Marshall Adams, executive director of the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery, welcomed guests to the opening reception of the 45th annual Best of the Best juried exhibition, which is on display through Nov. 13, and noted that the event marked the opening of its 66th season.<\/p>\n
\u201cReaching 66 seasons, and entering our seventh decade, has only been possible because of you, the artists and art lovers who support an institution like this,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
He recognized the past and present board members, sponsors, staff and volunteers whose generous contributions of time and effort have helped sustain and strengthen the Fort Pierce museum.<\/p>\n
This year, he said, the museum received 172 entries for the Best of the Best exhibition, of which 63 works were accepted. The selections were made by an independent panel of jurors who had expertise in the disciplines represented in the show.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s judges were Unum Babar, artist and assistant professor at Daytona State College; Sean Clinton, a Vero Beach artist, designer, ceramicist and educator; and Margaret Hodge, an artist and president of the Florida Artists Group.<\/p>\n
Adams explained that the Florida Artists Group, founded in 1949, is the state\u2019s oldest professional artist organization. He noted that A.E. Backus was a member in the 1950s, so they were especially pleased to welcome the organization\u2019s current president as a juror.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they spent all day on Sunday going through 172 of the entries to determine what they thought, in their professional and considered views, were the best,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
After thoughtful discussion, he said the jurors reached a consensus on the 63 works selected.<\/p>\n
Adams explained that the exhibition includes four media categories: Oil and Acrylic, Watercolor, Three-Dimensional Sculpture, and Varied Techniques, a category that encompasses work that does not fit within the other three.<\/p>\n
The jurors then selected the First-, Second- and Third-place winners for each category.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then at the end of the day, they got to choose what they thought was the Best of Show, the singular work that really spoke to them,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called \u201cFlorida Fluorescent\u201d and it\u2019s by Chuck Clarke,\u201d said Adams, referencing the vibrant acrylic painting, whose design and colors are somewhat evocative of works by \u201cBeanie\u201d Backus and the Highwaymen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad you\u2019re here in person to see his work because we took a picture of it for social media and the fluorescent colors do not translate on film. So you are here in person seeing it in its full glory,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the color spectrum, Adams chose \u201cAmerican Cowboy: Okeechobee\u201d by Barbara Z. Lyons for his Director\u2019s Choice Award. A young cowboy is the focus of the predominantly monochromatic painting, where shades of black, gray and white are only interrupted by the red and white corner of an American flag above the little boy\u2019s broad-brimmed cowboy hat.<\/p>\n
Vero artists are well represented in the show, with several winning awards.<\/p>\n
In the Oil\/Acrylic category, Mary O\u2019Neal received First Place for \u201cOvergrown Secrets\u201d and Second Place for \u201cI\u2019m Famous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Varied Techniques category, Yvonne Steere received First Place for \u201cLift,\u201d Jenna Ringuette received Second Place for \u201cPortrait at Saint Paul and Peter\u201d and Gergory Ingerson received Third Place for \u201cBurnt House.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Three-Dimensional category, Patricia Humphrey received Second Place for \u201cDali Special\u201d and Emily Chaney received Third Place for \u201cHouse Pet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vero artists Jim Cohoe, Kate Donovan, Geraldine Hull and Katherine Larson also have works that were accepted into the show.<\/p>\n
Adams noted that viewers were invited to express their own opinion by voting for the People\u2019s Choice Award, which would be announced at the conclusion of the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for your attention and for helping us launch the museum\u2019s 66th season. We are here because of your support, and we look forward to continuing the season with you,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n
For more information, please visit BackusMuseum.org.<\/p>\n
Winners<\/p>\n
Best of Show: \u201cFluorescent Florida\u201d by Chuck Clarke<\/p>\n
Director\u2019s Choice: \u201cAmerican Cowboy: Okeechobee\u201d by Barbara Z. Lyons<\/p>\n
First Place Oil\/Acrylic: \u201cOvergrown Secrets\u201d by Mary O\u2019Neal<\/p>\n
First Place Three-Dimensional: \u201cSublimation\u201d by Jeanne Thompson<\/p>\n
First Place Varied Techniques: \u201cLift\u201d by Yvonne Steere<\/p>\n
First Place Watercolor: \u201cTuba Tunes\u201d by Barbara Bishop<\/p>\n
Photos by Joshua Kodis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marshall Adams, executive director of the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery, welcomed guests to the opening reception of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-432900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}