Chris Wiley Wins the Bayou Teche Category in the Plein Air Art Competition!

Plein Art Bayou Winner

March 15, 2019, New Iberia, LA – The TECHE Project awarded the first-place prize of $1,000 to a beckoning painting of the Bayou Teche created by Chis Willey in this week’s Shadows-on-the-Teche Plein Air Competition. Her painting features the Teche with natural and beautiful lighting and color affects. The award was presented at the standing-room-only Friday evening Awards Ceremony and Fine Art Sale held at the Shadows Visitor Center.

The fifth annual Shadows-on-the-Teche Plein Air Competition included nearly 30 artists selected among a record number of 73 applicants from 19 states. During the Plein Art week, artists paint on-site landscape and townscape scenes from around Iberia and surrounding parishes.

Jerome Weber, lead organizer for the week-long event, is clearly pleased, “Painting sales and awards for the artists during this event have totaled nearly $30,000. More importantly, the quality of the art and the enthusiasm of the artist for the richness of our region is growing each year. The artists genuinely want to return next year.”

The winning artist for the scene from the Bayou Teche, Chris (Christina) Willey, has an MFA in Illustration from Syracuse University and a BFA in Drawing/Painting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a full-time painter and Professor Emeritus of Art from the University of Central Missouri, where she taught for 22 years. Willey has had numerous solo shows and conducted workshops in United States, France, and the Netherlands.

She has acquired signature status in the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society, MidAmerica Pastel Society, and the International Society of Acrylic Painters. She has won over 60 awards in many international, national and regional juried shows, including several Best of Show and Gold. She has been juried into Plein Air events around the country including Telluride, CO; Rockport, TX; and Mountain, Maryland. Her art is held in several private and corporate collections in the U.S., Netherlands, and France.

Visit her website at www.chriswilley.com.

The first-time $1,000 prize for the best painting of the Bayou Teche is presented by The TECHE Project with generous contributions by Margaret and Jeff Simon along with Mary Ubiñas-Dahlquist and David Dahlquist. The jurors for this painting category—Conni Castille, Paul Schexnayder, and David Dahlquist–reviewed over 20 paintings of the Teche in selecting the original work created by Chris Willey for first place.