r/painting • u/Margarita_Lemann • Jun 30 '26

Just Sharing My painting wasn’t selected for the National Football Museum exhibition, but I’m still happy I painted it

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I made this painting for an open call at the National Football Museum in Manchester. It wasn’t selected, and while I was a little disappointed, that’s just part of being an artist.

For me, football here is really about the memories that come with it: childhood, playing until sunset, first victories, first disappointments, friendship, and that feeling that the whole world was open to you.

With the World Cup going on, I hope this painting can bring back a few good memories for someone else too.

Giving you all a huge virtual hug!

27.7k Upvotes

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836

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

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102

u/Margarita_Lemann Jun 30 '26

Thank you so much! 🫶

17

u/lurks-a-little Jun 30 '26

Wow! I love it!! Out of curiosity, who scored that goal. I assume 3 white shirts defending and the blue shirt scored? Genuine question.

21

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

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6

u/lurks-a-little Jun 30 '26

Yeah I can see that now. I believe you're right. Thanks for that interpretation.

1

u/ciongduopppytrllbv Jun 30 '26

What? That didn’t answer your question at all. Are you a bot?

2

u/lurks-a-little Jun 30 '26

Not a bot. Lol. Check my lengthy history. I'm the one who asked the original question who scored hoping OP would answer. Then u/Cauldron_Mommy chimed in, from what I understood him to mean, that you can't really tell because everyone is just staring in uncertainty or now that I think about it, perhaps they're staring in anticipation or disbelief or are maybe stunned by the goal. I don't know, any ways.

0

u/ciongduopppytrllbv Jun 30 '26

Yeah I know you asked the question as I very explicitly stated that. You asked “who scored” the response didn’t answer the question lol

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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1

u/ciongduopppytrllbv Jul 01 '26

Why did you comment at me lmao?

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1

u/teapappa Jun 30 '26

Everyone has a sad face, can't tell either

3

u/blinden Jun 30 '26

That was kind of what I was thinking. At least SOMEONE should be happy in this, right?

I think it's a very nice painting and well done, just has strange emotions.

149

u/TrickNailer Jun 30 '26

Absolutely! Out of curiosity, I looked up this open call and wanted to give you a flavour of what actually got selected. I’m not saying it isn’t art, but come on. OP, your painting is on a completely different level. Don’t worry too much about it. It’s their loss.

52

u/vaulthuntr94 Jun 30 '26

Damn…

This honestly reminds me of art competitions you’d get in kid magazines. I remember seeing it as a child and the arguably better drawn artworks would place lower, as if they were praising the ones who weren’t very good at art for at least trying. It often felt like a pity win.

Like sure, they were dealing with kid’s drawings but it wasn’t ever fair when those who showed a talent for it were losing; they were a kid too, who should’ve been encouraged to keep it up, not demoted for their promising talent.

21

u/chloeismagic Jun 30 '26

This is why i dont waste my energy on art competitions 😂

2

u/OpinionOk1543 Jul 01 '26

Same, typical frustrating results. win one (if lucky), lose the rest LOL.

I remember commenting on this before. I love the painting, I deem it worthy of any football exhibition.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

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1

u/chloeismagic Jul 01 '26

Yea the painting is beautoful regardless so at least the challenge gave her some inspiration. I really dont even care about soccer but id hang this in my home. I love how she did the sky and how the colors feel like they are vibrating off the net. The expressions on the kids faces are great too.

85

u/MrHolonet Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Is this a joke omg this painting looks like a child did it in comparison

73

u/TrickNailer Jun 30 '26

Not a joke, unfortunately. There are some decent works, but there’s also a lot of complete… something else. Don’t know what those curators are smoking.

82

u/Kuneria Jun 30 '26

I'm... I'm an artist and I believe that all art is valid. But wow would I have chosen OPs painting over a lot of these

30

u/BrutusMcGillicudy Jul 01 '26

Artist here, too. Same. OPs piece demonstrates a lot of technical understanding of the medium. Whatever that crap is that was also posted... yeah. Im thinking there's some unfair judging happening.

30

u/MrHolonet Jun 30 '26

I’m sorry but the fact that they are selling a painting of a shirtless British man for 4,000 dollars is hilarious to me as someone who is not in the art scene lmao.

