The top five artists in each category were given awards in the 4th Into the Wild international online art exhibition. Below are the biographies and/or artist’s statements along with the artist’s websites or emails.
To contact these artists directly for purchase inquiries or to see more of their work, please visit the 5th Into the Wild Exhibition page for contact information.
Congratulations again to all the winners and thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Best in Show (Traditional) – Lisa Perrin-Kosmo – IN THE LIGHT – water-based oil on canvas
Living near Lake Superior, in northeastern Minnesota, surrounded by rivers, woods gorgeous shoreline – I find it easy to let my mind escape to these images. I’m inspired to represent what life has to offer and to celebrate visually all that I am grateful for. My work embodies lifelike realism and blends it into abstract themes to create in unreal yet seemingly natural scene.
To learn more about Lisa and to see more of her work, she can be reached via her Email.
Best in Show (Photography & Digital) – David G. Lee – “BLACK WOLF NOT IN THE MOOD TO PLAY” – digital art
Dave Lee is a digital artist who creates artwork, using the latest computers and graphics software available today. As a lifelong resident of Indiana, he has been creating art since his early years in Indianapolis. As Dave experimented with various art-creation mediums over the years and enrolled in various art classes, he struggled to find a style and medium that would enhance his natural art abilities. His attempts to paint with watercolors, acrylics and oils ended with unsatisfactory work and results.
In the early 1990’s, he purchased his first personal computer to use in graphic design work. This was at a time when virtually no one owned a personal computer. Over the years, as his skills improved, Dave realized that today’s computers and software were the perfect tools for him to use as the new “brush and canvas” combination for digital art creation. With more than 25 years of computer experience, he uses these components to create popular, digital artwork with qualities that far surpass the art he created long ago.
Currently, Dave is inspired to create his digital art based mostly on nature, rural scenes and architecture, and he continues to experiment with different subjects and styles. Today, art creation is Dave’s passion and he’s blessed to have considerable time to devote to his effort.
To learn more about Dave and to see more of his work, please visit his website.
Best in Show (3-Dimensional) – Chen Xiaowan – “HARE” – sculpture
Chen Xiaowan is an artist based in China. He Studied at the School of Art, Xiamen University, majoring in sculpture.
To learn more about Chen and to see more of his work, she can be reached via his Email.
2nd Place (Traditional) – Susan Wehrman – WATER HORSE – colored pencil
I did not set out to become an artist, but my passion for art began early on: in elementary school tempera paints, construction paper and ordinary glue represented a vision to be fulfilled. While other children longed for toys, my greatest excitement came from visits to the local hobby shop for paint-by-number kits — I would spend many marathon weekends working on these cardboard canvases. This is what inspired my current love of colored pencil and the development and evolution of my unique design process. Today, I specialize in pet and nature portraits; my artwork represents the special bond we share with the animals that share our world and those that have etched special places in our hearts. However diverse we may be, this love of our animals is universal and transcends all languages and borders.
To learn more about Susan and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
2nd Place (Photography & Digital) – Lyn Darlington – “DETERMINATION AND EMPOWERMENT” – photography/digital art
Lyn Darlington is mainly self-taught photographer and digital artist from N.S.W Australia. Lyn enjoys photographing a range of subjects whether it is birds, wildlife, flowers or landscapes and from these images Lyn draws her inspiration for creating art. Lyn enjoys the magic of the digital darkroom, she likes to bring the focus on to the subject by simplifying things and getting rid of extra unnecessary detail, she transforms an original image into art with the use of textures a variety of software applications and hand painting to create a compelling work of art. Lyn hopes her work stirs emotions and draw attention to the beauty of nature and wildlife and it inspires people to do their part to help protect and conserve animals all around the world.
To learn more about Lyn and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
2nd Place (3-Dimensional) – Douglas Aja – “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED” – bronze
Young bull elephants, like this one in his 20s, spend much of their time in small groups of other young males, engaging in good-natured sparring. This helps them learn their own strength, build knowledge and develop the skill set they will need as mature bulls. Though sexually mature at this age, they are about half the size of the older males and cannot begin to compete with them for access to females.
To learn more about Doug and to see more of his work, he can be reached via his Email.
3rd Place (Traditional) – Anita Plaks – ON THE FENCE – pastel
In the past nine years of working in pastel, Anita has found joy in portraying animals. She has always loved finding a way to capture a moment of connection between two animals or with her. When taking her reference photos, she looks for the lighting and colors to speak to her and then tries to realistically paint what she sees. Anita loves to paint the beauty and color of an animal, usually adding in extra shades of color to the black areas. Anita’s materials include pastel sticks, Pan pastels and pastel pencils. She finds pastels to be so luscious in their immediate reward of color and texture. They can be blended or layered, can be brushed off and reworked, and can have a watercolor, acrylic or alcohol pastel underpainting. Pastel can also be applied with sponge-like tools much like a spatula. A piece can be done impressionistically or photo realistically; she tends to work photo realistically as photography was her first love. Anita lives in Southern California with her husband and dog.
