2020 Naomi Rabb Winston 2-D Visual Art Scholarship Recipients

2020 Recipients

Ages 20-22

Justas Albertas Varpukanskis, 23, Metropolitan Chicago Chapter, $2,000 to apply to cost of a four-year residency program with plans to teach and paint professionally

Kariny Padillo Collado, 21, Greater New York Chapter, $1,000 to apply to tuition for summer workshops/classes at museum programs

Megan Amber McKenzie, 22, Pittsburgh Chapter, $1000 to study in dual studio museum art classes toward creating a new body of work

Leah Marie Seaman, 21, Ohio River Valley Chapter, $1,000 to tuition for graduate summer workshops at graduate school in Europe

Liz Zang, 21, Virginia/North Carolina Chapter, $1,000 to apply to tuition for a graduate program at Penland School with a concentration on Mokuhanga (Japanese wood block printing)

Ages 16-19

Quinn Dowd, 17, Pittsburgh Chapter, $2,000 to apply to tuition at the Tyler School of Art with a concentration in Fine Arts/painting

Katherine Anastasia Chudars, 19, Washington DC Chapter, $1,000 to apply to tuition for a degree in the arts with plans to become a professional artist

Tuesday Lili Hadden, 19, Kentucky Chapter, $1,000 to apply to college tuition to study studio arts/illustration/painting

Kelly Rae Mann, 19, Virginia/North Carolina Chapter, $1,000 to apply to tuition – major in art foundations/double major in art communications with plans to work in animation/storyboard artist

Fiona Pan, 18, New Jersey Chapter, $1,000 to apply to tuition to study illustration/film studies

Justas Varpukanskis, 2020 NSAL Scholarship Winner

Justas Varpucanskis was born in Chicago, Illinois, 1997. He attended the Florence Academy of Art, graduating from the Advanced Painting program. Justas was awarded the prestigious Fourth Year Prize where he is currently pursuing further study and personal research in the materials, philosophy, and methodology of the Florentine High Renaissance masters. His work mainly focuses on portraiture, trying to see the contemporary world through the contemplative and neoplatonic lens of late medieval Europe. He views this contemplative quality as an antidote to the clutter and busyness of modern life. On a technical level he tries to develop a working method which mirrors what was done in the workshop system. This includes everything from toning ones paper, to preparing panels, to grinding and mulling oil paint. Alongside portraiture Justas wishes to develop more complex and narrative figurative work that would deal with timeless and classical themes.

2020 Judges 

Ron Kalla is a retired educator with thirty-five years of teaching experience from 1964 to 2009. Ron has taught all levels from kindergarten to college, covering painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics, and 3-D design classes and workshops.  He has retired from his last position with the Pittsburgh Public Schools at CAPA, The Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Kalla

Received a BA in Art from Allegheny College, a MED in Art Education from the University of Pittsburgh, and post-graduate study at Ball State and Stanford Universities. His studio production consists primarily of painting and drawing.

Patricia Schmidt combines art and teaching. She has introduced drawing and painting into instructions in both the Humanities and Art History courses at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She has been an educator for the past thirty years.

Patricia attended both Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh. Today her passion is focused on photography with the elements of art infused in her works of art in a variety of media.

Polly Seip is a contemporary maritime and plein air artist who was encouraged, at a young age, by renowned maritime artist, John Stobart.  She is a graduate of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts with a BFA in Painting. She is also a member of the American Society of Marine Artists, and the Connecticut Society of Plein-air Painters. Her work has been exhibited in regional galleries, and she has work in the Stacey Scholarship permanent collection. Polly’s work is in private collections across the United States, (including the far reaches of Alaska), and she has work in Europe and Africa. She also conducts artist interviews through her studio blog every month. She created the ‘Artist on Artist’ interviews on her blog as a matter of interest and to help promote other artists and their work.  Polly shared: “I have always had an affinity for light, water, nature and atmospheric perspective, and the genre of plein air painting has enabled me to combine this with an artistic direction that is both challenging and satisfying.”