Roy Steele said he’d painted the rural scene before — of the house by a pond in the Leitersburg area about five miles from his home.
He entered the latest version of the scene, preferring its “better reflection of light,” in the 82nd annual Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and came away with best-in-show honors. Steele also picked up the Washington County Arts Council Award for the acrylic painting, the second year in a row he earned the council award for the annual juried exhibit.
“Ah, I was shocked … surprised. … But I was happy about i,” said Steele, 52.
The Hagerstown resident said he considered the work “a peaceful picture.”
Steele attended the exhibit’s opening reception and awards show Sunday afternoon with his parents, Byron and Ann Steele.
“I’m happy. I’m thrilled,” Ann Steele said of her son’s honors.
Byron Steele said this year’s show was “strong.”
Dow Benedict, dean of Shepherd University’s School of Arts and Humanities, served as the show’s juror.
He selected 67 pieces out of 219 entries for the show, said Rebecca Massie Lane, director of the museum in Hagerstown’s City Park.
Selecting which pieces make it into a show is always difficult, particularly with ones like this where the submissions are eclectic and there’s no theme, said Benedict, who has entered works in the show in previous years.
Benedict said “the quality of the work is just phenomenal. … This region is blessed with a lot of really good artists, so you see some great work.”
The exhibit will be displayed in the museum’s Groh Gallery through Jan. 11.
The exhibition is sponsored by Bob and Mary Helen Strauch, and Hugh and Marty Talton.
Among the other winners was Jason York, who was awarded the Maryland Metals Award for a pendant in which he used forged argentium silver and 14-carat gold, according to the exhibit brochure.
York, 32, recently moved to Hedgesville, W.Va., from Tennessee, where he was involved with the Appalachian Center for Craft.
A blacksmith by trade, York said he is working for Anvil Works, but his background is primarily in jewelry.
He created the pendant with “100 percent traditional blacksmithing techniques,” York said. “Whereas most jewelry you’d see like this would be cast and then polished. Everything you see here is done exclusively with a hammer. So there’s no casting, no polishing, no filing, no sanding, no drilling. Basically, all the stuff that’s not fun in making jewelry.”
York said he also made the slitting and drifting tools he used to make the pendant.
Other awardees were Brad Clever of Chambersburg, Pa., who earned the Valley Art Association Award for an oil on canvas titled “The Puppet Master”; and Mary Beth Akre of Parkton, Md., who won the Hagerstown Area Religious Council Award for Outstanding Spiritual Entry for her oil on linen painting called “One Lane Bridge.”
Lee Weaver, of Sharpsburg, received the Clyde H. Roberts Award, which he also won last year, for best watercolor landscape.