Posts Tagged ‘Plein Air’
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DAD!
Have I got some Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters (RMPAP) dates for YOU! You’ve heard that over 40 artists will converge next month in Grand Teton National Park for two weeks of plein air painting, demonstrations and events; all culminating in July 18th’s Grand Opening Gala and Sale at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitors Center. Now, a full artist demonstration schedule is available—-go out there and watch these amazing artists at work! These are scheduled, set location, events:
SATURDAY, July 13: ARTISTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT, Oxbow Bend, 2-5 PM. Artists: Kathryn Turner, Stephen C. Datz, Jeanne Mackenzie.
TUESDAY, July 16: MORNING – 9 AM: Erin O’Connor (oils) – Jenny Lake Boat Dock area & Michael McClure (oils) – Taggart Lake Trailhead. AFTERNOON – 4 PM: Bill Davidson (oils)- Jackson Lake Lodge & Bill Sawczuk (oils)- Craig Thomas Visitor Center.
WEDNESDAY, July 17: MORNING – 9 AM: Stacey Peterson (oils) – Craig Thomas Visitor Center & Patti Andre (pastel) – Jenny Lake Boat Dock area. AFTERNOON – 4 PM: Jake Gaedtke (oils) – Jackson Hole Visitor Information Center (north end of town, overlooking the Elk Refuge) & Cople / Swinney / Arndt (oils) – Jackson Lake Lodge.
FRIDAY, July 19: MORNING – 9 AM: Jennifer Hoffman (pastel) – Jackson Hole Visitor Information Center & David Schwindt (oils) – Jackson Lake Lodge. MORNING – 9 AM: John Hughes (oils) – Craig Thomas Visitor Center. AFTERNOON – 4 PM: Keith Bond (oils) – Taggart Lake Trailhead & Ruth Rawhouser (oils) – Jenny Lake Boat Dock area.
(QUICK DRAW: July 20th, 9:00 am at Menor’s Ferry, Grand Teton National Park! All are welcome! Many artists, many paintings, all for sale after the paint-out!)
All this in addition to the Gala Opening Show & Sale, taking place at the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitors Center on July 18th, beginning at 7:00 pm. This show and sale benefits Grand Teton National Park through the Grand Teton Association. All are welcome! Dozens and dozens of newly painted works by RMPAP artists will be on exhibition, and for sale. It’s one heck of a party! Arrive early to get a good look! Previews begin July 15th, and the show concludes July 21st. www.pleinairforthepark.org.
It’s been in the Western winds: Jackson Hole artist Kathryn Mapes Turner and her brother, sustainable builder Mark Turner, have launched an innovative project. Though the siblings are Jackson-based, they’ve deep roots in the Washington D.C. area, owing to their family’s political legacy.
They’re smart, these two.
Their “One Nest” collaborative project combines sustainable building design and broadly embraced aesthetic with art created in one of the West’s most prominent art markets. In “the heart of Virgina horse and wine country,” near Shenandoah National Park, is a home designed by Mark, filled with artwork by his sister Kathryn. On Saturday, May 18th, 4-8:00 pm, and Sunday, May 19th, 2-6:00 pm, the public is invited to tour the structure, survey the land and take in the art.
Mark’s company, Greenspur, Inc., is, says the builder, inspired in part by Wallace Stegner’s words: “There it was, there it is, the PLACE where during the best of our lives friendship had its home and happiness had its headquarters.” Kathryn’s plein air and studio paintings are inspired by the natural world, light and “wide open spaces.”
It’s a great concept, and how much more fulfilling could it be than to co-create such a complete project with family you love?
May’s open house is in fact the project’s Grand Opening, and though it is free reservations are necessary; if you wish to attend, I’d sign up quick! The D.C. crowd will descend! The link to reserve a visit can be found here. Links: http://onenestproject.com/2013/03/21/space-greenspur-inc/ www.turnerfineart.com “One Nest” address: 3322 Carrington Road, Delaplane, VA 20144.
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Pinedale’s Winning Entry, “Time to Make Waves.”
