Hannah Lovell has picked up another award for her artwork. The Wauneta-Palisade senior was named Judges Choice in the Painting division of the McCook Community College High School Paint-In.
    WP art teacher Danny Schluckebier said painting is what Lovell likes best.
    “She has come a long way with giving her painting depth with shading and value,” he said. “She definitely understands color and composition and this work shows that.”
    Chase County artist Gabbi Krutsinger was named “Best of Show” winner for the McCook Community College 2020 Paint-In Exhibition. Her oil painting “Floral” was selected among more than 300 entries in this year’s contest.
    Since the campus was closed because of nation-wide health concerns over Covid-19, this year’s exhibition was done virtually on Facebook instead of the Wrightstone Fine Arts Gallery on campus.
    “This has been a difficult time for everyone and I want to congratulate all the medal winners and especially want to thank all of the talented young artists who contributed in our virtual gallery – you and your teachers have helped bring us all a beautiful distraction,” said MCC Art Instructor and Wrightstone Gallery Director Rick Johnson.
    He said with all of this year’s directed health measures it was important to figure out a way to continue the annual Paint-In in some way. For the past 40 years the high school paint-in exhibition, as well as the in-person team paint-in competition, has promoted fine arts in area high schools, has helped artists and teachers network and has served as an important recruiting tool to find talented artists to attend MCC.
    Johnson judged those pieces — all submitted digitally — on the merits of technical ability, compositional arrangement, creativity/originality, execution, effort-craftsmanship, and presentation in seven categories including: Painting, drawing, prints, mixed media, three dimensional, pottery and digital/photography.

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