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I was honored to be asked to the judge Plein Air Paint Out in Canton, Missouri.   It was a big responsibility.  Having judged other shows, I decided to make up score sheets.  I use a scale from 1 - 5 with 5 being the best to rate 5 different factors in each painting.

 I first thing I use as a gauge is what I call the WOW factor.  Does it immediately give you a feeling ? When I walk up to a painting and it makes me say WOW it gets a high mark.

The second art element I consider in Plein Air painting is composition.  Being a Plein Air Painter, I know how hard composition is when you are out in the vast area with all this wonderful nature everywhere.  You start out painting but then you see this other beautiful tree next to your scene and you want to add that also.  Or the light changes and make wonderful patterns on a tree you had painted at the edge of the painting which you don't want to highlight.

Next I check to see if the scene has a since of "being".  Does the painting portray a sense of space in time? Or is it just a design not fine art? 

Another art element I look for is texture.  Texture makes things come forward.  Even watercolor can have texture.  Is the texture in the right place? or is it in the background? or all over?

The last factor I judge is- does the artist know how to handle their medium?  Each medium has it's good characteristics and it's bad.  Did the artist use the medium to the best use of that medium?

I gave all the paintings a quick look first then went back to use the score card on each one- circling the number I thought coincided with each of the factors.  Then I added up the cards.  There were a few high numbers but I wanted to make sure my system worked so I went back and looked at all of them again to make sure I was fair.  All these artists were out in 45-50 degree weather with winds gusting up to 50 mph.  Most of them painted two paintings so they were out there all day.  They poured their hearts into the paintings competing for that $500 first prize.  

After I made my decisions I felt the pressure was off.  I announced the Honorable Mentions first and worked my way up to the 1st place. 

The artists were all very nice and supportive of each other.  The other good news was that more than half of the paintings sold!!  It is so good to see the community still appreciate original art and the effort these artists put into their work.