Show Preview | Plein Air Southwest Salon 2013

Dallas, TX
Southwest Gallery, April 6-May 4

Kathleen Dunphy, Ready to Roll, oil, 12 x 16.

This story was featured in the April 2013 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Order the Southwest Art April 2013 print issue, or get the Southwest Art April 2013 digital download now…Or better yet, just subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!

The Outdoor Painters Society presents its annual juried plein-air competition at Southwest Gallery this month. The show, titled Plein Air Southwest Salon 2013, opens on April 6 with a reception from 3 to 7 p.m., and features 250 paintings by 70 artists from across the West. This year’s participating artists hail from Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, and Wyoming. “This gives the show a much more broad range of subject matter,” says artist and show chairperson LaNell Arndt. George Strickland is this year’s judge.

Participating artist Carol Swinney says her painting, CACTUS TRAIL, was created especially close to home—she painted it standing beside the carport at her home in Tucson while she looked up to a beautiful view of Pima Canyon in the distant Santa Catalina Mountains. “I never tire of watching the morning shadows in the many canyons, or watching the sunset as it turns the entire length of the Catalinas to various shades of pink and then to orange until the final light drifts below the western horizon,” Swinney says.

Carol Swinney, Cactus Trail, oil, 14 x 11.

On a similar note, Kathleen Dunphy’s painting in the show, READY TO ROLL, captures a favorite scene in her hometown of Murphys, CA. “I walk past that truck several times a week when I take my dogs for walks, and each time I feel like it’s just calling out to be painted,” Dunphy says. “I love the character of old trucks—the dents and rust are like wrinkles on an old person’s face. One spring morning when the lilacs were just starting to bloom, I couldn’t resist any longer and cut short the dog walk to set up and paint my ‘old friend.’”

The Outdoor Painters Society was founded to create opportunities and incentives for artists of like mind to come together and paint on location. The organization is dedicated to the promotion of outdoor painting, including any landscape, still life, and figurative painting completed outside in the open air. —Bonnie Gangelhoff

contact information
979.277.5578
www.outdoorpainterssociety.com

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