TOP CHOICE WINNERS

 

The original photos were taken along the St Johns River from a river boat.  Originally, this image was a series of three distinct shots of an Ibis lifting up to fly.  I combined the three different wing spans in flight into one photo using Photoshop, placing the wings to show continuous flight movement forward.  I used a background texture to remove any distractions and to unify the image.

 

 

Susan Kirby creates photographs that evoke the look and feel of paintings. Drawing inspiration from nature, she blends her artistic sensibility with a preference for soft lines and a watercolor-like aesthetic. Each piece begins with a photograph, but through the use of a variety of lenses, she achieves gentle, blurred effects that give her work an impressionistic quality.

 

In a recent visit to South Beach, Miami I brought my camera along to capture the locals enjoying the beach. I happened on this couple, she was engaged with her iPhone and he was oblivious to her activity. It was late on a Summers day, rich warm light contrasted with the cool shadows and the deep blue of the water’s edge. Just what I was looking for

 

 

Since retiring from Walt Disney Imagineering with 23 years of experience as Creative Lead and illustrator, I’ve had the opportunity to pursue my lifelong passion for painting. With the opportunity to explore and develop the subject matter that has always inspired me, I am now finding a rhythm of producing paintings and refining my artistic skills. At the end of the 1980’s, I moved to Florida with my family. We started to vacation in a small beach town, New Smyrna Beach and it had parallels with what I experienced in Southern California where groups of people would huddle together gravitating to specific areas of the beach. In my paintings, I try to capture that foreground density in contrast to the muted background beyond. The warm saturated colors of the Florida beach are very appealing as well.

 

The challenge for this narrative was to create them simultaneously, following an
allegorical poem:
The promise of fulfillment
bursts with abundance
change, blithely glances back
but yields to reflection quiet
and serene — Time’s Arrow.

 

 

For decades, Annette Sidner Carlson has taught college ceramics out of a deep love for both fine art and craft. She continues to teach artist workshops in North Carolina for three weeks each year, and spends the remainder of her time in her Florida studio, pursuing her passion for clay.

 

A panoramic, cropped view of four racehorses surging towards the viewer. My objective was to focus on the power of their muscles and to capture the feel of their hooves thundering down the track as they battle for first. This was my endeavor to showcase the intensity of horse racing.

 

 

Stephanie Curry was born and raised in Ocala, Florida and grew up with a passion for drawing. Her body of work reflects her love for animals, in particular horses and Florida wildlife. As a 7^th generation Floridian, the state and its diverse fauna have always been very important to her and she really enjoys sharing this with others through her drawings. Horses are really the first thing she can remember sparking her creativity. Ocala is the horse capital of the world and growing up there has helped define the focus of her art. While she has explored many art mediums, from the beginning her preferred tools have been graphite and colored pencils. She try to push the limits of realism while still allowing the spirit and personality of the animals to shine through her pencil work.

 

Relics of the Galleon Trade
Watercolor and Gouache

Being an avid practitioner of Filipino Martial Arts, I was introduced to collecting historical weapons from the Philippines and have seen other people’s collections. One story I heard was about relics of Philippine weapons found on a Spanish galleon shipwreck near Acapulco. This inspired me to create this painting using my Grandmaster’s and other friends’ collections of cannons and swords as references and to include my own collection of seashells to complete the piece.

 

 

A passionate watercolor artist, he creates work ranging from landscapes and portraits to moments of everyday life. His recent focus on still-life compositions reflects the Philippines’ rich cultural heritage, influenced by centuries of Spanish history and expressed through a realistic style. Fascinated by light and its effect on different surfaces, he continues to push his creativity by exploring new techniques and mediums.

 

 

This piece reflects my memories of weekend family get-togethers with my cousins, aunt and uncle. Though we aren’t together much anymore, I still have my memories and nostalgia of these nights that I look back fondly on.

 

 

Ashley Nelson is an artist from Jacksonville, Florida currently living in Orlando and attending UCF for a MFA in Studio Art. Her primary media is acrylic paint. She is inspired by items and events from her childhood and which of those she still holds onto in her adulthood.

 

TBD

 

 

 Eliza Pineau Casler is a fine artist specializing in realistic portraiture created in oil, pastel, charcoal, and gouache. Born and reared in Paris, France, she developed an early appreciation for classical technique, careful observation, and the expressive power of the human face.
Her work seeks to capture not only likeness, but presence — the quiet moment where personality, memory, and emotion meet. Through deliberate mark-making and a restrained, elegant palette, she aims to reveal the dignity and individuality of each subject.
Exhibiting in both the United States and Europe, Casler believes deeply in the power of beauty to move and inspire. Her portraits invite viewers to slow down, look closely, and rediscover the human stories that connect us.
https://www.facebook.com/eliza.casler.9

 

Green Moon

My work is an exploration of identity shaped through clay. It is an intimate dialogue between memory, emotions from my childhood and forms. This piece becomes a vessel of personal experience, where stylized human figures carry the weight of memory, loss, and an ongoing search for belonging. Clay, in its softness and responsiveness, allows me to leave behind traces of my presence. These marks echo the human condition. Through its raw and organic nature, I am able to translate my inner world into something tangible, honest, and deeply personal. In this process, clay becomes more than a material; it transforms into a bridge connecting what is felt within to what exists in the physical world. Through my work, I seek not only to understand myself, but also to create a space where others may find connection, reflection, and meaning.

