I WON THE ART COMPETITION!

I'm very pleased to announce that thanks to all of your votes I am one of the two winners of the Anata Gallery art contest for May 2011!  With the help of all of you who voted for me my work will now not only be featured in their gallery book but also be appearing on the cover of the book which means terrific exposure that money can't buy! I thank each of you who took the time to vote for me, to have your friends & family vote for me as well; it means a great deal to an artist to have that kind of public support.

Please click on the images below to see them in greater detail.

On September 3, 2010 I had my first solo art show opening and it went very well.  I had a steady stream of visitors stop in and they were very interested in my work, including having questions for me that I was all too happy to answer the best I could.  It's amazing how many people think that all you can do as far as "digital art" is manipulating pictures into abstract sorts of images so it was extremely gratifying to help more people learn and experience that with a computer you can also create beautiful paintings that look like a regular painting would and without any special filters to manipulate the image. Everyone who showed up was very friendly and enjoyed viewing my work.  I exhibited 22 paintings from such areas as birds, lions, tigers, Egyptian, Celtic knots and all of various sizes and prices that I believe will allow anyone to own my work. 

I had quite a lot of people who love my work but aren't able to come to the exhibit because they live out of the country so if you're also not able to travel to the show you are welcome to view the video below that my niece made of my art show opening.  In this video you'll see me answer some of the visitors' questions and you'll get to see all of my paintings I'm exhibiting at the gallery.  I'd be glad to hear what you think of it and you can let me know by emailing me here.  I also have these paintings available for sale so be sure to contact me and I will be glad to help you own my original paintings!

As some of you know on 15 June 2007 I had my very first art showing in town.  It was in association with the Junction City Art Gallery's art walking tour where local talent teamed up with stores to showcase some of their art and it wasn't a bad turn out at all considering the art walking tour is only a couple of years old.   There were many different art mediums showcased including air brushing,pottery,jewelry,dance, poetry and of course digital artwork such as my own.  Everyone brought some snacks to serve guests & answer any questions visitors might have.

It was definitely a new experience for me since, as I said, this was my first showing outside of the online galleries where I showcase my work & it gave me a chance to see what it takes to set up such an event, the sorts of questions an artist is asked and what the public's opinions are on such artwork. Naturally I was a tad nervous. I've gotten mostly positive praise from my friends and communities I am a part of online but you never know how people in your town will react to your style or your subjects so as you'll see in the pictures below I chose 3 different images from different areas- the Crow Forest, Temple of Horus & The Lighthouse of Alexandria.  I was very pleased to see that many of the viewers who stopped by liked my work a lot and I even had the pleasure of meeting a couple who spent a few years in Egypt & surprisingly enough the temple I designed for Horus was similar to a statue they saw over there which I found interesting since I created the temple simply from my own mind's eye.  Visitors really seemed to like the Crow Forest painting and agreed that setting them in a setting other than the usual gloom & doom people associate crows with was a very nice touch.  I was able to pass out several business cards & one thing I did learn- next time bring MORE business cards hehe.

You'll have to excuse a couple of the pictures I took of my paintings; there was a large ceiling light and it got into several of my photos but luckily it didn't hinder the viewability of them but just so you know, if you see any lines like in one of the crow pictures it's the lighting.   We had to adjust at the last minute because the building we were to be showing our work in originally couldn't be used.   It seems the roof had leaked too much and the workers weren't able to get the electrical or walls finished so we were relocated to another building that is also undergoing renovation but was already looking very nice as you can see.  It would have just been better had that ceiling light NOT been there hehe.

Please take a good look at the paintings I showed and you can see them for the first time in their enlarged state as well as fully framed & when you're ready to purchase one you may contact me or order from my gallery.   All in all I must say it was an entertaining evening and I had fun meeting the different visitors as well as local artists who stopped by and I thank the Junction City Art Council for asking me to participate in this event.

 

Mike Sexton Studio's Social Media Center