26th Annual Spring Festival Winners
Below are the winners of the 26th Annual Stockley Gardens Spring Arts Festival.
Best In Show ($2,500)
Sponsored by the Helen G. Gifford Foundation
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Richard Toft, Accomac, VA
Medium: Painting
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Second Prize ($1,000)
Sponsored by The Palace Shops, Ghent
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Luba Warrack, Greensboro, NC
Medium: Enamel
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Third Prize ($500)
Sponsored by Changes Hairstyling & City Spa |
Jim Spillane, Edinburg, VA
Medium: Photography |
Norfolk Artist Award ($300)
Sponsored by The Norfolk Commission on the Arts & Humanities
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Elizabeth Sawyer, Norfolk, VA
Medium: Ceramics
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Edward G. Carson Memorial Award ($250)
Sponsored by Matthew Fine
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F. Brown Steele, Franklin, WV
Medium: Etching |
The Mayor’s Award ($500)
Sponsored by Mayor Paul Fraim
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Mike Dennis, Virginia Beach, VA
Medium: Wood |
Award of Merit ($150)
Sponsored by Dr. Ed and Shaunna Robey |
Arthur Harrington, Willow Street, PA
Medium: Painting |
Award of Merit ($150)
Sponsored by Changes Hairstyling & City Spa
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Jonathon McKee, Newport News, VA
Medium: Glass |
Futures Award First Prize ($100)
Sponsored by Christopher Hamlin, D.D.S. |
Devonn Francis
Medium: Mixed media
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Futures Award Second Prize ($75)
Sponsored by Friends of Stockley |
Brent Hearn III
Medium: Photography |
Futures Award Third Prize ($50)
Sponsored by Christopher Hamlin, D.D.S. |
Cameron Booth
Medium: Painting |
Artist Spotlights
Best in Show:
Richard Toft has been awarded the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival 2010 Spring Best in Show Award, in addition to the Ed Carson Memorial Award in 2009. Toft’s work is focused on fine art with an emphasis on contemporary realism created in the spirit of old world craftsmanship. The themes are coastal life and traditions, maritime in nature, and the technique is classic egg tempera. (Egg tempera is a traditional approach, dating back to painters of the early Renaissance.) Using egg tempera, Toft combines very detailed drawings with precisely developed layers of color.
Toft’s work has been showcased in one man shows and group exhibitions, including a popular international exhibit at the Maritime Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Currently, he is included in a major national exhibit with the American Society of Marine Artists. Toft’s illustration and fine art have been placed in private, institutional and corporate collections including the American Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. His work is included in the book "Contemporary American Marine Art" and Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine has featured his work in a recent article on the history of maritime art. Toft has won recognition from the American Institute of Architects for excellence in drawing. In addition to numerous awards for both drawing and painting, he’s won "Best of Show" awards in Miami, Florida; Ocean City, New Jersey; Glastonbury, Connecticut; Marco Island, Florida; and Naples, Florida.
To learn more about Richard Toft and to see his works, please visit his website at www.toftstudio.com .
Past Stockley Artists:
Here are closer looks at some of the artists who have exhibited at Stockley in the past.
Hussein Saidi
Contemporary African artist, Hussein Saidi, was awarded the Best in Show Award at the Fall 2008 Stockley Gardens Arts Festival. Born and raised in Tanzania, Hussein combines traditional African themes with modern style. His work is highly acclaimed internationally and has been on display at various locations including the US Embassy in Niamey, Gdynia, Poland’s International Exhibition of Art, and The African American Museum in Philadelphia, to name just a few.
Saidi’s collection of art contains an overriding theme of community and family. He attempts to unify and intertwine his two worlds – that of Tanzania and that of the United States – by focusing on the commonality of all people globally. From his father, also an artist, Saidi acquired the skills to create contemporary acrylic paintings. These paintings utilize bold colors and shapes, and they are lively, active and pure in emotion. Saidi also creates unique collages utilizing natural materials such as barks, leaves, husks and other natural fibers, combined in a meticulous process. Saidi incorporates natural materials in his collages, where the materials he uses reflect his perceptions of the strong ties between humans and Earth. Each creation either shows scenes from daily life in Africa, or it shows ujamaa, which is Kiswahili for cooperation, unity in family and in community life.
To see his gallery of artwork, click here.
Jim Spillane
Jim Spillane, who has exhibited and won Best in Show at the Spring 2008 Stockley and who has won many other awards over the past decade travels extensively to capture the powerful images. Click here to read Jim's thoughts and see his collections of photography and faces from around the world.
Betty Scott Owen
Betty Scott Owen, a native and resident of Norfolk, Virginia, won Best in Show at the 2007 Spring Stockley Gardens Arts Festival. In the past eight years, she has been juried into more than one hundred exhibitions in museums, galleries and art shows including New York, Washington, DC and London. She has received multiple awards for her abstract and representational imagery and her work is included in many collections as well as in the permanent collection of the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA. She is being represented by the Aplan Gallery in Huntington, Long Island, New York and currently has her work on the Saatchi Gallery website and the Biennial 2007 Exhibition website of the Medial Museum in London. The photography she presents is simple and pure, at the same time powerful. It is fresh and original and its message is felt on many levels. Without using computer programs to manipulate the images, the dichotomy of captured movement is evidenced in water reflections. Here are some pictures of her work.
  
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