Best in Show

Jennifer Duncan – Treasure Beach

Acrylic on cradled birch panel

30″ x 24″ x 1.5″

Artists’ Statement: “Treasure Beach” is located along the lower Potomac River close to the Chesapeake Bay. I have walked it for more than 40 years. Each year it changes and looses sand from sections. Water rise prediction maps show it will be under water in 20 years. I will miss it’s natural beauty, wildlife and the memories of taking children there for birthday parties to hunt for treasures.

First Place

Phoebe Peterson – Water Water

Oil paint on canvas

46″ x 48″ x 2″

Artists’ Statement: Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous lines “water water everywhere nor any drop to drink” from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner were written in 1797, but remain poignantly relevant today. In our current environment where 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water, and in our oceans whales are dying after ingesting large quantities of our discarded plastics, my painting Water Water strives to illustrate the beauty of our precious water resources and the necessity to protect them.

Second Place

Sheila Flanders – The Storm

Watercolor

21″ x 21″ x 1.5″

Artists’ Statement: With climate change, there are more destructive storms, destroying homes and forests.

Third Place

Kat Jamieson – Bioluminescence

Watercolor

14″ x 18″ 

Artists’ Statement: Bioluminescent algae blooms are naturally occurring phenomena. But global warming is seen by scientists as a prime culprit behind accelerated growth in recent years, forcing the world’s waters to glow anew.

Cited as environmental changes that contribute to accelerated bloom growth are factors such as drops in salinity, and fertilizers polluting rivers that wash into ocean water with great amounts of nutrients these algae need for growth. 

It’s an eerie, beautiful sight but it’s also a grave threat to other sea life. These brilliant blue blooms are actually tinybioluminescent creatures such as dinoflagellates. After consuming the toxic algae they prefer, these masses release poisonous ammonia and other chemicals. They also breathe large amounts of oxygen, dropping the level in surrounding waters and killing other marine life. Scientists don’t expect these growths will subside.