The Overall Winning Artists Category consists of the 10 Best Entries received from the 3 media categories of the Painting & Other Category, Photography & Digital Category and the 3 Dimensional Art categories.
The winning artists will now be featured on the Light Space & Time website for the month of March 2019 and thereafter, the artworks and links to the artist’s websites will remain online in the Light Space & Time Archives.
The overall winning artists’ category of the 10th Annual "Abstracts" Art Exhibition will receive extensive worldwide publicity and promotion. In addition, the overall winning artists will also receive extensive worldwide publicity in the form of email marketing, 550+ press release announcements, event announcement posts and social media marketing.
Winning artists will also have their art exhibition results posted and promoted on ArtJobs/ArtWeek. Artweek/Artjobs produces 800,000 page impressions per month, 280,000 website visitors per month and has 30,000 newsletter subscribers.
Congratulations to our artists who made our 10th Annual “Abstracts” Art Exhibition so successful this month. At any time, we invite our winners and other interested visitors to link their websites to the Gallery’s Archive section for further ongoing promotion.
The Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery will have digital “Abstracts” Award Certificates, Event Postcard, and Press Releases sent to the winning artists within the next week or so. Thank you to all of the artists who participated and for being a part of the gallery. To return to the Abstracts Home Page click here.
1st Place - Lexi Sundell – “Landscapes of the Heart”
The creative process makes the difference between living and dying, a fact Lexi Sundell experienced more than once in her own life. Three of her immediate family members committed suicide and Lexi survived a variety of near death events of her own arising from a violent ex-husband, car accidents, and health problems. Each of those experiences led to profound changes in her approach to creating art. The creative process took her from suicidal feelings of her own to an exuberant joy in living. Over the years she has shifted from oil painting to clay work to metal sculpture and jewelry to acrylic painting. Her great uncle Marvin Lenschow, a professional artist, tutored her in oils in her teens. As a result, she initially despised acrylics because they did not behave like her beloved oils. However, once she decided to discover what acrylics can do that oils cannot, they became her favorite medium. She is now an internationally recognized expert in acrylics and authored two books on acrylic painting published in six languages.
The most recent book is Creating Exceptional Color in Acrylics but both books remain available on Amazon. She became one of the top half dozen precision wax carving specialists in North America when she worked in sculpture and jewelry. All of the minute detail of wax work done under a ten-power loupe led to an explosion of floral paintings several feet wide when poppies in her extensive gardens caught her eye one early dawn morning. After nearly dying of a systemic infection, she suddenly found herself painting wildlife in bold colors, which expanded her reputation. Further health issues led her into abstract painting as well. Moons, or portions of moons, often appear in her work because a moon only reflects the light brought to it, just as a painting only reveals what the viewer brings to it. Her current work, regardless of subject matter, is all based on her love of color. She paints in multiple layers of acrylics and clear gel, providing unique textures to her paintings. Light refracts within those layers, creating a luminosity not usually seen in acrylic painting. The Russell selected her painting, Something in the Air, for their 2015 show and Night Tapestry for the 2017 show. The Yellowstone Art Museum has included her paintings in their shows and featured her in a quick draw fundraiser as well. Her work has appeared in numerous invitational shows, such as Icons of the West and the MPAA shows.
Her paintings have taken awards in juried competitions from the international Blossom-The Art of the Flower exhibition to the Avant Garden show at the Torpedo Art Factory and others. Fiber Fusion sent one of her paintings on a tour of the Americas and Europe. Her work has appeared in other museum shows, solo shows, multiple books by other authors, and can be found in collections worldwide. Due to her lifelong exploration of the creative process, Lexi also developed into a public speaker on the topic. At her TedX talk in Whitefish, she spoke on the creative process as related to community development while huge images of her paintings were projected on the wall behind her. A native Texan who studied art at Michigan State University and the University of Toronto, Lexi and her artist husband own and operate RiverStone Gallery in Ennis, Montana, where the spaciousness of the American West truly inspires her colorful paintings.
