HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester and Nashua NH

That philosophy served her well in the Best of American 2005 national juried competition, put on by the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society (NOAPS). Sakellarios won Best in Show for her 12” x 16” painting, “Aglow.”

NOAPS is an alliance of artists using oil and acrylic paints as their media. Sakellarios is a Signature Member, meaning that she has been recognized as producing consistently excellent work.

“Aglow” depicts a woman, barely visible, walking a thickly vegetated path behind a house. The whole scene is rendered in a rich reddish light. Though it’s a naturalistic setting, the view in the painting actually exists nowhere in nature.

“Sometimes the landscape isn’t perfect,” Sakellarios said. Often her compositions are constructed entirely in her head. If she does paint a real landscape, she has no qualms about adding a tree here or moving a rock there if it improves the image. When working on a commission, she makes sure her patron is comfortable with a rendition that’s artfully interpreted rather than one hundred percent faithfully reproduced.

“In a way I’m moving mountains here,” she said.

Still, she certainly doesn’t want to seem arrogant, even after her award.

“To get Best in Show in a national competition ... is quite amazing,” she said.

Sakellarios owns Maison de l’Art, 53 E. Pearl St., Nashua. The gallery and studio, which has been open about a year, gives her a place to show and sell her works locally, as well as those of other area artists. All but one of the paintings for sale are by New Hampshire artists; the jewelry and gifts come mainly from this state, but a few are from as far away as Italy and Switzerland.

She has her paintings at 15 galleries across the country. She started early.

“I was always interested in painting and drawing,” she said. She studied at the American University in Cairo as well as the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art in Cairo. Coming to America 34 years ago, she found no teachers she wanted to emulate, so she considers herself largely self-taught.

The NOAPS competition selected 86 paintings from more than 600 entries submitted from all around the world. The exhibit took place Oct. 2-21 at the Ella Carothers Dunnegan Gallery of Art in Bolivar, Missouri. Three judges selected “Aglow” unanimously for Best in Show, which came with a $1,500 cash award. The painting also sold at the exhibit.

Sakellarios’ other impressionist paintings share the aim of not simply reproducing an existing landscape.

“My paintings are not just a pretty picture,” she said. “I try to convey a mood.”