Washington State Fair Art Show Judge, and Recent Color Theory Presentation

I had the privilege of being a juror in the Washington State Fair art show. Another oil painter and I viewed about 100 oil paintings and selected which ones would be in the show, which ones would be rejected, and which would be the first, second, and third place winners. Below is me standing next to the winner in the oil painting division.

How do you judge an art show?
It's not easy. Sometimes you might reject an outstanding painting because its garish frame has made the painting look terrible. Other times, you might include a painting that is poorly executed but has an outstanding concept. Or, several beautiful landscapes have been submitted, but you reject one in order to make room for a still life or an abstract to make the exhibit well-rounded. In the end, the selection is subjective because there is no objective, scientific, quantifiable method of determining good art. If you ever enter an art show and are rejected, don't feel bad; it happens to really good artists all the time. Maybe the judge doesn't like the color orange in any painting, and yours happens to have orange in it. The selection can come down to superficial decisions like that.

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Color Theory Presentation
In several classes last week I offered a color theory presentation, focusing on complementary colors, and color mathching: