The OPA 2013 National Exhibition was an exciting event with a brilliant display of skill and oil painting mastery.
We’d like to introduce you to a few of our National Exhibition Winners. Meet Tom L. Nachreiner, winner of the Dorothy Driehaus Mellin Fellowship for Midwestern Artists; Shizhong Yan OPAM, winner of the Gold Medal Award for the Master Signature Division; and Johanna Harmon OPA, the Gold Medal Award winner in the OPA Associate/Signature division…
Tom L. Nachreiner
The Dorothy Driehaus Mellin Fellowship for Midwestern Artists
“I want to say just enough with paint to evoke the imagination.”
Tom paints for the love of dynamic composition, the celebration of color, and the tactile feel of applying juicy, wet paint to the canvas, at the same time having fun, enjoying the sounds and feelings of being outdoors, talking to others, doing what he loves, and trying to learn as much as he can before the end of each day.”
Tom is represented by Edgewood Orchard Galleries in Fish Creek WI, at Katie Gingrass Gallery in Milwaukee WI, and online at www.tomnachreiner.com
Shizhong Yan OPAM
Master Division: Gold Medal Award
In 1998, Shizhong and his family moved to the United States where he began a new chapter of his life as well as artistic career. Shizhong now resides in Illinois. He has four collections of artworks published and was published by countless magazines and newspapers. Shizhong has had many solo and group exhibitions in China, United States, Japan, France, Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Hong Kong. He has received many awards and his paintings are collected and loved by collectors all over the world. www.szyan.net
Johanna Harmon OPA
Associate/Signature Division: Gold Medal Award
Johanna Harmon OPA was born in 1968 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but spent most of her childhood in Tempe, Arizona. Johanna began designing and recording visual observations at the age of seven, but it wasn’t until almost two decades later that she was introduced to the traditional language of art at the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Fechin Art Institute in Taos, NM, and the Art Students League of Denver in Denver, Colorado. There, she studied painting alongside prominent figure artists with varied artistic philosophies and approaches such as Carolyn Anderson, John Asaro, Scott Burdick, Mark Daily, Daniel Gerhartz, Quang Ho, and C.W. Mundy.
Her work has been exhibited with the Art Renewal Center, The Artist’s Magazine, California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition, Oil Painters of America (OPA), Portrait Society of America, and Scottsdale Artists’ School. She has received numerous prestigious awards throughout the years. Most recently she was honored with the OPA Signature Member designation, and acceptance into the 2013 Oil Painters of America’s 22nd National Juried Exhibition— her eighth National Juried Exhibition— where she received her second Gold Medal Award, becoming the first artist to receive two OPA National Exhibition Gold Medal Awards in the organization’s history. Her first Gold Medal was awarded in 2007.
Over the past decade, her work has been presented in numerous solo, group and juried exhibitions, and is collected internationally. Her work has been published inSouthwest Art, Artbook of the New West, and Focus Santa Fe.
Harmon has taught workshops at North River Arts Society in Marshfield Hills, MA, and the Coppini Academy of Art in San Antonio, TX. Currently, she teaches at The Art Student’s League of Denver. Her emphasis is the clarification of visual intention, while nurturing the overall painted subject. This pivotal understanding defines her work today. She credits Cecilia Beaux, Nicolai Fechin, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla and Anders Zorn as inspiration.
Johanna now resides in beautiful Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with her husband, Steven, of 16 years. www.johannaharmon.com
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