To learn more about Anita and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
3rd Place (Photography & Digital) – Maureen Ravnik – “NIGHT STALKER” – photography composite
Maureen Ravnik was born and raised in Minnesota. She attended the University of Colorado to pursue a career in sales & marketing. Working and traveling a lot in that discipline opened her eyes to the wonders of the American west and reawakened childhood tendencies to creatively document her discoveries. She began making images of the American west in hopes of preserving the history, the culture, and the dreams that shaped the west. Maureen has placed in the Audubon International Top 250, local, national, international juried photography exhibitions, monthly club competitions, and state park calendars. Her images have been selected for use by the City of Littleton, and National Geographic for publication, as well as several newspapers. She has co-authored 2 books that document the history of the second largest natural area in the country. Maureen has also served as a juror for the Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts in Colorado.
To learn more about Maureen and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
3rd Place (3-Dimensional) – Fang Xin – “SPIRIT IN THE WILDERNESS” – bronze sculpture
Fang Xin, male, born in 1978, graduated from the Sculpture Department of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. The artist’s thinking is the relationship between the composition, operation, civilization, and humanism of the world, and then how to express his own world view with the language of art; how to express the spiritual power in traditional Chinese culture with the context of contemporary people.
To learn more about Fang and to see more of his work, he can be reached via Email.
4th Place (Traditional) – L. Whitney Bond – RADIANCE – oil
In winter of 2019 I decided to get back into painting. I started fresh and new and decided to paint something I had never painted which were animals. Ever since then it has become a true passion of mine. I am a self-taught artist. I have completed various art works such as portraits and landscapes but prefer working wildlife. I focus on fine details and hyper realism in my pieces, working in the details, and especially the eyes, until I feel a sense of a real being from my pieces. My hope is that emotional connection and intensity is felt with the animals I am painting. Most of my pieces are close-up portraits of the animal, so that emotional connection is captured more intimately.
To learn more about Whitney and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
4th Place (Photography & Digital) – Bauhinia Chen – “MASSACRE” – digital painting
Massacre depicts a forlorn shark agonized by the death of its peers. Tears exude from its eyes as he witnesses the heinous murder of another shark and blood suffuses through the water.
To learn more about Bauhinia and to see more of her work, she can be reached via her Email.
4th Place (3-Dimensional) – Patti Lomont – “BELTED KINGFISHER” – ceramic, antique miniature binoculars, walnut
Patti has been an artist and musician since she was a young girl. She studied Fine Arts and Art Education at the Universities of Illinois and Oregon, and received a degree in Art Education, with minors in Music and Anthropology. Teaching Art for four years in public schools was both challenging and inspiring. For many years Patti traveled up and down the West Coast, selling her art glass at shows and galleries. She also has worked for many non-profit organizations in Arts Administration, including Aurora Glass (a recycled glass foundry), Oregon Crafted/Oregon Arts Alliance, and the Oregon Bach Festival. She has had the pleasure to study with many fine ceramic sculptors over the last ten years, and is now in a luxurious time in life where she gets to create art full-time.
Working with clay, fabric, musical instrument parts, found objects, metal, wood and glass to create three-dimensional narrative ceramic sculpture, is a relatively new medium of expression for Patti. She has been a glass artist for 40+ years, and in the last ten years renewed her love of sculpture. Combining a variety of mediums together is a challenging and rewarding pursuit. The magical alchemy of applying heat to clay and glass holds many surprises. This sense of being in control and out of control leads Patti on a lifetime of exploration. Many of Patti’s pieces are inspired by her dream life.
To learn more about Patti and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
5th Place (Traditional) – Telagio Baptista – GENTLE GIANT – watercolor on paper
Telagio Baptista attended the Art Institute in San Francisco, California, on a scholarship and received a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He spent 20 years owning and operating a graphic design studio in Hawaii. His award-winning watercolor paintings have won regional, national, and international juried art competitions. He has had numerous one-person exhibitions, taught privately, juried shows, and conducted watercolor workshops in Northern California and now Nebraska and its surrounding states.
To learn more about Telagio and to see more of his work, please visit his website.
5th Place (Photography & Digital) – Jyl Blackwell – “DICEROS” – digital painting/Photoshop
My art arrived on the scene when I was able to form art and technology into a process, I call Kinetic Flow Painting™. Swirling layers of gradient pixels are put into motion and painted on the digital canvas. Sometimes these layers reside on their own and sometimes they are incorporated into photographic or digital collages. Often, new advances in software send me in an entirely new direction but always with the same process of extracting the essence of the piece through color and curve, form and light – music for the eyes.”
To learn more about Jyl and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
5th Place (3-Dimensional) – Kraken Bones Metal Art (Jason Caffelle) – “SCHWINN RETIREMENT” – sculpture
In our “throwaway society” I take disregarded metal objects and breath life back into them in the form of animals, emotions, and nature. I am not a trained welder by any means but I am an artist. I have an eye for seeing the potential in objects, which allows me to turn them into what they want to be, not what they were meant to be. I work with all different scales and I use what I acquire to be my basis of inspiration.
“Make more art, not more problems.”
To learn more about Jason and Kraken Bones Metal Art, please visit his website.
