Sunset Autumn Glow was selected as a Finalist in the 2025 Art Renewal Center’s 18th International Salon Competition, chosen among 816 finalists from over 4,500 entries worldwide.
In addition, four paintings were recognized as Semi-Finalists in the Almenara Art Prize Online Exhibition, with two of those works also earning Semi-Finalist distinction in the ARC Salon.
These honors mark meaningful milestones in an ongoing pursuit of mastery through the study of light, color, and atmosphere, guided by the traditions of the masters past and present.

Warm seasonal light illuminates the landscape, evoking the richness and quiet beauty of fall.

Sunset Autumn Glow is a reimagining of a work first created in 2020, early in my second career as a professional artist. Though the original painting received recognition—earning second and third place in regional exhibitions—I found myself returning to it, driven by a quiet dissatisfaction and a deepening artistic vision. With time and experience, I saw not only what the painting was, but what it could become.

Inspired by the memory of that luminous autumn evening—the sky aglow with a fleeting, ethereal light—I reworked nearly half the canvas, focusing especially on the sky and its effect on the trees below. The new version seeks to more faithfully evoke the atmosphere I witnessed and felt: the way light filtered through the branches, casting a warm, golden hue across the landscape.

This renewed piece, Sunset Autumn Glow II, is both an homage to the original and a celebration of growth—proof that the journey of an artist is never quite complete.

TWO TIME AWARD-WINNING "Sunset's Autumn Glow" won second place in the Cabarrus Art Guild Spring 2021 Spring Juried Show and third place in Mooresville Arts 2021 43rd annual SpringFest Juried Show and Competition! Every sunset is like a poem of reflections on the day as it ends. The silhouette formed by the synergy between light and landscape of this sunset created a luminous glow that split across many of the foreground trees and made a spectacular focal point of color and value contrast to paint.