Our Winner for NOVEMBER is Brittney Dickerson

In a last minute frenzy (for me anyway) our winner has been authenticated and as you can see it was Brittney Dickerson with her last minute entry.  With a stunning panoramic view she entered on November 30,  she made the top 10% of the popular vote and was chosen by our panel of Judges.

Haleiwa, Hawaii 12x36 Oil on Canvas by Brittney Dickerson

The Google Street View can be found HERE.  It's worth taking a look.  Really the Street View images are more fun along with the paintings.

Brittney's entry has proven a few things.  ONE, it doesn't matter if you get in early or late, we are giving enough time to garner votes.  Our popular vote winner Kim Frakes, had 111 votes.  Brittney had 75.  Kim entered early, and Brittney at the last minute. (really like 11:30pm ;)  AND the system of choosing a group or finalist for further "judging" has proven to be a fair and insightful process.

The first 7 finalist were chosen by popular vote and the final two were put in by ME (because I am the queen) and I felt that they would have made the finals had they more FaceBook friends.  So what that tells you is that I AM taking other things in to consideration when the situation warrants, AND this time I had company as one of the OUTSIDE judges choose one of my wild cards as her favorite.

Now for the answer to "who are the judges"  Our Judges consisted of my sister in law (and Santa Fe Artist who works in 2 galleries there) PE Baldwin and I invited Laeli Bowden (last month's winner) along with a vote (if they cared to) from every one who entered the contest.  So there were 30 artist entrants and 2 outside judges asked to weigh in, not everybody did (and no one could vote for their own, in fact it was assumed that they all would and cancel each other out, so they either abstained, or voted for someone else . . which was very kind of those who did.)

The votes were so evenly split and there were such well thought out comments that I just know it was the way to go. You know the results.  Brittney won, but I choose 2 runner ups just because it seemed like they deserved it.  There's no prize for runner up (may I should come up with one) but honorable mention is worth something isn't it ?  Here are some of the comments from our judges.

"My vote among the finalists is for the painting by Britney Dickerson. I like the use of color and the creative yet balanced composition in the painting."

"Hello again, I should have looked at the finalist before I replied...oh well.  As I said, the competition is very steep, but my favorite is Tim's"

"My “finalist” vote is for Jo Ann Simon’s postcard watercolor… It’s loose, flowing application makes you feel movement – like the tropic breezes."

"I think it was Gingers painting that caught my eye her technical ability as a painter gives her my vote."

"I vote for Maria Milazzo.  She did a  nice job of taking an ordinary street scene and turning it into a delight to look at,  adding nice details like the cars in the driveways.  I also loved her clouds -- they make for a very interesting sky!"

"I would like to vote for Tim Webster's 16" x 20" oil on canvas.  I love his perspective and brilliant use of colors they pulled me in at first glance.  The details are gnarly down to the birds flying over head to the people swimming in the water.  This painting defiantly caught my eye out of all the finalists."

"Hello I would like to vote for Maria Milazzo. The beautiful and colorful street view of Hawaii is amazing. Don’t you just want to move to that quiet road.  The colors and the sky are so inviting I want to see where the road leads. I think this is a fantastic idea of what Hawaii is all about. Maria did and awesome job and has my vote!"

"Len Windle 11x14 Acrylic on Canvas  - I like the palm trees and the touch of sun hitting the rocks behind"

My opinion (from PE Baldwin)

1st - David Evans...originality, narrative interest (tells a story), good color and composition

2nd - JoAnn Simon...composition
3rd - Maria Milazzo...color
4th - Ginger Gehris...skillfully handled

These were just the votes with comments (the actual vote count was Brittney 4, nearest other 2 and everyone of the finalists got at least one vote from someone) so that our November Artist's can see the feedback to their paintings.  The contest was a lot of fun last month.  I hope everyone is satisfied with the procedure(s).  I am learning what I have control of and what I do NOT have control of in the contest, and I'm working on a few updates to the 'display' functions.  But all in all I think it went pretty well.

So the winner was Brittney, and the runner's up were Maria and JoAnn

Thanks to everyone who participated.  Off to IOWA to look for another subject.  Remember December's prize is $350 (a little extra incentive to paint through the holiday)

Share the JOY.  Kay