Rejected...

It's cool,
Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you.

That's the life of art and judges, every person has an opinion and taste of what they like and don't like.

I would have really liked a healthy critique though, but it was a messenger that made the phone call and not the judges. Hence no comment. Critiques are necessary to an artists growth.
and I am always open to what people like and don't like about my work, but more importantly,
Why they feel the way they do.

I know my plein air work is unusual, but I love it and am so very passionate about creating it.

When I am painting, it is the only time everything, and I mean everything that troubles me melts away.

I know this what I am suppose to be doing and that thought in itself is enough.