Thank you everyone who helped make this year's Solhaven Grand Art Exhibit a success! We had a tremendous showing by many very talented artists, which of course made judging even more challenging. However, I am delighted to announce the following winners of the 16th Art Exhibit:
Best in Show ~ a haon-framed ink sketch
The sketch shows the main deck of a moored krolvin slave ship. Men, women, and youths of various races are battling the crew, striking them with manacles and strangling them with chains. The captain's corpse lies at the center of the deck, a black pool of blood beneath his head and the weapon-- a broken shackle-- beside him. The killer, a half-krolvin girl with a shattered fetter swinging from one wrist, leaps for the railing of the ship while a slaver starts to swing a gaff a moment too late.
"Freedom" -- by Sreka -- Best In Show, 5120
Second Place ~ a twist of tangled metal and lace
Standing at just twelve inches tall, the sculpture is puzzling in its construction yet somehow draws the eye around its many twists and curlicues. At first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a tangle of steel wire and ivory lace but, when viewed from certain angles, it transforms into the curvaceous form of a woman bedecked in a pallid gown and captured in various aesthetic poses. With a full tilt of the head, however, the visage of a male appears with a mass of wiry curls about his pale face.
"Vogue" -- by Rohese Bayvel-Timsh'l -- Second Place, 5120
Third Place ~ a lead-beaded jute cord tapestry
Fine cords of jute hang from a gnarled modwir bough by the hundreds. Strung on each are dull lead beads, spaced at irregular intervals. Some beads are tiny, the size of a pinhead, while the largest are fat as walnuts. The leftmost cords bear few, mostly large beads; to the right, the beads grow greater in number, with smaller ones filling in the gaps, until the rightmost cords are nearly completely grey with lead spheres. On the bough is branded: Recorded armed conflicts by century, last 50,000 years.
"The Weight of War" -- by Alvyara Vilvyre --- Third Place, 5120
Congratulations, Sreka, Rohese, and Alyvara!
In addition, the other sixteen entries are as follows:
a tall haon-framed tableau
Reality and fiction intertwined in shades of sickly green unfolds in the tableau. Nestled around a withered modwir tree with a gaping wound, menacing fungal monstrosities burst through from the ground, their tentacles lashing the land in a frenzy. Incarnadine spores litter the sky like the teardrops of a woeful lover, bespeckling a woman of towering height and pale skin who kneels beside the trunk. She bears no emotion, yet with hands raised she guides the creatures from their earthen confines.
"Friend of the Blight" -- by Naamit DMVMD-Braggiani
an oak-framed linen tapestry
Needlework of many hues of copper, brown, and yellow silk thread have been stitched upon a canvas of linen cloth to create an abstract tapestry. In a near-hypnotic pattern, intricate whorls of alternating dark and light color spiral outward from and inwards toward a central dark focus. The dark center has been textured with overlaying needlework to raise it pimple-like from the cloth's center, while within its recessed cavity a frayed and yellowed knot of thread lurks in wait.
"Anomaly" -- by Raeshya Qel'thyr
an abstract splattered canvas
Discolored splatters cover the once-white canvas with variegated shades of red, rust, and brown. While overall placement appears largely haphazard, the spattered color follows distinct arcs, with grouped trails graduating in size from quite large to the tiniest of misty pinpricks. Several droplets, dried and dark, gather along the bottom edge of the abstract painting, having left sanguine trails behind in their escape from the thickest patches of pigment.
"Equanimity" -- by Azryen
a carved fel-framed painting
The painting depicts a mountain village where ashy ruins of buildings bleed silvers and shadows caper murderously. Hares fight duels, a hairy-fruited tree smiles sickeningly, and crocodiles play trumpets inserted in their scaly tails. A merry toddler, surrounded by crow-headed people, sits at the center of the village, clapping her hands in delight. In the right-hand corner, a pale-faced owl is painting a miniature of the work it is in. The villagers, of every race save Dark Elven, notice nothing.
"Chaos Descending" -- by Nazarr Csaba Faendryl
a framed courtroom sketch
The image is rendered in rapid hash marks of quilled ink and the shapes later filled in with vibrant pastels. Rickety benches line the background, setting the scene of a tense courtroom. Eight indistinct figures form a barrier blocking a man clad in a crimson breastplate, who tries to push his way past the crowd. His one outstretched, skeletal arm breaks through, beckoning the scarred man in black opposite. The figures' heights creates a natural sight line, drawing eyes from accuser to defendant.
"Landing v. Walkar" -- by Faerinn Greatsinger
an unframed painted canvas
Much of the painting is a gradient of grey, from charcoal at the lower left corner to a soft dove grey at the upper right. Darker lines delineate the shoulders and upper torso of a man in three-quarter profile, with stylized contour hinting at draping cloth without detail. In contrast, the subject's face bears color, his complexion an impressionistic melange of creamy whites and pale pinks from proudly lifted chin to pointed ear. Thin bands of periwinkle form atonal highlights in the waves of his hair.
