By Bonnie Gangelhoff
Superstitious types may consider 13 an unlucky number. But for the 13 winning artists in our Artistic Excellence competition, the number means only good fortune. The impressive paintings you will see on the following pages were culled from a pool of more than 2,000 entries. Their subjects cut a wide swath through various genres, including figurative, still-life, western, wildlife, and landscape. Expect to see everything from a beefy bovine to a beautiful sliver of a Southern California beach. Discover what inspired these artworks and learn about the artistic background of each artist.
Our top award winners:
Prafull B. Sawant — First Place
Dianna Wallace Soisson — Second Place
Cuong Nguyen — Third Place
This year’s Honorable Mention award winners:
Jennifer McChristian
Thomas W. Schaller
Deb Kaylor
Julie T. Chapman
Matthew Almy
Timothy David Mayhew
Douglas P. Morgan
Elizabeth Barlow
Margaret Larlham
Daria Shachmut
The editors of Southwest Art spent many hours huddled around the computer, judging the nearly 3,000 entries in our Artistic Excellence emerging artists competition. We had to make hard decisions to choose the final prize winners, and we’d like you to meet some of the artists whose entries were finalists in this year’s competition.
Featured in December 2011.