The Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit was recently held at the Depot and Cultural Center featuring artwork from across the state.

Artists brought 244 pieces to be considered for judging. Of those, 130 paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, multimedia, and fiber arts were selected for the exhibit. The artist traveling the furthest to participate was from Alvin, Texas. Over $6,000 was awarded to artists during the VIP reception and awards ceremony. 29 pieces of artwork were purchased over the two week period, totaling over $17,000.00 in art sold.

During the exhibit, two contests were held. The digital photo shootout, which challenged participating photographers to walk the downtown area and find a photo fitting the theme of “Something Blue, Something Purple” to photograph. Roger Levesque served as judge.

Steve Lara won the photo shoot out. His photo ” Purple Yam” is pictured below.

The paint off was sponsored by the Arts Council of Brownwood. It was held on Saturday, February 17th and had 13 artists that spent 6 hours creating artwork from a blank canvas/paper live at the Depot for viewers to watch and bid on in a silent auction. An additional 8 pieces of art were sold. Professor of Art Tim Harding from Tarleton University judged.

$500 First Place was awarded to Cesar Rivera

$250 Second Place awarded to Denise Sommer

The planning committee would like to thank the many volunteers, demonstrators and artists who made the exhibit a success, offering the community a very diverse art experience.

Also, the committee would like to thank our sponsors for making the show possible: Visit Brownwood and The City of Brownwood, Ann Jones Real Estate, TexasBank, KOXE 101.3FM, BrownwoodNews.com, Hey June, Be Okay Photography, Dr. Stephen Kelly, Citizens National Bank, 10 Mile Productions, The Good Booth, Kohler, The Arts Council of Brownwood, Morgan’s on Mayes, Grazed and Confused Mr. Charles Touw, and Home2Suites of Brownwood. Also, our award sponsors including: Jane Ellen Jamar, Calvin and Suzanne Fryar, ASAP Printing, Ross and Nesa Setzler, Robert and Sally Porter, Jeff and Michael Jansen, Hutson Creative, Charles and KayBeth Stavley, Empire Iron Works, and Be Okay Photography.

Although the exhibit has ended, the planning committee would like to invite artists to start planning their next entries for the 2025 Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit. For details, please visit StarsOfTexasJuriedArtExhibit.com and follow us on social media at: @starsoftexasjuriedartexhibit on Instagram and Facebook.