PORT ANGELES — As he stood below Madison Falls in Olympic National Park, Denver artist Bruce Gomez could have tensed up. As a contestant in the Paint the Peninsula plein air art competition, he might worry about hitting this one out of the park, so to speak. Instead, he let go. He let himself paint.
“It became all about the art,” he said. “I got it.”
Gomez, one of a flock of Canadian and U.S. artists here for the fifth annual Paint the Peninsula, won the Best in Show prize for “Madison Falls, Final,” a pastel work made in a few hours. He brought home $2,500, along with admiration from his fellow artists.
“The world thanks you for this painting,” said Seattle-based judge Cathe Gill as she announced his win at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center awards party Aug. 26.
Robin Weiss, another Paint the Peninsula artist from Poulsbo, won the $1,000 Best Architecture award for “Rose Theatre,” an oil painting done on Taylor Street in downtown Port Townsend.
Port Townsend’s marina, Sequim’s lavender fields, Lake Crescent’s blue-green hues and dusk over the Olympic Mountains all found their way onto the artists’ canvases.
In the course of Paint the Peninsula week Aug. 21-27, some 150 works went on display at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Last Saturday, prizes totaling $12,000 in cash were presented to artists for categories including Best Waterscape, Best Landscape and Best Nocturne.
For more about the competition, visit www.paint thepeninsula.org or see the “Paint the Peninsula plein air” page on Facebook. Details about the fine arts center, inside the Webster’s Woods art park, are available at 360-457-3532 and online at www.PAFAC.org.
Here are more of 2017’s top awards:
• Artist’s choice, $1,500: J. Brad Holt of Cedar City, Utah, for best body of work.
• Best Motors, Wheels and Sails, $1,000: Ned Mueller of Renton, “Port Townsend Boatyard.”
• Best Nocturne, $1,000: Susie Hyer of Evergreen, Colo., “Summer Nights in Sequim.”
• Olympic National Park Interpretive Ranger’s Award, $500: Bruce Gomez of Denver, “The Trees of Marymere.”
• Best Landscape, $1,000: Rachel Pettit of Tooele, Utah, “Jardin du Soleil.”
• Best Waterscape, $1,000: Richard Sneary of Kansas City, Mo., “Low Tide at Crescent Bay.”
• Spirit of the Olympic Peninsula, $1,000: Melanie Thompson of Richland, “Hurricane Ridge Twilight.”
• Paint Out on City Pier first place, $500: Ned Mueller, “Brad and Robin.”
• Petite Painting Show &Sale first place, $100: Shuang Li of Escondido, Calif., “Last Chance.”
