The Overall Winning Artists Category consists of the 10 Best Entries received from the 2 media categories of the Painting & Other Category and Photography & Digital Art Category.
The winning artists will now be featured on the Light Space & Time website for the month of August 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 "Botanicals" 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 9th Annual “Botanicals” 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 “Botanicals” 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 “Botanicals” Home Page click here.
1st Place – Linda Mullen - “Gladiola Joy”
An award-winning watercolorist, Linda Mullen began her creative career painting in transparent watercolor more than twenty years ago. Her education came primarily through personal experimentation with the aid of books, workshops and personal conversations with successful artists. Linda's artwork is awarded in gallery exhibitions like the San Diego Watercolor Society with many of her more detailed depictions of glass and crystal coveted by an expanding collector base. Kaiser Permanente has ten pieces in their permanent collection. Her watercolors, Honor and Life Streams, are currently on a tour with the Freedom 58 Project art exhibit that promotes awareness of modern-day slavery. These exhibits are a component of the Justice Movement strategy to mobilize university students, faculty and communities. A popular watercolor instructor, the artist offers private and semi-private lessons to painters at all skill levels, including beginners. She is a signature member of the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies.
Linda’s website is www.lindamullen.com.
2nd Place –Karen Sirnick - “Bright and Bold”
Karen Sirnick is predominantly a self-taught photographer who lives and creates in Ponte Vedra, FL. She shares her home with her husband and a beloved rescue dog, Andy. As a child growing up in a family of 13, their vacations were mainly centered around camping and other outdoor activities. As a newlywed, Karen and her husband, Paul, spent many of their vacations backpacking and camping in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She continues to possess a deep love of nature and this subject has been a major influence in her photographic choices. Karen is currently retired and, although no longer backpacking, continues her passion for travel and photographing her journey.
In an effort to enhance her photographic skills Karen continues to take classes, attend photography workshops, and submits her work into juried exhibits and competitions both locally and internationally. The continuing education has provided a variety of assignments, introduction to new software, exposure to a diversity of professional photographers, and invaluable photographic critique. Karen continues to explore new ideas and techniques in pursuit of creating beautiful and interesting images. Her work has been accepted and shown in a number of juried exhibitions in the Southeast Florida area. She has received a number of awards for her work including Light, Space, & Time’s Online Gallery.
Karen’s website is www.ktsirnick.smugmug.com.
3rd Place – Shelley Benjamin - “Shadow and Light”
Shelley Benjamin, a resident of southeast Florida, is an award winning digital artist. She received a BS in Textile Design from Cornell University. After a career as a textile designer and weaver, she became interested in mixed media, and ultimately, photography. Shelley’s experimentation and involvement with digital photography began after she purchased her first DSLR camera. During the learning process, she joined an international group of digital artists. They opened up the possibilities of taking photos into a new realm. She is challenged and inspired by color, reflections, light, the changing seasons, nature and architectural elements.
Shelley is motivated by the art she sees in museums and galleries. She is always searching for the extraordinary visual imagery in very ordinary environments. Shelley uses her photos as the foundation for a digital painterly approach, utilizing modern technology to enhance and transform the original image. Drawing upon her textile design background, she imparts a tactile feeling to her work. Ms. Benjamin states that her goal is to share the beauty around her and impart the uplifting feelings to the viewer that are the source of her inspiration. Shelley Benjamin’s work has been exhibited in local and international competitions and in online galleries as well as being featured in national digital photo and print magazines.
Shelley’s website is www.artboja.com/art/w6ytal.
4th Place – Laura Lipke - “Bee-utiful”
Laura works to create rich, vibrant images that awaken the senses and transport people to new worlds previously seen only in the imagination. Her journey began when she joined the Photoshop Artistry course and later continued taking more online courses. Here she gained both the skills and the confidence to experiment with her photography. Combining multiple photographs, she is able to create vibrant scenes and landscapes that she hopes cause people to pause and be delighted.
Laura loves to create enchanted new worlds to stir the soul. Her desire is to capture and highlight the beauty she finds in our natural surroundings. Art for her is like a spring bubbling up from the ground, not something that is forced out, rather something that seems to bubble up from within. Sometimes she may walk a bit on her journey until she finds the beauty and joy of a certain spring that feeds her soul. She allows art to flow through her. Working in that spot and drinking the pure water that quenches artistic desire is where her art is created, where it becomes inevitable. She has found her own personal springs and art is a wonderfully inescapable delight. She has had many images published in Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine.
Married 28 years and surrounded by 3 wonderful children and a grandson, she lives a blessed life in the dry heat of Tucson, AZ.
Laura’s website is www.lauralipke.com.
5th Place – Linda Lunnon - “Bed of Blossoms”
Linda is an Australian wildlife and botanical illustrator specialising in scratchboard. From a young age, Linda was drawing birds and plants. Her two most treasured possessions growing up were a large tin of Derwent Artist pencils and a book on Australian birds. Linda has studied and worked in environmental science since completing school in 1998.