”If children are a measure of our future, Wyoming’s future will follow a path of creativity and imagination.” ~ Wyoming Representative Tim Stubson, Casper.
Imagination and creativity link all of us. Creativity bridges the often times daunting distances between Wyoming’s citizens, and it takes special care and effort to send the message to our children that those distances can be vaporized. Like a morning meditation zeroing in on awakening creativity and imagining our potential, we must strive to dissolve what we believe are our limits. And we must show the rest of the country what we are making here. What can we be to the big wide world? Hundreds, if not thousands, of miles may lie between Wyoming’s creativity and other, larger arts centers and communities. Every reach counts.
Photo Courtesy Kevin Wittig and Mountain Pulse
Fifteen years ago a Chicago art exhibit, “Cows on Parade,” made history. The idea behind the exhibit was to get as many artists, celebrities, designers and other creative personalities to decorate fiberglass cows and spread them out across the city. The show was a great tourism draw and has been emulated many times over; all the cows were auctioned off for charity.
“Traveling Trout” is a big school of artistically designed fiberglass fish; 37 Wyoming schools took part in a fish-art competition, and winners were announced late last month. The entire exhibit is on display at the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s outdoor sculpture garden and trail through October 6, 2013. You can see them from the road, breaching and diving, snagging fireflies. Thousands of dollars in cash prizes were awarded to the winning students and schools, and that’s a great cause. Later this fall, the exhibit will travel around the rest of the state. www.wildlifeart.org
Paul Bransom (1885-1979) -Jackson Hole, Wyo- 13 x 17″ Oil
You think you’ve seen everything, and suddenly a gem crosses your path. This gem is an oldie, but it shines. It’s history, and a wonderful window into our valley’s arts and wilderness tradition. We are a plein air paradise. A few days ago I paid a visit to Astoria Fine Art and visited the collection of plein air paintings of the Tetons currently in house. The collection is not a true show, but viewed together these works afford an excellent “view” of the many ways artists have painted this valley.
For me, the most exciting find was a scene painted by Paul Bransom (1885-1979). Bransom, notes the gallery (and the gallery credits the National Museum of Wildlife Art), “was a prominent early-American illustrator, having completed covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Country Gentleman and Good Housekeeping. Beginning in 1947, Bransom spent 16 summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He met many other artists and illustrators in Jackson, and together they taught classes and started Teton Artists Associated.” Another source says Bransom’s commissions included illustrations for Kipling’s “Just So Stories” and Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows.”
Teton Artists Association, circa 1947, Jackson Hole.
Astoria’s Bart Monson was kind enough to provide an historic photograph of plein air artists painting in the valley; the photo dates circa 1947. The image, from the Archives of American Art, is assumed to be a photograph of Teton Artists Associated members painting en plein air. Phenomenal!
Astoria, says owner Greg Fulton, recently acquired four historical paintings depicting the Teton Range. Those and other contemporary works are available to see; artists include Conrad Schwiering, Scott Christensen, Carol Swinney, Jim Wilcox, romantic landscape painter Linda Tuma Robertson, and more. www.astoriafineart.com
Cross my heart and can’t wait to do it again, one of the great highlights of my 2012 arts summer was the culmination of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters’ (RMPAP) “Plein Air for the Park” National Paint-Out & Show. Last July, approximately 40 plein air artists converged in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and the Jackson Hole area, painting their hearts out for two weeks. All paintings completed were exhibited and sold in a three-day event at GTNP’s Craig Thomas Discovery Center (CTDC), in Moose, Wyoming.
The place was PACKED. And there are those who missed last year’s event still notifying me they wish they’d been there. Recently, a senior Park employee confided to me that the Park, as a collective, loved the event. It all went off so beautifully that RMPAP is returning this summer, July 8 – 21st, 2013. The event benefits GTNP and is hosted by the Park and the Grand Teton Association (GTA). This year’s opening reception, at the CTDC, takes place Thursday, July 18th, beginning at 7pm. Awards will be presented at 7:45 by this year’s Judge, Chris Moran.
