Show Preview | Best of America

St. Augustine, FL
Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, November 6-29

Jan DeLipsey, Call of the Canyon, oil, 16 x 20.

Jan DeLipsey, Call of the Canyon, oil, 16 x 20.

This story was featured in the November 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

THE NATIONAL Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society presents its annual Best of America exhibition and sale this month at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, FL. Now in its 30th year, the juried show features 150 works by 150 artists from around the United States and Canada—representing just a slice of the nearly 1,700 entries the jury panel received from NOAPS members. The group presents a slideshow on its YouTube channel at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 6, to announce award winners and new Signature members.

Because the show’s other opening-weekend activities are also hosted exclusively online, art enthusiasts can still enjoy the painting demonstrations traditionally offered at Best of America. This year’s judge of awards, nationally recognized landscape painter Mark Boedges, presents a demonstration on Friday, November 6, and on Saturday, artist and gallery owner Matthew Cutter shares some highlights of acrylic painting. Both demonstrations are available to view on YouTube, with links to the videos posted on the group’s website.

The exhibition itself, which hangs at Cutter & Cutter Fine Art all month, is also on display at www.noaps.org. Regardless of how it’s viewed, the show promises to offer something for nearly every art lover. “We try to make sure we have a balance,” says NOAPS president Pat Tribastone, pointing to the variety of representational styles and subject matter on view, with genres ranging from wildlife to the figure to still life to landscape. “Most of our work is realistic, but it varies in interpretation,” adds Tribastone. “We don’t receive a lot of abstract submissions, but we do have impressionistic and hyperrealistic works.”

As its name implies, Best of America is designed to honor superlative examples of painting in the mediums of oil and acrylic. And one need only turn to this year’s exhibition to see that mission in full force, with compelling creations like Jan DeLipsey’s CALL OF THE CANYON, an impressionistic southwestern scene rendered in rich earth tones; Fred Doloresco’s painterly ON THE WAYS, portraying the massive bow of a ship; and Jerry Venditti’s lifelike IMAGINATION, a trompe l’oeil graced with images of Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. All works are available for sale through the gallery, and show highlights are shared on NOAPS’ social-media pages throughout the month. Says Tribastone, “We will be offering staff picks, and more!” —Kim Agricola

contact information
www.noaps.org

This story was featured in the November 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art November 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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