Lexis’ website is: www.lexisundell.com
2nd Place – Cheryl Hrudka - “A Road to Somewhere Else”
Before making photography a profession, Cheryl worked in various healthcare settings in the Midwest. Her personal experiences and knowledge of the medical field contributed to an interest in using her photography to enhance the surroundings of others and add positively to their daily routines. Besides seminars and workshops, Cheryl has 20+ years of hands-on experience as a consistently performing photographer, and as co-owner of Recent Developments, LLC. The marketplace has made Cheryl self-sufficient. It has always been a major motivator to keep her expanding her repertoire. Cheryl continues to take traditional photographs, she also pursues her own vision of the world. She enjoys going down the road less traveled. "I have always been interested in Abstracts. It is a form of art in which the viewer makes up his / her own mind as to the artist’s intention. In other words, Cheryl’s images now ask more questions than they answer.” The evolution of computer software has allowed Cheryl numerous possibilities which she has fully embraced. Starting with a plain 185MB field and then employing various software such as Photoshop, along with multiple filters, Cheryl begins the creative process. Accessories such as a drawing tablet allow her to draw and further manipulate the image. She has found that architectural details, encapsulated and transformed, work better than other genres. However, there are no rules. The simplest of images are the starting point of her creative process. Cheryl focuses on the journey. There are no maps. While at times she has an idea where she is going with an image, she truly do not know the end result until she gets there. Cheryl is currently represented by the Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts Gallery in Los Angeles, CA, the Art Design Consultants Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and Artblend Gallery in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Her photographs and her Abstract images may be seen in hospitals, corporations and private collections throughout the United States and Canada.
Cheryl has two websites, one for photography (www.RecentDevelopments.site) and the other for the original abstract creations (www.AnAltered View.com).
3rd Place - Diane Walker - “Here's That Rainy Day”
As a contemplative artist, I find the most intriguing creative challenges in life, at work, and in art have always been about reconciling opposites: finding the common ground beneath obvious differences and unearthing the potential for unity that lies hidden in diversity. At the same time I am passionate about beauty, color, and form, and I love exploring new techniques. So I love creating abstract art that’s accessible and evocative, yet mystical enough to allow viewers to engage their imaginations and read their own interpretations into what they see. As an abstract painter I work to accomplish those objectives by balancing dark and light, form and meaning, movement and stillness. But in the act of starting with a blank canvas, generating shapes, textures and colors from scratch, I am compelled to engage with and reconcile oppositional forces within myself, as unspoken echoes of my life seep into each composition. And, having spent the latter half of my life living in the relative peace of Pacific Northwest Islands, I also find many of my paintings reflect the quiet undulations of sea and sky that color my existence now.
What delights me as an artist is to dance in that thin space between the formless and form; to drift from individual to universal and back again; to trace the interaction between our collective understanding of the world and my own unique experience of what pleases or inspires. Which means that, for me, a painting succeeds if it is neither fully representational nor completely abstract, but calls the viewer into some other healing space where we can both make and safely explore our assumptions about what we see. My hope is that in balancing opposites in a serene context I may bring forth artistry that not only pleases the eye but also depicts the potential for unity, awakening my viewers to possibility, allowing them to imagine a world where dreams, reality, and other opposites can co-exist in peaceful harmony; a world where truth might be more broadly defined to include ideas or images they might previously have considered unacceptable.
Diane’s website is: www.dwalkerarts.com
4th Place - Richard Miller - “Past Lives”
From his days growing up in Maryland, Richard Miller has had two passions. First, a love for making art, and second, a love of music. These two interests would run parallel throughout his life, ultimately coinciding in Miller’s unique music based paintings. In his early years, Richard was always drawing and painting, receiving numerous honors and recognition for his work. It was during this same period that a deep love for music evolved as well. Although Richard never played an instrument himself, music would become a major inspiration in Miller’s work that continues to the present day. It has been in recent years where an awareness of the phenomenon of chromaesthesia, the ability to perceive sound in terms of color, has become a central aspect in Richard’s imagery. It is in this way that Miller’s imagery and the world of sound were brought together in his work. In his most recent images, memory, time and their unique and varied realities have become of greater interest. That memory and history may be two distinctly different, yet valid narratives are of great significance. What happens, however, when the two are layered upon one another, like a visual chord? In these latest works, Miller attempts to address these ideas. Elements that are at once tangible, and at the same time evocative. Aspects that are both recognizable, yet at the same time, elusive. The layering and building of imagery in these latest digital photographic works, through color, light and texture is very much in keeping with his early monotype explorations as a printmaker. In a new way, Richard Miller explores his lifelong fascination between the past, the present and the concept of memory that ties it all together.
