Show Preview | Plein Air Rockies - Southwest Art Magazine

Cultural Arts Council Fine Art Gallery, Estes Park, CO
August 25-October 27

Nicholas Reti, oil, Loch Shadows, oil, 16 x 20.

This story was featured in the September 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art September 2013 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

Artists participating in the annual Plein Air Rockies show and sale are fortunate to have the spectacular scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park as subject matter. From the show’s base in Estes Park, the painters can fan out across the area to capture breathtaking vistas marked by river canyons, deep forests, clusters of wildflowers, and lush green meadows. Moose, elk, wild turkeys, and bighorn sheep call the Rockies home, too.

Once the paint-out concludes, an exhibition of the resulting works opens on August 25 at the Cultural Arts Council Fine Art Gallery. Artists compete for cash prizes and awards totaling $12,000. Each year one of the artists’ images is selected to be used on various festival products, such as coffee, tea, and wine labels. A landscape by Nicholas Reti was chosen for the labels for this year’s event. In addition to Reti, other participating artists include Gayle Crites, David Harms, Cecy Turner, Carolyn Dailey, Jane Chapin, Gene Youngmann, Janet Anderson, and Kelly Kotary.

Anastasia Dukhanina, Village Varchignoli, oil, 20 x 28.

The artists hail from Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Missouri, Florida, and Nebraska. One painter, Anastasia Dukhanina, is from as far away as St. Petersburg, Russia. About half of the 36 artists in this year’s show are returning from last year, and the other half has been selected from submissions juried by landscape painter Dave Santillanes. “The festival always features many of the outstanding nationally known artists, placing Estes Park as a premier arts destination,” says Lynda Vogel, executive director of the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park. “As with many of the fine arts events the CAC produces, our patrons anxiously await opening day. The glory and the majesty of northern Colorado are forever captured on canvas, paper, and board.”

In addition to the gallery show, the festival includes a number of other paint-outs, including a children’s paint-out, a nocturnal paint-out, and a Fall Color Paint-Out. Artworks from the Fall Color event are on view in a separate show that opens on September 21 at the gallery. That show continues through October 27. —Bonnie Gangelhoff

contact information
970.586.9203
 www.estesarts.com/pleinair

Featured in the September 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art September 2013 print issue or digital download
Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!