…of its 2008 Portfolio Competition and is Now Taking Reservations for the Resulting Giclée Prints

Madison, Wis.- Through a public online vote that pitted emerging artists against more established artists with many museum shows to their credit, “Lone Boat,” a digital photograph by Bonnie McCann of Kaneohe, Hawaii, was chosen as The Artful Home 2008 Portfolio Competition’s Grand Prize winner. McCann’s winning image is being made into a signed, numbered edition of giclée prints and will be featured for sale in the Fall 2008 Artful Home® catalog. “Berkshire Nightscape,” an oil painting by Scott Kahn, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Old Lyme, Conn., and “Comfort Me With Bluejays,” an acrylic painting on birch panels by Kathrine Lovell, of Barrington, R.I., were chosen as Honorable Mention winners. They will also be made into signed and numbered giclée editions and offered for sale by The Artful Home through its artfulhome.com Web site.

The three winning images were the top vote-getters among 10 finalists selected by an expert jury for the online vote in April and May. The jury, led by David A. Ross (president of the Albion New York gallery, and formerly chairman of the Artist Pension Trust Curatorial Committee, and director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston), chose the finalists in March from more than 550 images entered by artists from throughout the United States and Canada. All finalists were chosen solely on the merit of their images for the public online vote.

“It was a pleasure to see such a rich and broad pool of entries for this year’s competition, and I was pleased to see that the popular vote went to a picture that I thought was serene and beautiful. I am sure it will be well-received by The Artful Home’s public,” juror David A. Ross said.

The creator of that image, Bonnie McCann, took her first photography class in 1985 and has been taking photos ever since. She home schools her three children when she’s not pursuing her photography. Since going digital in 2005 she has been capturing attention and awards in Hawaii and the online world. “I made a resolution last year to put my work ‘out there’ more,” she said. “This competition came at a perfect time.”

Honorable Mention winner Scott Kahn is a full-time painter who has twice received grants from the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation to support his work. One of his paintings is currently on display in the American Embassy in Moscow, and his artwork can be found in numerous corporate collections as well. “I only paint on average 12 paintings a year,” he said. “The cost of an original artwork is often prohibitive for most people, whereas a print is more affordable. The Artful Home Portfolio Competition provides a way to reach a wider audience.”

Honorable Mention winner Kathrine Lovell currently supports herself as an artist, but her past professions include chef; union organizer; bartender; scenic artist for theater, film and television; and decorative painter. She taught decorative painting and color theory in the Continuing Education Program at the Rhode Island School of Design for 10 years and continues to teach painting through the Rhode Island Watercolor Society as well as from her studio. She said she entered her images in The Artful Home Portfolio Competition because she “would be honored to be among the great works” presented by The Artful Home.

Only 200 giclée prints will be made of each of the winning images. The Artful Home is taking reservations for the giclées at http://portfoliocompetition.artfulhome.com through July 30 at a special 20 percent pre-publication discount. The giclées will be available in August.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the winning prints will be donated to Splashes of Hope of Huntington, N.Y., a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of children and other patients by painting murals in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

The Guild, Inc.®, doing business as The Artful Home®, is the leading online retailer of original art and fine craft items shipped direct to customers from the studios of top North American artists. The Artful Home® catalog presents collections carefully selected from more than 12,000 items available through the artfulhome.com website. Since 1985, The Guild has also published annual sourcebooks helping design professionals locate commissionable artists for special projects.

For more information, go to www.artfulhome.com, or contact Julie Kolka, Manager of Public Relations and Partnerships, at (608) 227-4105 or publicrelations@guild.com.

© 2008 The Guild, Inc.