Susan Blackwood, Howard Friedland and Kim Casebeer named 2009 Paint the Parks Jurors

PaintAmerica Association has announced the jurors for the 2009 Paint the Parks100 international art competition. They are Susan Blackwood, Howard Friedland and Kim Casebeer.

Since 1975, Susan Blackwood has taught watercolors in colleges and workshops around the country, overseas in Pakistan, the Bahamas, Great Britain, France and Italy. Susan has lead painting holidays to Europe with her husband, oil painter Howard Friedland. They both have been featured in the Master Painters of the World section of the International Artist Magazine. In 2003 Susan switched to oil painting. She now paints almost exclusively in oils. Her work has been seen in Southwest Art Magazine, U.S. Art Magazine, and Wildlife Art News. A partial list of her publishers include the National Audubon Society, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Alliance, the Big Brothers Association, National Riflemen's association, North Light Publishers-(Best of Flower Painting by Katherine Kipp) and Medici Society Ltd. of London, England. Her originals have been exhibited in galleries in England and all over the U.S. in National Shows and galleries. The recipient of numerous awards, currently her paintings are in 5 galleries in the U.S., in addition to both museum and corporate collections.

Howard Friedland was born in Bronx New York. He has lived in Miami Florida, Albuquerque and Taos, New Mexico and now resides in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, artist Susan Blackwood. He studied fine art and commercial art at New York's High School of Music and Art. He went to college at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science in the department of Art and Architecture in New York's Greenwich Village. Howard has studied painting with Ned Jacob, Michael J. Lynch, Mark Daley, Laura Robb, William Schultz, Robert Kuester, Charles Reed ,Carolyn Anderson, Mitch Billis, Scott Christensen and most recently with Matt Smith. Oil Painters of America inducted Howard as a Signature Member into their organization in 2003. He was featured in the July 1989 issue of American Artist Magazine. He was featured in the Master Painters of the World section of the International Artists Magazine. His work has been selected to be shown in his own exhibition room #120 at the C. M. Russell Auction and Exhibition, held in Great Falls, Montana. He has painted, taught and exhibited extensively in New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Florida, Mexico, France, Italy, England, Spain and Portugal. His work has won numerous awards, and he has been featured in exhibits far too numerous to list. His work is sought after in many private and corporate collections.

Kim Casebeer's work has been featured in Southwest Art, American Artist, American Art Collector and The Pastel Journal, and has been published in a book titled Living the Artist’s Life. She is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and the American Women Artists, and has also exhibited with the Oil Painters of America and the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters. She has received awards through each of these organizations, as well as the Salon International Show, the American Academy of Women Artists, Scottsdale Artists School Best and Brightest, the Pastel Journal’s Pastel 100 Competition and The Artist’s Magazine Competition. Kim has participated in museum shows such as the C.M. Russell Masters in Miniature Show and the American Art in Miniature Show at the Gilcrease Museum. Her work was included in “Homage to the Flint Hills,” a 3 year traveling exhibit ending with a show in the Senate offices in Washington D.C. She is represented by Galleries West Fine Art in Jackson, Wyoming; Rive Gauche Art Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona; Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri; Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas; and Silver Heron Gallery in Depoe Bay, Oregon.

PaintAmerica is pleased to have such a stellar juror panel for the 2009 Paint the Parks show!