2024 Version “Can You Find Me?” Banner Contest

It’s time for the 2024 version of the “Can You Find Me?” banner contest. The idea behind the game is that I ask you to drive/walk around the City of Manassas and find my banners. Since 2015, Historic Manassas and the City of Manassas have held a contest for local artists to submit art. The winners have their art on banners attached to the light poles around the city streets. Since the beginning, I have been lucky enough to have at least one of my entries become a banner. As a result, each year, I have a contest to see who can find the banner.

In 2024, the City of Manassas selected three of my digital painting entries for this year’s banner contest. The illustrations show that the city finally completed the job of putting up ALL the banners this past week. I want to give a special thank you to Kristen Kiefer, the Executive Director of Historic Manassas Inc. She pushed the DPW to put the remaining banners. Driving and walking around the city yesterday, I found them and took pictures.

This Year’s Manassas Banner Contest

The three digital paintings accepted include “Waiting for His Master,” “Flower and Butterfly,” and “Portrait of Andy”

Of course, each has a story behind the digital painting:

“Waiting for his Master”

The original photograph was taken of Papi, my brother John’s Labrador Retriever, as he lay outside the front door in the sun, waiting for John to return home.

“Flower and Butterfly”

The butterfly is from a series of photographs I took behind our rented condo during vacation at Wintergreen Resort. It’s part of my series inspired by Laura Lavarnway for the Bee Festival.

“Portrait of Andy,”

Andy, my cat, is an Adobe Photoshop digital painting experiment—a variation of my pastel painting technique I describe in my “Creating Digital Paintings” book, now available from me and Amazon.com.

Your assignment is to find the banners and email me at psmolens@pbsstudios.com. The first one to email me with the correct location gets a matted print of the banner suitable for framing. Good Luck!

When the contest is over, I will announce the winners. I’ll publish wide-angle images along with the location of the banners on the streets of the city of Manassas.

Helpful Hint

The Historic Manassas website (Banner Art Project – Historic Manassas, Inc.) is where you can download a booklet showing all of this year’s banners in the city.

Thanks to the Occoquan Garden Club

Thank you for allowing me to present my demo/workshop for my new book, “Creating Digital Paintings.” Special thanks to Cindy Reagan for hosting the event.

PBS Studios

PBS Studios is a feature and content writer/photographer/digital painting company that has written and published over a hundred articles for newspapers, magazines, and online publications. I’ve also had many other photographs published as illustrations in commercial and textbook publications. As a digital photo painter, I’ve displayed my work in shops, libraries, galleries, restaurants, commercial buildings (including Manassas City Hall), and banners.

My new book, “Creating Digital Paintings,” is also for sale at Amazon.com. It’s a revised, updated, and expanded version of the 2019 publication of “Photo Painting using Adobe Photoshop.” It’s a hands-on, practical guide that shows you how to create a digital painting from a photograph or freehand.

Check out the gallery section on my website, www.pbsstudios.com, to see digital photo paintings and other examples of my work. Please Note: All photographs and digital paintings are for sale, and you can purchase my digital paintings online through my Etsy Store. For more information, Please send me an email at psmolens@pbsstudios.com.