Evalynne McDougall, MPAC, NPS, PSWC-DP, SCA, PSA

Thank you for the opportunity to be one of the jurors along with Lena Selitsky and Andrew McDermott for the 11th Annual  Member’s Online show.   As always, jurying graphically reminds me  of the tenets such as composition, design, value  and so on that are so important to  artists  in producing their works. And it is a reminder that stays front and centre for many months after the jury duty is completed.  With that in mind, I was pleased to see, in my initial scan through the entries, the high quality of work submitted . Remember too though, especially if you are an entrant, or at least relatively new to art competitions, that even the best artists sometimes make unfortunate judgements. 

Given everything an artist must keep in mind to make a painting “work”, by far the most important tenet is composition – the story being told. To me, everything else is a derivative of, or acts in concert with, composition. Generally if there is a flaw in the painting, such as shapes, colour, value, temperature, focal point etc. it is grounded in the artist’s initial decision(s) about the overall design of the piece.  Maybe there is too much or too little information, or the perspective is wrong, or the decision about dividing up the paper  is off, or the colour/value  doesn’t reflect the story being told. All of these must work together for a truly successful painting.  It’s an artist’s job to interpret and compose what they see not necessarily minutely copy.

I would like to add a couple of other practical points that are relevant to artists, as they can make or break an entry: The camera is a wonderful device that truly makes life easier, but it has  some common pitfalls:  It cannot correct perspective – this is especially relevant to figure and some still life – where, for example, a hand, foot  or candelabra might be the wrong size or shape.  It also cannot correctly “frame” the photo the artist takes to enter, and as we all know, photos  have to be crisp and accurate for the jury.

In addition, grids are an asset in doing an accurate drawing, but  one must be careful  they don’t become part of the final piece.

And finally, artists who enter shows should be aware that there is some controversy about how, where, what size, and if, one’s signature should be.

Congratulations to all those who had their submissions accepted, and congratulations to the award winners.  Also, for those who were not accepted, congratulations for trying.  I encourage you to keep entering shows until you do get accepted.  After that it’s easy.  Again, thank you for the opportunity to jury.  There is no better way to improve one’s own craft than to be required to scrutinize others’ work. 

Andrew McDermott  MPAC

coming soon

Elena Selitsky  MPAC

I was surprised, humbled and delighted to be invited to be a juror for 11th PAC Annual Member’s Only Online Exhibition. First of all, I want to thank everyone who submitted their art for the show! I know it takes courage! This was my first experience in such a role and I learned so much. To see the submissions from the juror’s perspective was not an easy task, especially knowing that despite the merits of so many good entries, some would have to be rejected. I found this very difficult, as I know myself that receiving a rejection is often so disappointing.

But rest assured, even rejection brings with it a valuable learning experience for us as artists, and we begin to develop a more critical eye of our work to improve our work for an acceptance in a future show.

When I juried the entries, my first consideration always places importance on the drawing skills demonstrated by the artists. This is so important, particularly for artists working in realism. I also looked for an absence of overworking the pastels, preferring to see the freshness and vibrancy of the mark making rather than too much blending and layering on the paper. Pieces that were overworked, presented a dull and flat interpretation of the subject matter. And finally, I looked at composition, which I was very pleased to see so much of the work in the show takes this into consideration. I would like to congratulate all the award winners, participants and those working behind the scenes to make this show happen.