Area artist 2nd international competition

Jennifer Sowders has been impressed for many years by the works and artists appearing in Artists magazine. "The magazine started, like, when I was in sixth grade," the rural Fostoria resident said. "So, the magazine's been around since the year before I got interested in art. It's been a long history of just admiring everybody who's been in the magazine and being blown away, like, 'Wow,'" she said. Now, she's one of the people in the magazine. Sowders recently garnered second place in the Landscape Division of the magazine's 40th annual international art competition with a piece titled "Brecksville Ridge." The 20-by-40-inch work, created with acrylic paint on canvas, has received a one-page spread in the magazine's current digital issue at www.artistsnetwork.com/product-category/digital-magazines/, with hard copies scheduled to be on newsstands on Wednesday. Landscapes are the specialty of Sowders, who mixes business with pleasure by taking a large number of photographs while hiking with her family. The image from which she worked to create "Brecksville Ridge" was captured at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "Brecksville is part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and on the day we hiked there, the light was magical," Sowders was quoted as saying in a news release from Artists magazine. "The trail we took was at the top of a ridge that had steep slopes on both sides. I found myself drawn to the dancing patches of light that slipped through dips in the ridge and set the scape aglow." She took the photos in the fall of 2022 while preparing for a specific show and she painted "Brecksville Ridge" in January 2023. She has shown it in a show titled "Ohio Parks and Preserves," and she also entered it in the Artist's competition. "I thought, 'You know, I have one really good piece, so I'll just enter that one really good piece,'" she said. "You can enter a bunch of times if you want to. But I thought, 'I'll just enter what I feel my strongest piece is. So, it was just the one." John Salminen, who has won hundreds of awards in juried exhibitions and is president emeritus of the International Masters of Watercolor Association, centered in Shanghai, China, was a juror in the Artists magazine competition. "While the grandeur of nature is often portrayed in bold vistas, it can also be conveyed in a more intimate presentation," he said of Sowders' painting. "'Brecksville Ridge' draws us into the scene with intriguing texture and fleeting light and shadow. Rather than experiencing this scene from afar, we are immersed in it. We are transported from impartial observation to being present in the moment." Said Sowders: "His quote just blew me away because that's (the impression) I'm going for." Sowders' work will be presented in a solo show at Schedel Gardens in Elmore between March and June, with an artist's reception scheduled for 2-4 p.m., April 7. Also, she will show "Brecksville Ridge" in the atrium of the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts during a Feb. 2 ArtWalk in downtown Findlay. Sowders' MONgallery and art studio (MON standing for Middle of Nowhere) is open for public tours between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., on Mondays, or otherwise by appointment by calling 567-245-1179. The gallery is located at 1034 Township Road 293.