Apparently there is a traveling show of maritime art coming the the Mobile Museum of Art early in 2012. To get everyone in the mood they decided to have a juried exhibition of 'maritime' paintings by local artists. Ben Shamback, a very good, kinda super realistic painter of still life who is a professor at USA art dept was lined up to be the juror. Now rest assured I am not a maritime painter but last spring I'd done 3 smallish paintings based on rainbows, an old visual element of mine. 2 of them sorta evolved toward a water scene so I ended up sticking a sail shape in them and then since it was water an unrealistic reflection. Tah dah, 2 maritime paintings. The third one was dry land. So even though I would not have done paintings to conform to this theme to enter the show surprise, surprise, I had 2 perfectly good maritime paintings just sitting there. The entry fee was cool, $0.00. So I entered.
The blue painting below was awarded 2nd "prize". I would have given Best in Show to someone else, NOT ME. I really dislike the idea of 1st 2nd 3rd place etc. It is ridiculous to try to rate paintings that way. My thoughts are to give a number of merit awards, equal if there's money involved.
There I've ridden my white charger once again.
Rainbow #2 22 x 22 inches Oil on Canvas
Passing Storm (got to call it something) ca. 34 x 36 inches Oil on Canvas
Actually I like the other one at the top better