"Beacon" -- by Jossarian Silithyr
a vivid cypress-framed painting
Five guards in uniforms of black and Trauntor green battle horrors atop an impossibly high ebony wall. Two white-haired warriors struggle against a shifting nightmare with too many eyes and legs. A third guard fires a crossbow at an immense wasp-hawk, its proboscis stretching perilously close to his neck. The right half of the fourth guard's body is transforming into something withered and plantlike. The final guard's eyes are full of screams as he lifts a mace to slay his wretched companion.
"Demonwall" -- by Umbazi Isibindi
a stretched canvas abstraction
The stretched canvas painting is horizontal in orientation and bears no frame. Striations of ebony and a dark indigo hue fold lusciously around pale, petal-like waves in this organically lined image. Undulations wind diagonally downward toward the lower right corner, where a faintly dissolved corona encircles a raised disk of iridescent glaesine affixed to the surface. Deep within its core, an underpainting of gold and copper appears bulbous due to the refraction.
"Dawn" -- by Ysaeril Illistim
a crimson-edged gilded frame
Crimson brush strokes form flames around the edges of the canvas. In the middle of the flames stands a rat-like gnome in a regal pose. A golden crown sits upon his head amidst shaggy brown hair, and a bright red plush velvet robe with brilliant gold embroidery lays draped across his back. A playful glint lights up his beady hazel eyes that sit nestled back from his pointed nose and chin. In one hand he holds an oddly twisted, darkened lor scepter while his other is extended out in invitation.
"Worship the Rat King" -- by Jastalyn Dragorth
a dark yew frame
Standing on the edge of a pristine strip of land is a stick figure of a man with a hat of purple plumage. Behind him, waves lap at the multicolored sand as if trying to pull the figure closer. From every angle, the shifty eyes appear to look in each direction while the gaping mouth of the figure seems to be singing out in song.
"Beach Scene" -- by Misun
some squat whittled wood
Inexperienced woodwork does little to hide the artist's intent. Perched upon a wide leaf with somewhat splintered edges is a great snail, nearly the size of a grapefruit. The shell, while nicked and rough and whittled down just a bit too much in parts, still appears as solid and sturdy as the armor of any garden pest. Its body is swiveled towards the viewer, and its eyestalks would loom a bit more threateningly had one not been glued back on as discreetly as possible.
"The Foe" -- by Sir Bristenn Mires
a sculptural hanged man
Rendered in disconcerting detail, the life-sized sculpture depicts a solitary figure suspended within a gibbet of corroded iron. Garbed in raiment of rotting and feculent white, its withered and desiccated arms issue forth limply from within, palms upward, as if to offer some delusive token of pestilential solace. Its ocular spaces are bound and obscured by ragged swaths of cloth, more profusely stained and haunted by the soiled implication of what horrific vacancies might lie beneath.
"The Prophet" -- Unknown Medium -- by Cruxophim
a densely woven ivy wreath
The lush ivy wreath is mingled with clusters of colorful wildflowers, each stem intricately woven securely within its heart. Delicate scents waft from each redolent blossom, mingling together to create a sweet fragrance reminiscent of summer. Blue gingham ribbon completes the piece, tied into a voluminous bow and affixed at the bottom.
"Simplicity" -- by Kaleiope Lath
an on tiptoe elven maiden statuette raising a squalling human child
Garbed in airy, layered fabrics, the maiden displays flowing, gold-shot marble hair and a peacock feather pendant. With a look of satisfaction, she holds a human child, its face contorted in angry tears. She holds the toddler upward with implicit tenderness while he twists within her grasp. His eyes are inset with blue shimmarglin sapphires, the glint of the gem giving the illusion of tears. Fallen stones carved with illegible elven script comprise the base, her tiptoed posture heedless.
"Talador Will Rise" -- by Elaejia and Aendir Silithyr
a pelagic refuse pile sculpture
A small whale bone and a driftwood stick stand in a crossed "X" shape, forming the frame of this haphazard work of art. Stuck to the bone are fluffy albatross down feathers and an array of faded fish scales. A malodorous rot permeates the air around the sculpture, likely due to the aged pieces of squid tentacles pinned to the driftwood. The focal point of the piece is a scrimshaw bauble carved with a crude smiling face dangling on a rawhide cord from the intersection point of the cross.
"Solhaven Tribe" -- by Krinchat
a pink-painted crusty muffin wrapper
Thick globs of pink paint dot the surface of an old muffin wrapper, coating its crust of leftover crumbs and the remnants of what may have once been blueberries. A large, grey pelican tail feather sticks unceremoniously at the center of the wrapper, half covered with fuchsia paint smears. Beside the feather, in the largest glob of paint, is the footprint of a different bird - this one smaller and taloned - perhaps serving as the signature on the messy masterpiece.
(Untitled)
Artwork will remain on display through the conclusion of the exhibit, tomorrow evening, in case anyone would like to have a last minute viewing before the tent is put away for another year.
Thank you again to all of the artists, without whom the event could not have happened; everyone who came out to support them and the various exhibit events; Cairnfang Manor members who put forth a large amount of work in its planning and implementation; Caeruil Atelier for adjusting their planned workshop to coincide with the exhibit; and especially to Elidi for all her help behind the scenes.
I hope to see you all again at next year's exhibit!
Regards,
Phanna Green
Cairnfang Manor Chairwoman
