"Acrylic 70th Anniversary Competition Winners"

1st Place Winner, Acrylics. "I choose my subjects based on their features and expressions, but I also choose on a more intuitive level," says Louisiana artist Amy Guidry...

"I choose my subjects based on their features and expressions, but I also choose on a more intuitive level," says Louisiana artist Amy Guidry. "Psychologically speaking, the people I choose to paint resonate with me." Guidry says she never does preliminary sketches or paintings because she already has the image worked out in her head. After making a sketch of her composition on canvas primed with gesso, she paints a rough first layer. When that is dry, she lays in the details. "I work with the eyes first because they are my favorite part, and they reveal so much, especially because of their reflective quality," she says.

Guidry earned a bachelor's degree in visual arts from Loyola University of New Orleans, where she was awarded the Loyola University Art Scholarship.Recently her work won second place in the Smithtown Township Arts Council 31st Juried Fine Arts Exhibition and appeared in the Winners' Showcase Exhibition. It was also featured in the juried September competition at the Alexandria Museum of Art, in Louisiana. This past fall, Guidry participated in an all-female artist invitational show titled "10 Women/10 Perspectives in Texas" at the Arts Alliance Center, in Clear Lake, Texas. She is represented by Jenkins Connelly Gallery, in New Orleans.