Sowders wins 2nd International Artist award

FOSTORIA — Rural Fostoria artist Jennifer Sowders has won International Artist magazine's annual Landscape Challenge for a second consecutive year with her acrylic-on-panel painting "Hocking Hills."Her victory earned her a four-page feature in the October/November edition of the magazine, which is issue No. 165. It can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/landscapes-art.Sowders won last year's title with "Brecksville Ridge," an acrylic-on-canvas work that depicts a scene from Cuyahoga Valley National Park."The other winning artists in the (international Artist) landscape competition have many accolades, followers and gallery representation (impeccable technique to boot!), but to be chose 2 years in a row shows that maybe I'm doing something a bit different or new," Sowders wrote in an email. "When I'm painting ... up close it really looks like a message, and yet people often say my acrylic paintings look so realistic from a distance. Somehow I've managed to tap into some serious optical mixing on the viewer's part. "I'd like to note this comment they made in the article: 'While her paintings fall into the realm of realism, they exude a sense of free-flowing abstraction as well.'"So ... for this comment ... it really shows that they scrutinized my work up close. What I often see and describe as "my mess" is really that unintentional abstraction coming through."Two more of her landscape scenes were featured in Artists magazine's publication "The Best of Acrylic: 12th Annual," with one coming from the Brandywine Falls are and another from Hancock County's Riverbend Park."I feel I'm artistically putting Ohio's beautiful landscapes on the map," Sowders wrote in her email. "Most of them are fall scenes ... I just love this time of year and the golden and diffused quality of the light ... but I have been branching out into other times of the year and outside of Ohio as well. I'm really just looking for beautiful light and color in dense flora scenes.""Hocking Hills" currently is at the Richmond (Indiana) Art Museum for its 127th annual Exhibition by Indiana and Ohio Artists. She will have other pieces at Visit Findlay's Artwalk from 5 to 9 p.m., Nov. 7, as part of the Findlay Art League's Fall Show at 117 W. Crawford St. Dates for the show are Nov. 4 through 11.Sowders opens her MONgallery and Art Studio (MON standing for Middle of Nowhere), 1034 Township Road 293 in Hancock County, to visitors from 9 a.m., to 6 p.m., on Mondays.