Juror of selection Carol Carter is a longtime resident of St. Louis, Missouri, where she earned a aster of Fine Arts degree from Washington University. Long admired in the St. Louis area, she earned national recognition in 2002 when her work was featured on the cover of New American Paintings magazine. She stepped onto the international arts stage in 2002 with a solo exhibition in Guayaquil, Ecuador, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. She has had solo exhibitions in Norway, France, and USVI. She was AIRE fellow-Everglades National Park in 2010. Crate & Barrel and Verizon Wireless recently added her to their collections.

Awards judge Barbara Nechis is an artist who has developed a style known for its masterful balance of spontaneity and control of the watercolor brush. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Fine Arts from the University of Rochester and a Master of Science from Alfred University. She was a faculty member of Parsons School of Design for many years and has taught seminars at Pratt Institute, throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. She has served as a juror and director of the American Watercolor Society and is the author of Watercolor From the Heart (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1993) and Watercolor the Creative Experience (North Light Books, 1979). Her work appears in many publications and collections, among them the Butler Institute of American Art, IBM, and Citicorp.