​

Judge’s Statement from Chris Krupinski

​

It was an honor to be invited to be the awards judge for the 2022 Artists’ Guild of Anna Maria Island exhibition. I was impressed by the broad range of styles and mediums offered.

 

The criteria that I use when judging is initial impact, compositional design, creativity, honest personal style, and sensitivity to the chosen medium. The initial impact needs to demand the viewer’s attention and invite them to spend time looking at the piece. Composition, in my opinion, is the most essential component in creating good art. The works that showed a strong understanding of the principles of design stood out. Creativity and originality were also very important. Today it seems that more and more artists are just recording facts by attempting to emulate a photo reference instead of expressing their own interpretations. Particular styles and techniques are not as important. Some artists place too much emphasis on trying to reveal how much control they have with their medium as if this alone would automatically guarantee a successful painting. Craftsmanship, although important in my opinion, should not be a dominating factor.

 

Thank you so much for the opportunity of studying your work. The awards spanned multiple mediums, styles, and techniques. Each was carefully studied and the award selections were the pieces I deemed noteworthy.

​

Chris Krupinski, AWS-DF, NWS, www.chriskrupinski.com