Grey Cube Gallery proudly presents the second Painting & Photography show for the month of December 2022. The show encompassed a range of artistic styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, graphite, photography, digital). Each submission has been judged based on the following elements of artistic expression: orginality and quality of art, overall design, creativity, interpretation of the theme, demonstration of artistic ability and usage of medium. Out of all entries, 62 artworks were shortlisted for inclusion in the show. The competition attracted entries from many countries across the world: USA, Canada, Italy, Greece, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Armenia, Isreal, Japan and India. Enjoy the show and thank you for expressing an interest in our competition.

Cher Pruys, ASAA SCA, IGOR, AAPL, CSAA, AMS, LMS, OSA, MAA, CFA, NOAPS, PSOA, AWA.. "To take my inner visions with my hands and create a work of art for you the viewer .... That is the ultimate in self expression."

I am a practicing oil painter from Wisconsin who gets my inspiration and subject matter from my everyday life. When in the studio, I gravitate towards creating representational works that center around the human form. My goal for these works is for the viewer to recognize a human experience within the mundane. For me, the act of mapping out a composition and building up form is like a puzzle that I'm trying to solve. What I tend to focus on the most is a person's face. It's what we all like to record and capture the most. Faces are informative of mood, mental state and much more. When seeking out moments to depict, I also pay close attention to color dynamics and chiaroscuro to add more drama to the mundane.

Although I work in most of the two-dimensional mediums, I have used acrylic on canvas for my series of paintings titled "Car Show" I focus on the distorted reflections caused by the curve of the surface which create an abstract quality to the images. As I did the drawings, I discovered all kinds of little surprises in the reflections that I didn’t notice at first glance. I hope the viewer is drawn in to take a closer look at all the smaller elements and my discoveries as I created these. The cars are simply a vehicle for what is happening on their surface.

I got a camera and some crayons as a kid, journeyed along a path in life - far from what I'd expected, moved from youth to middle age, did some work, had some fun, got high, got low, and just continue doing it - never tiring of the next visual surprise. - Life is still a mystery, after all. Karen Safer is a photographic digital artist, writer and poet with a musical bent. As a native Angelino, she was given a camera and crayons at 3 and exposed to dominant California motifs: light, palm trees, the ocean, music and vernacular architecture that helped define and influence her left-handed aesthetic. Fortunate to begin a life of travel as a pre-teen, it shaped her love of the exotic paired with an eye for the formal, accidental and unusual and the “beautiful” that jiggled the lens/frame of her eye; subsequently she has traveled and photographed in over 230 countries (and territories). She received a master’s degree in art while studying at CSULB and UCLA. Her career includes design and architecture firms; she is principle of ArtFocus International. Initially she began painting and printmaking alongside the study of art and architectural history before wholly embracing photography with influences from Mesopotamia to Vermeer/Matisse to Atget to Cindy Sherman. She has been n 8 solo shows is in numerous juried and group national and international exhibits, private collections, has received awards and is a member of several art organizations. She is a self-described “romantic soul” with intellectual cravings, currently residing in Playa del Rey, CA. A photographer has the whole world – big or small – to capture.