Miller received his undergraduate degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art, receiving a BFA in Printmaking in 1984. From there, Richard continued his studies, earning a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Texas Christian University. While at TCU, Miller spent two years at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, later moving on to spend 14 years at the Amon Carter Museum, also in Fort Worth, as a member of the museums publications program. While at the Carter, Miller began his teaching career which now spans 27 years in both Art History and Studio disciplines. Originally beginning as a printmaker, Miller’s work evolved from traditional prints to extensive explorations of monoprint and monotype techniques, under the guidance and inspiration of Master Printer Bob Blackburn. Eventually, unique print impressions would lead Richard toward a serious involvement in painting. Most recently, these paths would coincide in his current digital images. Recent years have seen Richard Miller involved in numerous juried and group exhibitions, collaborative projects, as well as mounting two major solo exhibitions, Audioscapes in 2014 and Chromaesthesia in 2015. Richard was one of 34 artists selected from over 650 entries in the prestigious Art in the Metroplex Juried Exhibition held in Fort Worth in October 2015. Miller was awarded the Academic Excellence Award as an Art Educator for North Lake College in 2014, and was one of 5 finalists for the DFW Art Awards, Abstract Artist of the Year. Richard Miller is an active participant in the DFW art community and is a member of the Teas Artist Coalition, the Texas Visual Arts Association and the Visual Arts Society of Texas.
Richard’s website is: www.facebook.com/StudioSavoy
5th Place - Athalie Taylor - “Execution and Form”
“Abstract art uses a visual language of shape, form, colour and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.” Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Thinking Athalie Taylor is a visual artist who lives in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Her work encompasses photography and digital artistry. Her initial training was in the art/textile area but more recently she has embraced photography leading to her passion, digital art. Athalie has had work in exhibitions in Northern Tasmania including her first solo exhibition in 2015 and in 2017 another solo exhibition this time at the Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria. She was also selected for an online solo exhibition through Light, Space and Time in April 2017. Athalie ‘s work has been shown in the Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine and Artists Down Under – Australia and New Zealand, a magazine she started but unfortunately had to pass over to anther editor when ill health intervened. Athalie has artworks in private collections across Australia.
Athalie Taylor’s exploration into abstract art began when she was very young, she always drew. As she grew up doodles appeared on every scrap of paper left unattended… envelopes, her school books and later college notes, magazines, the phone book, nothing was left unadorned. As an adult she was excited and motivated by art that included simple lines, (straight, curved, and those that meandered through the piece) geometric shapes, circles, any patterned works, especially textured pieces. She was drawn by strong colours, simple compositions, unusual ideas and aspects.
Many artists inspired her like Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Hans Hoffman and others, they still do today. She uses her camera in unexpected non-conventional ways. She is constantly forcing it to do what she wants, to get the starting point she needs for an artwork. The subject can be out of focus or taken pin sharp, it all depends on what she is trying to achieve at the time. Often there are different versions of the same subject which are later melded together to make the piece. Ideas develop and grow within the creation of the piece, she often gets lost in the process and when she’s done wonders how she finally reached that point. Some effects are achieved in the camera while others are developed and created in post processing. On the more graphic side of her art she explores shapes; circles, lines, angles, triangles, all kinds of forms. she often distorts and manipulates sections or all of a piece. Often the graphic creations are added to the photographic idea, other times they stand alone. She is fascinated by shadows, sometimes her own, and reflections, and they regularly feature in her work. She draws, photographs, designs, creates, just for the love of it; the pure joy it gives her every day. The submitted works represents her exploration of all things abstract, in her mind and from her imagination.
Athalie’s website is: www.artboja.com/art/eka9sg
6th Place - Cynthia Coldren - “Contextures 3”
As a non-objective abstract artist, Cynthia Coldren explores color, light and texture in her acrylic mixed media paintings. She finds inspiration in images of spare landscapes, urban structures and geographic patterns and frequently explores opposing concepts such as complexity and simplicity, or repetition and diversity. These studies become understories for her abstract “ideascapes.” With a creative process that is both intentional and spontaneous, Cynthia blends paint, textural marks and hand-painted paper, adding and scraping away layers to create more organic compositions. Her use of geometric shapes and patterns is a unifying thread in her paintings — structure within abstraction, weaving the familiar with the ambiguous. She believes this “joining of opposites” gives the viewer a point of connection with abstract art. Cynthia studied Fine Art as an undergraduate student before completing her BAS in communications and management, supporting a long career as a corporate writer and communications director. While her early artwork focused on photo-realistic pastel paintings, in the last 10 years she transitioned to an abstract style using acrylic paints, inks and mediums on canvas and paper. In 2018, Cynthia began painting full time and participated in more than a dozen group and juried exhibitions. She lives in the Dallas, Texas area.
