Description Early Morning Harvest - Nicholas Montaño “Early Morning Harvest” is an acrylic image produced on canvas by artist Nicholas Montaño and has been selected as the winning artwork to represent the 27th Annual New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo, August 30, 31 and September 1st, 2014. The image depicts a stylized vineyard and sky in the early morning, ready for picking, with a New Mexico sunrise coming up behind it. It is an image that combines both the artistic and wine elements of the festival by fusing together both realistic and abstract art and by the use of eye-catching colors. This fusion of styles captures the energy of the Wine Festival. This was Mr. Montaño’s first entry into the wine festival poster competition, and at only twenty-four years of age, he’s a relative newcomer to the New Mexico art scene. Although he entered to win, he knew that it was a serious competition, and didn’t overestimate his chances. He was confident of his work, but not so confident that he thought he would win. Mr. Montaño is a self-taught artist who primarily does commissioned portrait work. He paints mainly in acrylic and dabbles in oil. He finds art to be one of, if not, the most important human traits that we hold dear. "From the very first cave painting to the Sistine chapel, art has always been able to capture human emotions and tell a story. Personally I find art to be an outlet. Whatever is going on in my life I can just pick up a brush and retreat to my own world!"