PaintAmerica, a national, non-profit organization to support artists and promote the visual arts, has announced that Deborah Chapin’s “Indian Summer” is the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 PaintAmerica Top100 Art Competition. Chapin’s work, a 16” x 34” oil painting, depicts the Chesapeake wetlands and grasses in late summer. Chapin is a Chesapeake area resident, living in Seabrook, Maryland.

Topeka, KS -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/04/2006 --PaintAmerica, a national, non-profit organization to support artists and promote the visual arts, has announced that Deborah Chapin’s “Indian Summer” is the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 PaintAmerica Top100 Art Competition. Chapin’s work, a 16” x 34” oil painting, depicts the Chesapeake wetlands and grasses in late summer. Chapin is a Chesapeake area resident, living in Seabrook, Maryland.

Chapin’s painting was chosen from hundreds of entries submitted nationwide, by a jury panel of three nationally recognized artists. As Grand Prize Winner, she is the recipient of PaintAmerica’s $5,000 Grand Prize Purchase Award. “This is part of my series of wetlands and grasses that were painted on the Chesapeake Bay,” Chapin said. “Indian Summer is a plein air painting of the tall Miscanthus Grasses, Lobbloly pines and other vegetation common to the area. I’ve lived in the West, Midwest and the Eastern seaboard, and have found that each area has a remarkable beauty. I think it’s a terrific idea that PaintAmerica has a developed an art competition that represents the beauty of all 50 states.”

PaintAmerica is one of the nation’s leading art competitions in cash prizes and purchase awards. PaintAmerica was established to support and promote the arts, with a goal of providing scholarship opportunities for young artists, as well as providing a premiere, national venue for local, regional and national artists to showcase their talent. “The Top100 Competition format not only rewards artists with great potential for sales of their work, it also encourages them with recognition and national awareness through gallery exhibits,” stated Rod Seel, Executive Director of PaintAmerica. “Showcasing the beauty and qualities of every state of America as seen through the eyes of its artists is another great benefit of the program.”

Juror’s Choice Cash Award winners were: Frank LaLumia, for his painting, “World Cup Fever”; Jon Gerik, for his painting, “Mission San Xavier Del Bac”; and Eva Van Rijn, for her painting, “Gunnison in Low Light.” The Director’s Choice Cash Award went to Murrell Butler for his painting “Tranquil Bayou”; and an Award of Distinction was presented to Sherrie Mayotte for her pastel painting “Distant Thunder.”

The unique format of the PaintAmerica competition asks artists to create artworks that depict a particular state of their choosing. Art can be landscape, cityscape, nature, wildlife, or anything topical to that state. The artist enters their paintings at the state level. Then, top winners from each state are chosen by a national jury panel to progress to the National Top100. The winning paintings from the competition are available for purchase, and can be viewed at www.PaintAmerica.org Future competition information and other programs of PaintAmerica are also available at this site.