FRANKLIN, Pa. — Attendees at last weekend’s Third Annual Nature Art Showcase cast ballots for the “People’s Choice” awards while they viewed more than 70 items displayed in the main lobby of the Barrow-Civic Theatre in downtown Franklin during the Franklin On Ice festival.

The Council on Greenways and Trails announced Monday that the top vote-getter with 40 tallies is a multi-media art entry entitled “Into The Woods” by Paul La Pierre, Sr. of Knox, PA. Mr. LaPierre utilized raw timber as a very tall frame to contain a clear-glass covered photograph he had taken of a summer woods scene. As his prize, he received a pottery vase in a lily design provided courtesy of Campbell’s Pottery Store in Cambridge Springs.

The next highest number of “People’s Choice” votes was 29, cast for John Carbone’s “Nature’s Ice Sculptures” photograph which captured frozen water droplets and their reflections in a flowing winter stream. Mr. Carbone resides in Clarion, PA.

Other runner-ups were art items submitted by Mike Weber of Grove City, Amy Hahn of Cambridge Springs, and Thomas Siverling of Cochranton. Weber’s “Truth Seeker” is a photograph printed onto metal showing an individual walking into Rockland Tunnel on the Allegheny River Trail, carrying a single light; it received 25 votes. Hahn’s “Barn Owl” blends several types of stained glass into a realistic depiction of a perched barn owl; it received 24 votes. At 22 votes, Siverling’s “Through The Trees” is a black/white photograph illustrating natural lighting.

Representatives of the Council on Greenways and Trails selected “Happy Go Lucky,” a colored pencil rendering by Janine Stiffler of Tionesta of a raccoon, to be featured in the art shirt produced from this year’s event in the coming months. CGT has traditionally produced a new shirt each year; still available for purchase are blue heather shirts with Susan McGuire’s “Two Mile Run” watercolor and black shirts with John Carbone’s “A Glimpse Into the Soul of a Dandelion.” The items are available via www.nwpagreenways.org.

The Nature Art Showcase was sponsored by Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts, Barrow-Civic Theatre, Chicken Coop Studio 306, Erie Arts & Culture, Franklin Fine Arts Council, Oil City Arts Council, Oil Region Alliance, Oil Region Coalition of Artists, Penn Soil RC&D Council, Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce, Titusville Council on the Arts, and Victorian City Art & Frame.