Judge’s Notes: This painting was hiding from me. I had walked past it many times thinking how well the medium was technically handled. Several passes later, I knelt down to get a closer look, and I found myself thinking of the scene in the Wizard of Oz with the Poppies. There is a beautiful quality of light to this and it is captured in a single bloom. Poppies bloom in late spring, a time when nature is renewing itself. The artist has captured that feeling of living vibrantly. The blurred warm orbs behind the flower lead the eye to the petals and then into the dark seed pod. There is a sense of zest for life here that moved me.
Artist’s notes: Sunlit poppy in green field