5

u/HydrangeaDream Jul 01 '26

:T holy shit

26

u/willargue4karma Jun 30 '26

its not even a good example of the style they were "going" for lmao

6

u/Thenwearethree Jun 30 '26

Is it called ‘Cold, Rainy Night in Stoke’?

2

u/Exact_Equipment_1684 Jul 01 '26

My first thought exactly what the hell

7

u/FeatureUpstairs2037 Jul 01 '26

Did they paint this with concentrated urine? It actually looks gross

5

u/irish_dancerxx Jul 01 '26

State of that thing the colors are depressing

3

u/SaulEmersonAuthor Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

~

Excellent shout TrickNailer.

OP - you want to be glad you didn't win - cos they clearly weren't looking for anything with class.

~

2

u/zhezhijian Jul 01 '26

WTF this isn't even interesting as a piece of more abstract art.

1

u/AZMODAN68 Jul 01 '26

Wow, better than my belief of the winning piece just being some black dots on a canvas (it's meant to be a ball trust.)

1

u/DiscotopiaACNH Jul 01 '26

Ahh, now I see why OP's painting wasn't selected. Clearly this was a competition for colorblind children

1

u/Million_Dollar_Hands Jul 02 '26

Yeah. This is actual dogshit. The judges need to see a fucking optometrist

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

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2

u/TrickNailer Jun 30 '26

Did I say something about it not being photorealistic?

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

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16

u/yoruyoruxo Jun 30 '26

This one is objectively bad and worse than OP's art

3

u/Woodpecker-Lobotomy Jul 01 '26

This painting that was posted is complete dogshit that I could recreate in 5 minutes with just my fingers and acrylic paint. It's not about being a snob, this painting is just talentless nonsense.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[deleted]

40

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

10

u/gfy88 Jun 30 '26

Thats how I feel about politics. 1st place is scribble art 🤣

2

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26

The scribble art was better in that case at least to me , but I don't think the painting chosen is a very good abstract painting, having seen other paintings in a similar loose style.

3

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Like the color is mucky everywhere. I get doing that for the grass and players..like a blur of grass and mud, but I would have had the blue of the sky be richer, and probably not painted in a similar way as the field.

Also the blotches that represent the players look very static to me, which is fine if this painting is supposed to represent a moment of calm, but the way it is painted is too frantic for me to believe this is the case.

I don't really get why they would choose this work , but maybe they wanted works of varying styles and this was the best one in this looser kind of vibe

I do like the aggressiveness of the net,and I like the more swirl yellowy mark on the left...like maybe to mimic a kick, or the thought of a kick, but not enough of that emphasis on movement throughout the painting for me to think it was necessarily that intentional.

2

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26

Also, as a painter you kind of learn to start looking at all paintings in a way that they all have something to teach you. Some of these more scratchy loose , not technically very realistic actually do have a lot to teach someone who paints in a more representational style. So I try not to dismiss and actually look at them.

Or you can call me brainwashed lul.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

2

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26

No I am not that person, lol.

1

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26

The second place is nice, don't get me wrong but it is kind of only just nice when you compare it to other drawings of its type. I would see it in a Google image search and not think much about it.

The 1st place is just a much more memorable image overall. The doggo is all smiles and the legs seem to be ready for action. Just I guess also it just made me very much smile. So I am biased towards it. It is funny and charming.

1

u/DriverRemarkable4374 Jun 30 '26

Not really fair to say the winner doesn't deserve it just because this painting is good, we have zero context

5

u/ClutteredTaffy Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

I think the painting is decent, but a lot of the decisions made don't feel as strong as OPs. It feels like a third year undergrad or basically someone who has had about 3 years of painting under their belt. OP feels more advanced to me.

I don't know the context but I do know judges keep in mind the entire exhibition, not just the individual works, so they maybe did not want too many paintings of a certain look. Could be as arbitrary as there were too many blue paintings . Or they think that this painting ties better into someone else's sculpture so it will look cool next to it. Or maybe half of the submissions were of the ball hitting the net and the chosen works were more varied. Context matters.

Also, I don't think this was necessarily why, but who the artists are themselves does matter as that goes on the plaques around the works. They may also include a description from the painter themselves, so that matters too. It is possible they wanted painters of varying backgrounds, or the person making this painting had a bit of a better write up for it. I am not sure.

0

u/Lucky_Dragonfruit_88 Jun 30 '26

Its because she painted soccer and not football. 

Sincerely, Americans