistency; I was most interested in emotional impact and subject content.  She got me to look again at entries I had not considered, and visa versa.

In a couple of hours we made our choices and were treated to lunch by the staff, returning to a gallery full of artists eager to hear about why we chose what we did.  It took us  a couple of hours to go around the entire show and explain the strengths of the winners. The group was so attentive and so appreciative, it really was a pleasure.

The bonus to all this was getting paid to head south to our former home ground and visit with some friends. We also had a chance to visit Sarah in her studio and I look forward to staying in touch with her.

Spring Pond by Sarah Waldren 12 ” x 12″ oil on panel