1. In my opinion, all artwork is abstract. The power of its delivery to our eyes is dependent on the interrelation and distribution of its elements forming, shapes, patterns, spaces, movement, etc.
2. For me art is not about the artists, it’s about the artwork.
3. Art should be aesthetically enjoyable and/or provocative and meaningful, regardless of the theme.
4. Artists should seek to go beyond their human limitations.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR

One of the most important aspects that I would have had on top of the list is the degree of originality and uniqueness of the artwork, unfortunately, that is too difficult to assess in a medium time range.

• Consistency in your artistic proposition: Is what you’re trying to say clear? If not why? Is there a clear feeling? Is there a relationship between the different elements in the painting? Etc.


• Consistency in the direction of the artwork you presented: Are all three works speaking the same language, or have any type of discernible relationship?


• The quality and treatment of color, layers, and any other applications.


• Quality and treatment of overall composition of the work.


• Strength and uniqueness of the work in comparison to all the work submitted to the contest.

WHAT I FOUND

I took the responsibility of jurying this contest very seriously, and I went through all 4,500 works many times. I was pleasantly surprised by the overall high quality of the work submitted and particularly impressed by the strong sense of purpose and dedication. What was even more encouraging was the high sense of design with a mixture of intuitive and informed decisions.

MY SELECTIONS

First place:
I found it unique and distinct among all of the works submitted, with the strongest and best-resolved composition. It was chosen for the following reasons: creating clarity in its complexity, creating reinforcement and support for all the different elements or objects in the painting with their different colors, shapes, sizes, resolving their individual composition and rhythm, and for the brilliant utilization of special directions. All of the action takes place in a dimensionally well-balanced space while moving from left to right suggesting what will come next hiding behind the borders of the painting.

Second place:
This artwork was chosen because of the exquisite and masterful treatment of textures, layers, colors, and masses, including the beautiful and delicate variations in the repetitions of shapes with juxtapositions of smooth soft, and breathable textures next to busy and louder textures. There was a very deep and settled mood with clear roads for the eyes to travel, rest, and then continue through the strata of repetitive horizontal shapes treated with delicacy in different nuances of colors. I found it delightful, restful, and mysterious.

Third place:
This artwork was chosen because of the absolute clarity of the world it depicts, clarity of its direction, consistency in its patterns, and background that seems to share the same DNA. By the juxtaposition of different gradations of colored shapes, this artist's work can express any mood, emotion, or feeling. It is a surprisingly versatile, graphical world that circumvents traditional compositional solutions. For example, if you want to create something with strength and passion, you need to find opposites (Light - Dark, etc.). Usually, it is incredibly difficult to enhance the strength and enjoy the curviness of an object in a composition where there is nothing else but curved lines. But in this painting, the curved shapes feel very good and are very strong without any visible straight lines. It gets around this by creating a series of imaginary straight lines between objects of the same color that pull your eyes in straight lines across the surface of the work. The same indirect approach can be said about the sense of depth, maintaining a calm feeling in a very busy world, etc.

Honorable Mention 1:
Selected for its rhythmic and atmospheric composition with the clearly established mood in a specific place full of wonders and magic.

Honorable Mention 2:
Selected for the quality of the painting, its beautiful composition, and the transformative effect of telling a story, with a sense of time and with beautiful rich translucent and porous colors.

Honorable Mention 3:
Selected for its boldness and raw linear strength using very few elements, a thick dark blue line, a light blue line, a bunch of small thin lines, and some scribbles, all on a background, creating a passionate existential witness to our presence.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS

1. Everyone can work even harder to differentiate their work from other artists, and in so doing, increase the uniqueness of their own visual language.

2. Don’t forget the power and dimension that color has to offer. In too many cases, I found a lack of interest or attention to the nuances of well-applied colors. I found a tendency to randomly apply colors without any discernment, usually directly from the tube, and mixing it directly on the canvas which in many cases creates a dirty effect. A little more understanding of color will go a long way.

3. Finally, I would like to share a thought: I believe that intuition in art is nothing more than our subconscious mind creating associations between our work and our experience derived from nature. There is a graphic language that we all speak and learn from living in this world under its laws of physics, and its interrelation of our human body with its physiology, feelings, emotions.

The more we tune into these associations, the more informed our intuition becomes. At its highest level, that is what composition is all about - understanding the undercurrents of visual communications and the feelings and emotions bottled up in simple forms. We interpret the forms of shapes, their positions, size, interrelation, etc. with the same handbook given to us by birth.