Members Receive Awards at BRAC Show

Three members of the Anderson Artists Guild received recognition at the 2019 Juried Exhibition at the Blue Ridge Arts Center in Seneca.

JoAnne Anderson received the $100 Paul Dohr Watercolor Award for her piece called Blue Monday. The inspiration for this painting was the attitude of the model. “Before I start drawing and painting a person, I look for characteristics that make them unique,” she said. “Attire, body language and facial expression are clues. This model had a melancholy mood I wanted to capture.”

Anderson used a Strathmore 500 series Bristol board with watercolor and gouache, coating the paper with a thin coat of white gouache the consistency of whole milk. “When dry, I did a loose drawing for figure placement and composition,” she said. “Next I refined the drawing and then began loosely painting with watercolor, starting with the face and hair, then moving to the clothing and background. When the surface was dry, more paint was added to define specific areas in the figure and clothing. As the painting progressed, I gently lifted areas of the painting with a soft brush, adding more paint to other areas as needed. The painting was completed using the process of applying and removing paint until the mood I was seeking occurred.”

Hamed Mahmoodi received an Honorable Mention Award for Garden Pots, an acrylic work on paper. “The inspiration came when I lost some big trees in my front studio,” he said. “By the time the tree men came and during the cutting and debris, there came this series I did which consists of natural shapes and organic materials all mixed in a random display. Truly, I thought the forces of nature created such chaos in such abstract formation for visually compelling pieces.”

Diana Walter received a Special Recognition Award for View from Copper River Gorge, a mixed media piece that uses acrylic, vintage wallpaper, painted Tyvek, amate lace handmade paper, and fiber on cardboard on canvas. “This piece was inspired by thoughts of Alaska’s Copper River—as if one could simultaneously view it from the highest cliff and from the depths of the steepest gorge,” she said. “As the imagining continues, veins of copper appear near the banks of the river, making the cold rushing water shimmer and glisten in the late afternoon sun.”

Other AAG members whose pieces were selected for the show include Debbie Bzdyl, Marion Fanning, Jane Friedman, Carolyn Gibson, Donna Mayeur, Larry McCollough, Barbara Michelsen Ervin, and Donna Persinger. JoAnne Anderson and Diana Walter also each had an additional piece in the show.

The show opened on Jan. 18 and ran through Feb. 21. For more information, visit www.blueridgeartscenter.com or http://www.blueridgeartscenter.com/inthegallery/.