Life on Earth

Our first Art competition “Life on Earth” started in November 2020 and concluded on November 26, 2020. Art Room Gallery received entries from many countries around the world: USA, Germany, Canada, Spain, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Austria, Poland, France and Guatemala. The Life on Earth theme in this competition included a diversity in types, styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, photography, pastel, mixed media, digital, watercolor, graphite, colored pencil). The following evaluation criteria has been used for judging the artwork: creativity, interpretation of the theme, originality and quality of art, overall design, demonstration of artistic ability, and usage of medium. Jury decided to select 80 artworks for inclusion in the exhibition. Aside from First, Second, and Third place Jury also presented Merit awards and Honorable Mention awards.

Thank you, and enjoy the exhibition!

First place

Statement:

Hillary Turner is a San Francisco Bay Area photographer, covering the Bay Area, the 50 states, the EU, and South America, with a passion for creating images that bring the essence to the surface. Her clients include artists, musicians and designers, brewers and vintners, ad agencies, books and magazines and a variety of small and large businesses. As a professional photographer based in the Bay Area, CA, my career has encompassed advertising, nature, and fine arts photography. For the last decade I have been focusing on artists and musicians, as well as a lifelong passion for the outdoors. Detail and humor have always attracted my attention, and in these challenging days, humor has become ever more compelling. The infinite wonders of nature are both a soothing balm and a serious wake up call.

Statement:

Marti White is a mixed media artist living and working in Tucson, Arizona. Marti’s work is show locally and nationally as well as online. Marti’s work is primarily abstract in various media which include acrylic, mixed media, watercolor and collage. She usually does not begin a work with a plan beyond her color choices and substrate or media used. She lets the painting evolve, showing her as she goes along what it wants to say. Marti is active in several arts organizations in the Tucson area. She is a Signature Member of the Contemporary Artists of Southern Arizona for which she served two terms as president. She is a Saguaro Fellow of the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild and a Signature Member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters. Marti’s work has won many awards in local shows as well as national exhibits and online shows. Marti has been making art for over fifty years. She began working in oil, but quickly became interested in the fluidity and spontaneity of watercolor which she worked in for over twenty years when she lived in the Midwest. After moving to Arizona, the climate and the lifestyle of the Southwest seemed to call for a change in her approach to art-making. She began working in mixed media and collage and then in acrylic. Recently Marti became intrigued with the idea of what lay behind the surface of a painting. She found the idea of light passages or openings she calls “apertures” drew the viewer into a work and allowed them to see their own story in the painting beyond what she might see herself. This opened up a new way for the work to communicate.