A Quick Draw takes place Saturday, July 20th, beginning at 9:00am, at Menor’s Ferry in GTNP. The public can watch paintings being created from start to finish; they then may purchase paintings right off the easel at the fixed-price sale immediately following, 11am – 12 noon. Approximately 44 professional, recognized artists will participate in this, RMPAP’s 12th Annual National Show.
The GTA began collecting works of art on behalf of the Park over 50 years ago; the collection has become a valuable part of GTNP’s legacy. Last year, two works were purchased by GTA for the Park’s permanent collection; two more were purchased by patrons and donated to the Park. AND, last year’s event raised close to $21,000 for GTA!
“It is a thrill and a pleasure to be back in GTNP and working with Grand Teton Association again this year,” says RMPAP President (and participating artist) Stephen C. Datz. “We welcome the opportunity to continue the artistic tradition at the Park, expand public awareness and appreciation of plein-air painting, and in so doing benefit the exceptional efforts of the GTA on behalf of the Park.”
Kathryn Mapes Turner, landscape painter at large and partner at Trio Fine Art in Jackson Hole, recently sent news regarding her new paintings, hopes and inspirations:
“I have been exploring the creative process by allowing it to reveal itself through the canvas. My work is rooted in my love for the landscape, offered as a humble expression of appreciation for its magnificence. I want to grow ever more aware and attentive to its rhythms. This has made way for a series of storm paintings that are fitting to with the variable weather we are having this season. Now that it is spring, I am spending more time outside painting on location. Here, I experience the resurgence of nature all around me. The result has been bolder brushwork and richer color.”
Trio is also home to painters Jennifer L. Hoffman and Bill Sawczuck. The gallery has announced their summer exhibition schedule:
Bill Sawzuck – Solo exhibition July 11 – 28, 2012
Kathryn Mapes Turner – August 1-18, 2012
Jennifer L. Hoffman- August 22 – September 8th, 2012
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Two Jackson Hole galleries—Diehl Gallery and Astoria Fine Art—have announced adding new artists and acquisitions.
Diehl Gallery welcomes sculptors Natalie Clark and Kate Hunt, and painter Alexandra Eldridge. Clark will debut new works August 23 – September 6, 2012, and an opening reception takes place Thursday, August 23rd, 5-8:00 pm. Clark is a British-American classically trained artist, designer and educator. As a child, she enjoyed making things and she naturally gravitated toward becoming a 3-D artist. Natalie’s work is a global fusion of modern and ethnographic styles.
“My paintings emerge from a place where contradictions are allowed, paradox reigns and reason is abandoned,” says Eldridge. “My search is for the inherent radiance in all things…the extraordinary in the
ordinary.” Her biography states that Eldridge “has had over 40 solo shows, and has participated in many group shows throughout the U.S. as well as many international exhibitions. She has exhibited in Paris, London, Belgrade, Ljubljana, New York, California, and Santa Fe.”
If you’ve visited Jackson’s Amangani, or WRJ Associates’ new showroom space on King Street, you’re familiar with Kate Hunt’s work. In a past life, she was represented by Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary. Hunt’s work is object oriented; she uses steel, twine, boat building epoxy, encaustic and stacked newspaper. She has been awarded a Montana Arts Council Award and the Gottlieb Grant.
Astoria welcomes wildlife sculptor Richard Loffler and painter David Yorke. The Autry National Center notes Yorke’s passion has been to “paint the American West—to portray historical Plains Indians, the pioneers, and the landscape of the West. In most cases, Yorke uses props and regalia that he has researched and constructed, and poses models that he finds during his travels and at period reenactments.”
“Through evolution, each animal has carved its own original statement within this vast scheme of rhythm and structure,” says Loffler. “Its spirit and vitality offer a perpetual platform from which to learn. The complex web that nature weaves for us cannot be understood in one artist’s lifetime; it is a forever growing and changing format and one that deserves distinction.”
Additionally, Astoria is offering new aquisitions from private collections. Artists include Albert Bierstadt, Conrad Schweiring, William Acheff and more. www.astoriafineart.com
