Art Winner Inspired by Bear River Artist

Fellow artist inspired winner
Ocala artist takes top prize at Leesburg art festival

Artist Jeff Riggan of Eustis works on a painting. With perfect weather , thousands strolled down Main Street in Leesburg Sunday during the 33rd annual Leesburg Fine Arts Festival. The 2-day festival attracted more than 100 artists. (TOM BENITEZ, ORLANDO SENTINEL / March 6, 2010)

LEESBURG – Ocala painter John "Jack" Thursby won top honors at the 33rd Annual Leesburg Fine Art Festival with his acrylic painting of another artist. The prize was worth $2,000.

"Nature Lover, Bear River" shows a man dressed in a washed-soft shirt, sitting in a wooden chair with a drawing of an owl pinned to a shelf above him. Thursby met the artist when he visited Bear River, Nova Scotia.

"He reached into this birdbath filled with water and rocks and began caressing one," Thursby said. "So I had to paint him that way. The owl is a tribute to Andrew Wyeth, who did a sketch of an owl."

Thursby, a retired professor of art at the Central Florida Community College in Ocala, selects intriguing people for his models and makes dramatic use of light and shadow,

A frequent prize-winner on the outdoor art circuit, he has won best-of-show at the Apopka Art and Foliage Festival for the last five years. His next show will be the Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival, March 19 to 21.

Painter Carol Elder Napoli of New Smryna Beach took home the award of excellence, worth $1000.

Judges' choice award in three-dimensional art went to Marilyn Vaillancourt of Weeki Wachee in jewelry. The two-dimension award was given to Linying Wang of Toronto in fine crafts. These awards carried $750 prizes.

Mount Dora jeweler Deborah Barnes won the $500 award of distinction.

Awards of merit, worth $250, were awarded to painter Lynn Ferris of Beverly Hills, digital photographer Sheila Crawford of Palm Coast, fine-crafts artist Scott Anderson of Crystal River and to ceramics artist Mina Heuslein of Port Orange.

Mixed-media artist Janice Cline of Reisterstown. Md, ceramics artist Richard Kausalik of Maumelle, Ark., and sculptor Jack Hill of Beverly Hills won awards of merit.

Larry Harrington of DeLand, who was entered in the drawing, graphics and printmaking category, won an award of merit as did Robert Clibbon of New Smyrna Beach, who was entered in photography and digital art and painter Jinsheng Song of Fort McCoy.