Landscapes steal the show

The Burbank Art Association’s annual fall art show offers a particularly fine selection of paintings in this seasonal contest. The show is categorized into the customary genres, but it is the landscape class that steals this show.

The Burbank Creative Arts Center Gallery opens its doors to the art alliance exhibition and the Don Jarvis and Karen Bauman Memorial Awards are presented to selected winners in two divisions: the Honors Division, which requires that entrants have participated and been award recipients in previous contests; and the Open Division, where Burbank Art Association members begin their contest experience. There are 28 awards in all.

This year’s most valued award — the Karen Bauman Memorial Award Honors Division for Best in Show — was given to Lisa August for her oil painting titled “Rocky Stream.” August’s rendering of a knee-high, arm’s-length perspective of a moss-rimmed pool, a congested artery of a larger stream, reflects boulders, sky and tentacle plant forms. The artist’s palette is cool, early morning color, with enough warmth to justify the sun-cast refection on the water. August skillfully gives dimension by including a distant mountain that serves to keep the viewer’s eye circulating through the image. It is an engaging, beautiful image.

The Don Jarvis Memorial Award Open Division Best in Show was given to Jane Mick for her oil painting titled “Diamond Lane.” The foreground image is dominated by asphalt, automobiles, concrete barriers and direction graphics as seen on a typical freeway. The artist effectively places the viewer in the driver’s seat as the horizon line meets a colorful, cloudy morning sky. Mick manages to turn a very man-made, contrived subject into a lovely organic image.

Mick contributes to the landscape category further with “Sierra Highway,” where only a sliver of desolate Sierra Highway underlines the sky. The artist cleverly parts the colorful clouds in a way that gives the impression that the clouds are moving ever so slightly, just as they do in nature. It is one of the finest pieces in the show.