Haidee-Jo Summers wins first prize in the Oil Painters of America Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

This year the Oil Painters of America's Wet Paint Competition & Convention went:

• International - with all registered attendees* able to compete for a minimum of $20,000 in cash and merchandise awards. 
• OPA members vied for awards in both the studio and plein air categories. 
• International artists living outside North America competed in a separate international category.
• Virtual - with all the awards announced online

Oil Painters of America - Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

These were 

• the Wet Paint Rules for the competition which took place on 11-12th September.
• the Schedule for the Wet Paint Competition and Convention

There were three divisions for entries as follows

• Plein Air Division: open to OPA Members only. (i.e. open air) 
• Paintings are executed outdoors as opposed to using photographs or models in a studio. 
• Both painter and subject matter must be outdoors, and photographs may not be used. 
• Studio Division: open to OPA Members only. 
• Paintings are executed indoors. 
• Both painter and subject matter must be indoors
• photographs may not be used. 
• Open Division: open only to non-OPA members and International artists
• includes both plein air and studio paintings.

Awards were announced at an online awards presentation on Thursday, September 17 at 6:30 p.m. US Central Time. 

You can view all the entries - by division in turn.

Award Winners of the Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

You can read the names of the award winners on this page - scroll down to Virtual International Wet Paint Competition

Winner of 
The crab hut at Wells-next-the-Sea by Haidee-Jo Summers
oil, 16” x 20”

Which is how Haidee-Jo Summers ROI RSMA came to win the First Prize in the Oil Painters of America wet paint competition, in BOTH

• the international competition
• the open division. 

Such an amazing surprise to have won first prize in the Oil Painters of America wet paint competition, in the international and open division. Huge thanks to John Pototschnik and Oil Painters of America and Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes for sponsoring me to enter!
Haidee-Jo Summers (Facebook Page)

The prize is valued at $4,460 (Funded by International Artist Magazine) - being one full-page advertisement and $1,000 cash funded by OPA 

Registration for non OPA members and International Entrants was $125 Non-OPA Members & International Participants and Haidee-Jo was sponsored by Rosemary & Co Artists Brushes.

You can follow Haidee-Jo on her Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Haidee-Jo-Summers-ROI-RSMA-242006599187380/

More to come post Covid?

I think opening up competitions to an international body of painters is a brilliant idea - and I applaud the OPA for having the gumption to have a go t holding both a Virtual Competition and Convention - and opening it up to international artists.

It makes me wonder whether the 'normal' way of holding annual events and exhibitions is going to see a bit staid after all the novelty associated with trying to make things happen in a friendly but socially distant way.

For what it's worth I'd like to see more art societies doing this - on a regular basis!

P.S I'm already signed up to a Virtual 26th Annual Meeting and Conference via Zoom of the American Society of Botanical Artists which is taking place next month. All the benefit of the events and none of the flights or hotel bills!! :)

PPS Apologies for those expecting my review of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition - but the big supermarket shop this morning was rather tiring - and this is NOT a short blog post!