In 2010, she went to part-time work to pursue her passion and complete the Natural History Illustration (NHI) degree at the University of Newcastle. During her studies, she was introduced to scratchboard, which is a panel covered in white kaolin clay and sprayed with black ink. This provides a smooth surface for etching into the clay with a variety of blades and other tools. "For me, scratchboard lends such a dramatic effect to even the most common subject. I also find the process of etching into the board quite therapeutic." ~ Linda Lunnon
At the end of her NHI degree in 2014, Linda was awarded Margaret Senior Wildlife Illustration Award for her folio of work. In 2019, Linda's scientific illustration of the critically endangered Persoonia pauciflora was published in Flora of the Hunter Region: Endemic Trees and Larger Shrubs (CSIRO Publishing). The botanical plate also featured in a special group exhibition at the Newcastle Museum to celebrate the launch of the book. Linda's most recent achievement is becoming a signature scratchboard artist (SSA) with the International Society of Scratchboard Artists.
Linda’s website is www.lindalunnon.com.
6th Place – Judith Freeman Clark - “Garden Royalty II”
Judith Freeman Clark was introduced, in the late 1960s, to the medium of transparent watercolor while a student of illustration at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston, MA. Her award-winning paintings have been shown in local and regional juried shows in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and she has had two solo exhibits of her watercolors. Over the years, she has studied with a number of nationally recognized watercolorists, including Robert J. O’Brien (Vermont), Marjorie Glick (Massachusetts), and Richard Stephens (Arkansas). Judith's work is done in a realistic style, and her preferred subjects are florals, still life, and landscapes. She notes that, “Watercolor can be unpredictable, which makes it an exhilarating — and sometimes daunting — medium. For me, painting in watercolor is a challenge that rarely disappoints.” A Juried Artist Member of the Cape Cod Art Association, an Artist Member of the Rhode Island Watercolor Society, and an Associate Member of The New England Watercolor Society, Judith's work is represented by the Creative Hands Gallery in Osterville, MA.
Judith’s website is www.judithfreemanclark.net.
7th Place – Robin Manelis - “Abundant Beauty”
Robin Manelis is a self-taught colored pencil artist that specializes in botanicals. The challenge of drawing the endless colors, textures and shapes found in nature fascinates and inspires her. She spends hours visiting botanical gardens gathering inspiration for her artwork. It is her hope to inspire others by sharing the incredible beauty of nature through her artwork.
Robin’s website is www.robinmanelis.com.
8th Place – Nanc Gordon - “Agave Abstraction”
Nanc Gordon is an award-winning fine art painter who works in watercolor and acrylics. She is inspired by the natural world. From the Canadian Rockies to the Florida Everglades, she pursues the beauty of flowers and plants, bringing graceful botanicals inside to reconnect us with nature and create a sense of calm in a hectic world. Nanc is passionate about design and driven by the need to challenge herself. Striking colors, exquisite patterns and surprising textures find their way into her paintings and contemporary graphic prints. Her work transforms complex compositions into clean, contemporary designs, each seeking to communicate the essential characteristics of the inspiration.
Originally from Boston, MA, Nanc attended Parsons School of Design in New York earning a BFA. She worked for many years as a graphic designer in New York and Boston before receiving a certificate in decorative painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Nanc owned a decorative painting business that specialized in floorcloths and furniture in Boston. After a move to Dallas, TX, Nanc decided to become a fine art painter and hasn’t looked back. Her paintings have been featured in the Botanical Portraiture exhibit at The Gallery at North Haven Gardens in Dallas, TX. Nanc’s distinctive botanicals and contemporary graphic prints have also been exhibited in numerous shows, winning several awards.
Nanc’s website is www.nancgordon.com.
9th Place – Peggy Curtis - “Lone Tree”
Peggy Olafson Curtis was born in Seattle, USA and grew up in nearby regions during the turbulent Sixties. Her love of photography began with a film camera and a high school course in photography. Her first inspiration was a shot of her father removing a can of soup from a kitchen cupboard followed by his watery image looking back at her in the dark room developing tray. The artistic inspiration came a few years later during a two-year residence in Japan. There she became immersed in the Japanese aesthetic after visiting the Empress Meiji’s iris garden on a glorious rainy day in May.
Peggy studied the Sogetsu school of flower arrangement, Japanese gardens, painting, pottery, in every moment she could. Later she completed a certificate in Photography from the University of Washington, studied at the Photographic Center Northwest, and continued her Japanese flower arranging classes. She has studied with the best of the best, including Sam Abell, J.P. Caponigro, Ben Willmore, Keron Psillas, and Charlie Waite in intensive workshops and mentorships. Her work has been featured in Seattle and Santa Fe galleries and she is a member of NANPA (The North American Nature Photography Association).
Peggy’s website is www.peggyphoto.com.
10th Place – Sibel Sancar - “Succulent Plant”
Sibel Sancar is a computer software programmer (Industrial Engineer) and painter. She began painting in 1990, and continues her studies today in her home studio. She paints with watercolor & acrylic media and is, also, a digital artist. She has had six solo and various group exhibitions. She has been working on digital art for more than six years.
You can contact Sibel via her email.
