Third Place Award of Excellence
sponsored by Artist Guild Member Billy Moro-Wey, Brooklyn, NY

Takeover:  Small-Scale Works by Members of 
The San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild

Live at SHIFT Gallery, 4847 Newport Avenue, OCEAN BEACH 
November 3 – December 17, 2026
Online through December 2024: www.sdmaag.org
Juror:  BARBARA SEXTON
Artist/Professor of Fine Art, San Diego Mesa College (ret.)

Congratulations to our 
Third Place Award of Excellence Winner 

Barbara Leitzel
 
Barbara was awarded the third place for
her watercolor on paper Maybe.
About Barbara:
Barbara Leitzel acquired her love of art from her Great Aunt Rose, an artist and teacher. She earned a B.S.Ed. and M.A.Ed. at Southern Connecticut State University. She emphasized sculpture, figure drawing and photography. Her master’s thesis consisted of a one-artist exhibit of seven ceramic sculptures at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Over the following twenty-five years, Barbara designed and taught elementary, college, university and adult level classes as well as gifted and learning disability programs. She created and exhibited sculptures, serigraphs, paintings and fabric art on the east and west coasts. After a second career as a registered nurse, Barbara resumed her art career, primarily in water media. Her objective is to encourage each viewer to pause and reflect on something they might have missed or overlooked in their otherwise busy lives. 
Some of Barbara’s more notable exhibitions include:
•    Thousand Oaks Art Association 2024 Open Juried Art Show, (When Our Eyes Met (awarded Honorable Mention), watercolor, 
•    California Watercolor Association 55th International Exhibition, 2024, (Here’s Uncle, watercolor)
•    Highlights from the San Diego Museum of Art Artists’ Guild Membership Exhibition at MOPA&SDMA, 2024, (ER ANXIETY, watercolor)
•    Arts Council of the Conejo Valley, Summer Open Show 2025, (97 MPH, Ground Flower Study No, 610 (awarded Honorable Mention), watercolors)
•    Valley Watercolor Society, 2026 Annual Juried Exhibit, (ER ANXIETY (Special Honors), Hotel Window, First Words, Morning, May’s Farmhouse, watercolors)
•    Thousand Oaks Art Association 2026 Open Juried Art Show, (Five Sisters, Dazzle, acrylics; Crisp Luffs 2, serigraph; Dazzle was chosen for Second Place.)
•    North American Watercolor Society, 2026 International Online Exhibition, (Misspoke, watercolor on paper)
About Maybe: 
This image is of my grandniece superimposed on a storm in a desert. It is a time of maximum chaos caused by Covid. She was completely confused and questioned her future. I created the texture by placing plastic wrap over glazes. Then I added and subtracted positive and negative shapes to superimpose the image of a young woman.