Portrait Nominations for Best Artwork | MAM Awards 2013

The 2013 Making a Mark Prize for Best Artwork on an Art Blog - People aims to celebrate and highlight excellence in portraiture and/or artwork predominantly involving figures seen on an art blog in 2013.

Listed below you will find the nominations for the Best Picture (portrait/figure) on an art blog in 2013. The details of the nomination process and criteria for submissions can be found in Nominate the Best Picture of People on an Art Blog in 2013

• Three works will be shortlisted (including the nomination I've yet to make)
• Larger images of the three shortlisted works will be included in the invitation to vote for the winner which will be posted on Wednesday 26th December
• voting for the best picture continues until a minute after midnight on 30th December
• no lobbying is allowed

These are the links to the other nominations for Best Picture:

• Landscape Nominations for Best Artwork | MAM Awards 2013
• Still Life Nominations for Best Artwork | MAM Awards 2013
• Nature Nominations for Best Artwork | MAM Awards 2013

Nominations for Best Picture of a Person or People on an Art Blog 2013

The Stone House by Heather Horton
oil on canvas, 10"x30"
© Heather Horton

Nominated Artwork: The Stone House, Oil on canvas, 10"x30
Nominated Artist / Art Blog: Heather Horton | Heather Horton Artwork
Post: "The Stone House" And The Art Of Giving  (7 April 2013)
Nominated by: Roger Brown My Botswana Art

Although some may feel it does not fall into the traditional portrait genre,it reminds me a little of Andrew Wyeths painting (Christina's world)where it encapsulates both the person and his/her surroundings. I like this painting in that she has managed to combine both a portrait and a landscape in one, and yet inevitably your eye is always drawn back to Gayle whom I feel is her main subject.Great composition,and wonderful loose but soft brush strokes.

Night Scene by Therese Oaxaca

Nominated Artwork: Night Scene
Nominated Artist / Art Blog: Therese Oaxaca | Drawing and Painting Journal 
Post: Night Scene (10 November 2013)
Nominated by: Natasha Kimstach

The artist is very young and extremely productive and blessed with talent, guts and wit. Her works are both done in highly fashionable new baroque or neo-victorian stylistics, but they also show profound and mature classical realist command. Her portraits are highly emotional, have huge character, the colour use is out of the magical world."The night scene" deserves the prize because it shows raw raving emotion set in familiar society atmosphere. Never before have i seen character captured so deeply and and at the same time keeping such purity of style.

Nominated Artwork: Sisters
Nominated Artist / Art Blog: Kate Stone | Painting Stuff to look like Stuff
Post: Sisters II
Nominated by: Natasha Kimstach

The artist has a highly technically accomplished, slightly reserved and cold in choosing characters, but in extremely alluring style. Nevertheless in this particular painting the gentle emotional bond between sisters is so tender and the height of character rendering is so profound, that I would see it as a prize worth work.

[Note: There was another recommendation by Natasha Kimstach re Jeremy Lipking which made no sense - ie no title, no URL and the artist was cited as being on another artist's blog. All nominations must be of artists and posts must be of their own painting on their own art blog]

Untitled by Ian Price

Nominated Artwork: Untitled commissioned portrait of a teenage boy, 10 x 12" oil on gessoed MDF
Nominated Artist / Art Blog: Ian Price | ianpriceart
Post: Portrait completed just in time for a Happy Christmas #art #painting #portrait

Nominated by: Ian Price (self)

Slightly embarrassed to be nominating my own work, but hey my blog hasn't got many followers!I like it partly because it's completed in time for Xmas so I can relax but mainly that I think it has a good balance of a strong composition with linking darks, loose strong mark making combined with enough subtlety to make an accurate likeness. The size is 12 by 10 inches and its oil on gessoed MDF. The sitter was a 15 year old boy which I think is probably a tricky age to capture.

[Note: I have a problem with Natasha's nominations as other than a Google account with no information, there is no other information about her that I can find.  I work on the principle that:

1. the person nominating must be identifiable on the Internet
2. evidence they have spoken to those they are nominating to get permission to post images on my blog 

I'm having a think about this.]