The Seventeenth Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit held its first event on Saturday, January 31st with the third annual Digital Photo Shootout.  The winning entry in this year’s contest was taken by Thom Nairns of Zephyr, Texas.

The shootout was held at the Adams Street Community Center from noon until 3 pm. Despite the inclement weather, nineteen photographers from Desoto, Granbury, Baird, Mullin, Santa Anna, Zephyr, Early, and Brownwood participated in this year’s event. They were competing for Best of the Digital Photo Shootout Award of $250.00.

Just prior to the noon start of the event, they were given specific guidelines for the preparation of a single image to be taken and prepared for judging no later than 3 pm. This year the final image had to have a circle or oval object somewhere in the image as the main criteria. Because of the inclement weather, they were given access to two indoor locations, The Lehnis Train Museum and the Brown County Historical Museum.  Also, if entrants wanted to shoot outdoors in the rain, they had the option of shooting anywhere in the Downtown area of Brownwood.  Most participants chose to shoot outdoors.

The juror was Larry Fink, professor of art, at Hardin Simmons in Abilene, Texas. After selecting the winning entry, he spoke briefly about his selection process and what he felt and liked about several of the images along with the winning image. He also entertained questions from the group.

The exhibit itself will open to the public February 8th through 20th at the Depot Civic and Cultural Center in Brownwood.

The Salon des Refusés will open once again to artists to display their works that do not make the 2015 Stars of Texas Exhibit and will be held at the Art Center which is located at 215 Fisk Avenue.  The Salon des Refusés will also be open from February 8th through 20th.