Despite torrential rain and flooded roadways, a large crowd of artists and art aficionados gathered at the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery to kick off its 65th season with the opening reception of the 44th annual Best of the Best juried fine art exhibition. The show will remain on display through Nov. 14.

Marshall Adams, executive director of the Backus, explains that the Best of the Best serves as the season opener, while their spring photography show, Eye of the Camera, closes the season.

“It’s really an important way that the Backus Museum can support the working artists in our community and present these important works in our professional standing,” says Adams, noting that the dynamic of encouraging regional artists began with the museum’s namesake.

There were 297 entries for this show, which he says was their second highest ever, and 37 percent of them were from new artists who had never previously participated.

“So we’re very excited to see new artists and have them share their work with the community as well,” says Adams.

Entries were submitted in four different categories: Oil/Acrylics, Watercolor, Three-Dimensional and Varied Techniques. That one encompasses such media as drawing, pastels, printmaking, mixed media, collage, graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, and pen and ink.

Artists are required to submit their actual artwork, unlike most current juried shows which request digital images. The judges, in turn, are asked to consider the whole presentation, including the choice of frame and matting.

A panel of three different judges is enlisted, typically from out of town, so that they can give an independent view of the works.

“And because there’s three of them, they have to come to consensus, so sometimes there are debates. It’s a long day of judging,” says Adams.

This year’s judges were:

Lark Keeler, a practicing artist and art instructor at NSU Art Museum and Saint Andrews School in Delray Beach, named Florida’s Outstanding Art Educator of the Year in 2024.
Andrea Nalls, president & CEO of the Dunedin Fine Art Center, the largest visual art education center in the southeast United States
Ívan Riascos, an interdisciplinary artist and since 2023, manager of the Art and History Museums’ Art School in Maitland.

The judges admitted roughly 20 percent of the entries, jurying in 63 works, before conferring on those a total of 26 awards, for First, Second and Third Place, and Awards of Merit in each of the four categories.

“We are so grateful for all of the artists who participated this year. We know that it is a very challenging process to submit your work for that kind of critical review,” says Adams.

“And then there’s one work of art that the judges came together to decide was the Best of Show; the singular work of art that they thought showed the most amazing talent.”

Best of Show was awarded to “Date Night,” a colorful fused applique quilt by Kestrel Michaud of Melbourne that illustrated an intricate ‘good enough to eat’ silver platter of sushi and sashimi.

“The technique is called fused raw-edged applique. It’s a heat sensitive glue. So the whole quilt is ironed together and then quilted. And the raw edge part means that all of the cut edges of the fabric are still showing, as opposed to being turned under. It’s probably ballpark 1,500-ish pieces of fabric, around 100 different materials,” Michaud explains.

“Most of my work is fantasy, from a steam punk fictional world. This one’s ‘Date Night’ because it’s a romantic dinner for two that two of my fictional characters would have together,” says Michaud, who exhibits her quilts competitively at shows around the country.

Adams, too, has a say with a Director’s Choice Award, which this year was given to “Music in the Air,” an oil on canvas by Robert Johnson that features the central figure of a woman in a floral dress beside a music stand, her eyes closed and hands opened in a graceful gesture.

“I thought it was a great illustration of something that you can only experience. It feels as if she is performing for me. One thing I was particularly drawn to was the use of color and shadows; there’s a lot of life to it,” says Adams.

“It’s a fun game to play because if you know that there’s music in the air, you ask yourself, what music could it be? In galleries overflowing with interesting art by talented and worthy artists, it’s my difficult task to find a singular work that stands out, to listen for a painting that sings,” he adds.

Vero Beach was represented by 11 artists in the show, who earned a total of seven awards, including two top honors.

Ambrus Diossy took First Place in the Oil/Acrylic category for his surrealistic oil painting “The Phoenix,” in which the beak of the mythical bird is evoked rising from the swirls of a fiery red background.

Greg Ingerson took First Place in the Varied Techniques category for “Squared Orbit,” a colorful and meticulously detailed work created in his individual form of Pointillism that he describes as his own repetitive “square-dot, square-dot” pattern.

Marie Catapano earned a Third Place Award in the Watercolor category for “Under the Eiffel Tower.” Also in the Watercolor category, Jennifer Berlin earned a Merit Award for “Mangroves.”

First time was the charm for Kate Donovan, who was awarded two prizes, a Second Place Award for “An Old Idea With New Clay,” and a Merit Award for “Turf.” And another clay artist, Patty Humphrey, earned a Merit Award for “When Betty Left the Diner.”

The other Vero artists who made the cut were Mirtha Aertker, James Newman, Mary O’Neal, Jenna Ringuette and Lauri Tagliaferro.

The two other First Place winners were Watercolor: “Tomato Jam” by Valerie Lally, Stuart; and Three-Dimensional: “Unripe Fruit” by Beth West, Jupiter.

For more information and a full list of winners, visit BackusMuseum.org.

Photos by Joshua Kodis