3rd Place in Floral/Still Life Category!!!! Wooohooo!

I ran by the Balloon Races later this morning, after many were in the air and some were landing.  I had entered two paintings in the Sierra Watercolor Society's Annual Art Show there at the Museum at the Balloon Race Park (Rancho San Rafael).  I was so surprised to find I had earned a 3rd Place ribbon for my "White Roses" painting.  Wow!  I'm stoked!

My other painting "Lion Pride" was in a catch-all category called "Other".  Here is the wall of that category.

It is a really beautiful show.  I met the lady who won first in "Other".  She did a really neat abstract.  We talked art and I got to ask her a lot of questions about abstract art, how the artist does it, is there a plan, is it accident, what makes one abstract painting better than another one.  She had lots of good answers - she is from a design background.  So I understood what she was talking about.  It is the same principles I've been learning in my pastel classes - shapes, values, balance, color, arrangement, movement, composition.  I enjoyed picking her brain and learned a lot about abstract.

Here are some balloon race pictures.