Outwin Boochever Competition Finalists

The waiting is over! Click on the title of today's blog and it will lead you to the winners and finalists in the Smithsonian's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. They selected 49 out of the 100 semi finalists. There is a People's Choice award, so look them all over and pick your favorite. Be sure and click on each image as many of them have a lot more image than is showing up on the group page. Also, notice the size of each work (there are some real surprises to be found) and be sure and read the artists' explanation of their work. As always, you will not agree with all of the choices. I took the time to compare the different media, so here is the breakdown: 23 oil paintings; 12 photographs; 3 acrylics; 2 sculptures (both in a synthetic material) 2 Ink; 2 Video; 1 Pastel; 1 Waxy Chalk (what could that be?); 1 Egg Tempera; 1 Gouache; 1 charcoal and 0 WATERCOLORS!

This is a very major portrait competition held every 3 years and based on a similar type of competition held by The National Portrait Gallery in England. That competition is held every year. At one time it was restricted to citizens of the United Kingdom but now is open to artists in other countries. They still have the restriction of having to be under the age of 40. Rats, even my kids wouldn't qualify!

Since I love portraits, I am happy to see lots of support and interest in this form of art.

I am curious to see the other 50 semi finalist paintings and how they compare to the finalists. I would like to start a blog to post these images. Let's see what the power of the internet is. I do not personally know of any other artists that were semi finalists. If you know of someone or want to spread the word, have them contact me and I will start the Semi Finalist blog and create a link so all can enjoy.