Cynthia’s website is: www.cynthiacoldrenfineart.com
7th Place - Denise McDermott - “Little Worlds”
Denise McDermott is an Australian photographic artist, now retired from working life. She has been a photographer most of her life. She is equally comfortable shooting the night sky, the underwater world, landscapes, animals, studio work and macro subjects. Photography is her passion and she delights in taking it beyond the usual, often into the surreal. She has been successful at National and International Competition level, having recently won a Gold Medal in VIgex 2018 Digital Salon of Photography and a Bronze medal in Sydney Harbour International Exhibition of Photography. Denise’s work often begins with a single image and grows to explore the possibilities of a theme. Some recent themes have been science fiction and steampunk. She enjoys finding abstract images but also likes to create mythical scenes and place costumed models within those scenes. She recently completed two online courses called Photoshop Artistry and Awake run by Sebastian Michaels, and has started Kaizen, which is a more advanced artistic course. Denise has just participated in an exhibition with 3 friends in an art gallery in her area. Plans for the future include visiting some re-enactment groups to capture them in practice with costumes and props. Denise believes the possibilities for creativity are endless once our imaginations are engaged.
Denise’s website is: www.imagesbydenise.net
8th Place - Okan Boydas - “Abstracts-I”
Okan Boydas is an artist and art teacher based in Sivas, Turkey. After graduating from Cumhuriyet University, he started teaching and painting professionally. His work has garnered numerous national awards in Turkey.
Several years later, after completing his Masters in Fine Art, Okan joined the faculty at Cumhuriyet University, where he teaches both painting and sculpture. Okan’s work is included in many private collections worldwide.
Okan can be reached via his email: boydasokan@gmail.com
9th Place - Paul Colacicco - “Hidden Palm Springs”
As a local Palm Springs artist, Paul describes his work as "Vintage Abstract". Where paint a few brushes and palette knives are all that are needed. His work is guided by the beauty of the Coachella Valley's desert and water scapes. While respecting color, composition, line, light and form. His process evolves after a period of intense thought. Then, what he calls “Into Crazy Land”, where emotions are released and set free to completion. His greatest mentor is his Aunt, an awesome abstract expressionist painter. Many artists like Leo Fusch, Ednah Root and Joan Mitchell also influenced his work. He was educated at the Academy of Art University and the California Culinary Academy with continuing classes at the Desert Art Center and Desert Art Classes. He began his career as a sugar artist sculpting and hand painting abstract and classical scenes on fondant cakes.
Paul’s website is: www.pauldcolafineart.com
10th Place – Sinejan Kilic Buchina - “Necessary Ingredients IV”
Sinejan Kilic Buchina is an artist, and a visual educator. She received her B.F.A. in Art Education from Marmara University in 2006, then completed the Isms in the 20th Century course in London in 2009. Further, she was selected as a resident curator at the Node Center in Berlin in 2012 and is currently finished her MA in Art History and Museum Studies at City College of New York. Living, studying and working in all of these cities has given each its own place in her practice. Sinejan was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey but as an ethnic Circassian, she has always been "the other" in her own home, and has been an outsider everywhere she's ever lived. This upbringing and ongoing realty is reflected in her practice and is a continually evolving source of both contemplation and inspiration. Sinejan Kilic Buchina’s has for the last several years been exhaustively working on a series focused on time, material growth and social diaspora. Her practice relies on her personal history and traditional artistic education while also striving to break from both. Reminiscent of a relief, she uses thick and heavy materials on canvas to the point where the work moves into the territory of assemblage, highlighting the cracks of the layered paint, the bumps and bruises, the footprints of both wounds, thoughts and gesture. The artist’s works are looking at our era under a microscope to depict depravity and resurgence, mold to rot and deterioration, as a machine which has been abandoned to decay and rust and thus takes on a new form and purpose. These melodramatic and nihilistic notions bring with them their own optimism as the wounds inflicted as cracks and scars are integrated into a canvas. Sinejan examines the conceptual dilemma of painting by using non-common painting materials such as spackling paste, spices, pigments extracted from food, binding agents, natural inks and more, while still holding the canvas as her foundation.
Sinejan’s website is: www.thesinejan.com