 

 

Edmundo Lopez is a Dominican artist whose work bridges the richness of his Memories and loss with contemporary expression. For over two decades, he has created ceramic and mixed media sculptures that embody stylized human figures, drawing inspiration from his personal Identity. His art serves as both cultural preservation and personal exploration, shaped by instinct and a deep connection to ancestral identity.

Lopez envisions his creations as portals into a parallel universe where fragmented childhood memories origins find harmony. Through clay and other materials, he transforms memory and folklore into forms that unite past and present. His work has been exhibited in New York, the Dominican Republic, and throughout Central Florida, with notable exhibitions at the Polasek Art Museum and Garden, The Lake Mary Museum, The Daytona Art League and the Seminole History Museum. He has earned recognition from institutions such as the New York Art Club, Osceola Arts, and Sobo Art Gallery.

 

“Whispers of the Forgotten” reflects the quiet endurance of those displaced and obscured by conflict, inspired in part by the war in Ukraine. The bundled figures, wrapped in isolation against a cold and muted landscape, suggest both physical survival and emotional distance, while the circling birds echo a sense of unease and loss. The piece speaks to resilience amid hardship and the often unseen human cost of war.

 

 

Chad Pollpeter is a Midwest-born artist and educator who earned his Art Education degree from Florida State University in 1994. After beginning his career in Virginia, he relocated to Central Florida, where he teaches traditional art at Full Sail University. His work is exhibited regularly and collected both nationally and internationally.

 

For the Love of Art….. I believe in the ripple effect of kindness—that even the smallest gesture, like a smile, can send waves of hope through a world full of uncertainty. My art is a vessel for that belief with a call to action wrapped in color, texture and truth. I create to inspire unity, peace and love. My art is infused with positive messaging that support Kindness, Women’s Rights, Climate Concerns, Equal Rights, Justice for Victims, and more. These words aren’t just part of the art—they are the art. Using vibrant materials and uplifting language, I invite viewers to reflect on our shared responsibility to one another and to our planet. My goal is to foster empathy, equality, freedom and kindness, and to remind us that when we come together with love and peace in our hearts, we truly can do anything!

 

 

Julie lives in New Smyrna Beach where she exhibits ceramic works and paintings at The HUB Gallery on Canal Street.

 

 This piece is an homage to the comforts of my childhood, reflecting the feeling of being a child in an adult body. It explores the quiet longing for the simplicity and security we often lose as we grow older. Through this work, I revisit those early emotions and the ways we continue to seek them throughout our lives.

 

 

 

 

Wendi Zlamal is a representational artist whose work is rooted in classical realism and infused with creative expression. Through this balance of observation and imagination, her drawings explore the space where reality and narrative intersect, particularly through the lens of childhood. Wendi is largely self-taught, however, she continues to study with renowned artists to refine her craft. Wendi has recently garnered international recognition for her latest body of work. Some accolades include 6th place in the Portrait Society of America’s Member’s only competition, 3rd Place in Plein Air Magazine, and 3rd place in Artists Magazine’s “Artists to Watch” competition. Her work has also recently been accepted into group exhibitions in New York City and London, UK.

 

Object of Adoration, (The Postman Always Rings Twice), 1946 Film Noir with Lana Turner and John Garfield. oil on canvas, 36 x 62 inches, My paintings are free association narratives of love, relationships, nostalgia and play. Like pictures generation artists and postmodern painters such as John Baldesarri and David Salle, my paintings have historical, social, and pop cultural references, rearranged into enigmatic compositions. The works invoke early 19th through 21st century pop culture, iconography, and cinema.

 

Born in 1958 in St. Petersburg, Florida, KYLE earned his MFA from the University of Cincinnati and maintains a studio in Orlando. He teaches studio art at Valencia College and art history, humanities, and film history at Barry University. His work has been exhibited widely in over 35 juried and 20 solo exhibitions, including major art fairs, museums, and university galleries nationwide. He has completed public art commissions, served as Artist-in-Residence at the Maitland Art Center, received state and regional grants, earned over 32 awards—including 15 Best of Show honors—and is represented by ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries in Miami.