VIRGINIA BEACH — All Friday afternoon, Doug Odom snagged passers-by with his flamboyant art display, his down-home stories and by making paintings on the spot at the Boardwalk Art Show & Festival. Most artists bring finished work to the four-day show. But Odom told visitors to his booth near 23rd Street that he knew the value of standing out in a crowd. It works at flea markets, why not at art shows? So, throughout the day, he brought extra attention to himself by slapping paint onto a folk art-style picture of a school bus. As people stopped to watch, he set about explaining his work. "I love the state of Alabama," he told two young women in bathing suits. "So I put in all kinds of things from Alabama – leaves, dirt, sawdust, roof tar." To another cluster of women, he emphasized that he wasn't educated in art like others in the show. "I'm real proud of what I do and what I am, because I'm self-taught," said the blue-eyed, 59-year-old artist . He wore a cap with his name on it and a button that read: "Be Smart. Buy Art." A few hours later, he learned he won best in show from among the show's 320 or so artists. Nearly $25,000 in prize money was given out Friday night at an awards ceremony. The exhibit continues today and Sunday along the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. Odom won the $10,000 top prize for "The Dog Show," a painting of three standard poodles in a competition that depicts each earning a "10" – or, best in show. "It was a unanimous decision," said Chris Wilder, an artist and visiting professor of art at the University of California at Los Angeles. The other judges were Jill Hartz, director of the University of Virginia Art Museum in Charlottesville and Tosha Grantham, an assistant curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.