My awards for the 31st Tephra ICA Festival (formerly Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival)

Now in its 31st yr, the Tephra ICA Festival (previously Northern Virginia High-quality Arts Festival) will choose spot on May well 20–22, 2022 and will emphasize far more than 200 artists and artisans from across the nation. Drawing on a robust exhibitor and collector base coupled with Tephra ICA’s present-day art foundation, the Pageant has come to be 1 of the region’s most expected events, attracting close to 30,000 people today to the distinctive, outside atmosphere of Reston City Center.

Information here.

I juried this festival a couple several years back, and have participated in it several moments more than the decades, probably 25 or 26 occasions out of the 31 years, and I have gained a ton of awards more than the several years – I applied again this calendar year and bought rejected, which is Alright, given that there are new jurors each and every yr, and rejection is portion of an artist’s existence.

It is a terrific demonstrate!

This year’s jurors will choose the award winners when the pageant opens – but as usual, I’d like to run as a result of them on the net and award my possess awards.

You can see the artists below and make up your possess awardees… my initial observation is that (as regular), this present is intensely tilting in the direction of the craft side – it’s rather of a trademark for Reston, and considering that the beginning it has additional a lot more and more jewelry, furnishings, and so forth. at the expenditure of the good arts. There are about 30 jewelers in the group! And they’re all seriously good!

But, did I audio elitist or what? Sorry…

And the awards go to…

Most effective Portray Award: Jill Financial institutions – Booth 943 – A genuine case in point of the 10,000 hour rule Banks is a grasp and her function reveals it. Tricky classification with 37 painters in this article – all truly excellent with notable ones these kinds of as the fantastically gifted Ann Barbieri, Jon Smith, Cassie Taggart and other folks.

Ideal Pictures Award – Landscape photography dominates, which is to be envisioned, and (as I have noted for decades now) I tire of looking at shots of crumbling properties in Havana and outdated 1950s cars and trucks – make sure you! More than enough! If you wanna acquire pictures of Cuba, go somewhere else other than Havana! Possibly photograph some of the heroes who often choose to the streets to protest the brutality of Communism! 

James McArthur Cole is striving really hard to head in the suitable direction, and he has some beautiful Cuban photos, such as the just one under – but I deduct two factors for each photograph of an previous vehicle.

Cuba 60 by James McArthur Cole

But John Deng – Booth 317 – stands out! His attractive pics are similarly adept at capturing immensely distinctive landscapes as properly as the variety of the human species.

Honey Gatherers by John Deng

Image by John Deng at Tephra 2022 ICA Festival

John Scanlan’s pictures of Scotland are spectacular, but then again, Scotland is potentially the most attractive country on the planet! However Deng takes my “Most effective Photography Award.”