Saatchi Online surprise

I was very surprised and happy last week to find out that a painting I'd entered into the Saatchi Showdown competition has gone through to the next stage,  a recent painting entitled 'Swings, Roundabouts and Ceanothus.'  I've entered work before into their regular Showdown, where paintings are chosen by the public and 300 go through to another stage, but never had any success.  From almost 3000, I got into the next 300! Now it's the turn of the Saatchi judges, and I have to wait and see. From there, 30 are selected for the final round.  At that point, an artist will select two artists, and one will get the top prize. I'm doubtful I will make it to the next thirty, as I'm not sure my work will be seen by the judges as truly Surrealist (the category of the competition).  It is Surrealist in a way, as I've overlapped and embedded swings, roundabouts and the lovely blue Ceanothus bushes into the painting, and the underlying theme is the swings and roundabouts of life - with the blue Ceanothus of hope.  But it may merely be seen as a mix of impressionism and abstract expressionism.  But at the least, it is lovely to know that people voted for my work.
Life has emulated the theme of my painting this week as it's been a textured mix of good and bad. I was turned down for the Cork Street Open Exhibition. My husband said, 'I told you not to bother, they only want realistic work,' but I'd been tempted by seeing abstract-type paintings in previous exhibitions there. What was truly disgusting was that they didn't even email me the results. My understanding was that we would all be informed by email (this is what they had notified us), and in the end I had to go on the website to find that my name was not included in the chosen ones.  The fees were the highest of any (even higher than the Royal Academy submission), being £38 for two works. I'd submitted two of my best, and I was furious that they didn't respect artists enough to email the results. In no other area of purchase would you pay and get dropped entirely. It's a kind of theft, in my opinion. No one asks you to enter, and it's always a subjective (or biased) process, but any other open submission I've entered has always either emailed or sent the results by post. I am thinking to write an open letter to an art magazine on this theme of the way artists are being taken for a ride!
('Swings, Roundabouts and Ceanothus,' oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 80cm)
http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Acrylic-Swings-Roundabouts-and-Ceanothus/82603/1419085/view