Outstanding Artists Judge the Grafton Fine Arts & Music Festival

Four dedicated, award-winning artists will make up the panel of judges at this year’s Grafton Fine Arts & Music Festival, March 27 – 29 at the Grafton Municipal Center. Eweight categories of art for adults will be judged: oil and acrylic painting, watercolor painting, traditional photography, digitally enhanced photography, sculpture, mixed media and assemblage, fiber art and graphic art.  In addition, there are two age categories for youth; 11 and under and 12 through high school.

Sue Swinand is one of the accomplished artists who will judge this year’s Festival.  A visual artist who resides in the Boston area, Swinand has taught painting at Clark University, the Worcester Art Museum and Wellesley College Greenhouses.  She received her BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and was awarded their European Traveling Fellowship. In addition, Swinand has exhibited widely on the East coast and has had several prominent museum shows.  A signature member of the American Watercolor Society, Swinand has won awards at four of their annual shows.

Jennifer Swan, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and recipient of the Francis A. Kinnicut Award, is another Festival judge.  Her multiple artistic talents include drawing, watercolor, acrylic and oil painting, photography, ceramics, paper-making, bookmaking, lost-wax bronze casting, mosaics and murals.  “Nature has always been a great source of inspiration for my artwork,” states Swan. “As I paint en plein air, it helps bring me into the present moment giving me the focus and inspiration to have an in depth study of the natural world.  As the years pass, I realize that being an artist is more than creating work, it is a way of looking at things.” 

Robert R. Wilson, a plein air watercolor landscape painter who resides in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, also joins this year’s Festival as a judge.  During the past ten years of his profession as an art educator, Wilson has received a Fulbright Teacher’s Award and the 2008 Massachusetts Initiative for International Studies, AIG World Source and Teacher of the Year Award for Excellence in International Education.  An active member of the Shrewsbury Art Guild, Wilson believes “emotion is the seed in creating art; the work is the flower.”

David Lucht is the final judge at this year’s Grafton Fine Arts & Music Festival. A retired Worcester Polytechnic Institute engineering professor, Lucht started art “later in life.”  Developing his artistic skills through a series of courses at the Worcester Art Museum, over the past ten years his work has appeared in several community exhibitions.  Lucht has worked in a range of mediums from oil and watercolor to pastels, charcoal and pen and ink; his current focus is on portraiture.  A resident of Shrewsbury, Lucht is a member of the Artist Guild of Shrewsbury and the Princeton Arts Society. He also serves on the Worcester Art Museum Board of Trustees. An advocate for local artists and arts organizations, Lucht asserts, “There’s a little art in everyone.”

The Grafton Fine Arts & Music Festival is very proud to have these four accomplished artists participate as judges at the fourth annual Festival from March 27 – 29.  The Festival is supported in part by a grant from the Grafton Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.