Episode Details
Back to EpisodesHow Five Golden Brush Award Winners Turned Creative Risk Into Confidence
Description
One artist joined the voting push with 26 votes while another submission had more than 300. Another almost skipped the application altogether. In this Golden Brush Awards roundtable, Eugene O’Neill, Sophie Groenstein, Julia Kenyon, Sydney Rae, and Sabah Bardhan unpack the decisions behind five winning pieces: painting a monumental portrait of Buddhist nun Jun Son while working until 2 a.m., layering exterior house paint to create a saturated hometown portrait, earning a client’s trust for bright orange-and-blue peacocks, experimenting on the wall to recreate coffee-watercolor texture, and wrestling with a human figure and one particularly stubborn set of hands inside a Denver restaurant. The recognition gave each artist fresh evidence that the risky idea, unfamiliar technique, or last-minute submission was worth following through.
Eugene O’Neill, Sophie Groenstein, Julia Kenyon, Sydney Rae, and Sabah Bardhan are the artists behind five winning projects from Zibra’s 2025 Golden Brush Awards. Their work spans large-scale community murals, portraiture, restaurant interiors, coffee-inspired realism, and a peacock-covered anniversary chest.
Connect with the 2025 Golden Brush Award winners:
Eugene O’Neill – Transformation of the Year
Sophie Groenstein – Color Crush
Julia Kenyon – Vision to Reality
Sydney Rae – Stroke of Genius
Sabah Bardhan – Detail Devotion
Creative finds:
A Quick Note from Zibra:
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In this episode, we discuss:
- How Eugene rallied real-life community groups after seeing his 26 votes next to another entry’s 300-plus
- Why full creative freedom became its own challenge when Eugene chose to paint Buddhist nun and peace activist Jun Son
- How Sophie layered exterior house paint to give Tulsi its saturated color and velvety softness
- How sample swatches helped Sabah earn a client’s trust for a bold orange-and-blue peacock design
- Why Sydney spent extra time experimenting with coffee-inspired texture instead of falling back on her usual crisp lines
- How Julia used a human figure, difficult hands, flowing smoke, and white space to create movement inside a Denver restaurant
- How recognition helped Sophie advocate for bolder color, Julia purs