Utah Plein Air Winners 2017
Exhibition: Sept. 8 through Nov. 11
Painters and nature crossed paths during the Brigham City Museum’s Fourth Annual Plein Air Competition. The event was open to all ages. Works submitted will hang in the museum Sept. 8 through Nov. 11. Each artist also submitted a petit painting for a fundraiser for the museum at a minimal cost. These pieces are also on display.
The museum is located at 24 North 300 West. The entrance is on the west side. Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Winners of the competition are as follows: Susette Gertsch of Midway, First Place for “The Wild Garden”; Don Miskin of Logan, Second Place for “Farm to Market Road’; and G. Russell Case of Brigham City, Third Place for “Morning Flight.” All of these paintings received purchase prizes and will enter the museum’s permanent art collection.
Honorable Mention went to Eric J. Heywood of Ephraim for “Clouds”; Nancy Calderwood of North Logan for “Mantua Lake” and “Aspen Pleasance”; and Mary Pusey of Holladay for “Silver Lake Beaver Dam.”
The juror for the competition was Lydia Gravis, the Gallery Director at the Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery at Weber State University. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Gravis has worked at the Shaw Gallery and as an Adjunct Visual Arts Professor since 2007.
Professor Gravis says the following about Gertsch’s First Place award, “Plein air paintings often focus on the big vista, the vast horizon. I appreciated that this painting immersed me, instead, in the concentrated and unruly environment of a late-summer flower garden teetering between vitality and expiration.”
Sponsors for the Plein Air Competition are ABC Concrete; an anonymous donor in honor of Bertha “Bert” Midgley Kotter; Autoliv; Box Elder News Journal; Jon Bunderson, Attorney at Law; Gillies Funeral Chapel; Kent’s Market; Molgard Law Offices; Myers Mortuary; Orbital ATK; and Young Ford.
An Awards Reception will be held Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The public is invited.
Artists who would like to receive a Call for Entries for the museum’s 2018 Plein Air Competition should email their address to maryalice@boxeldermuseum.org or phone (435) 226-1439.
***Article written by Mary Alice Hobbs
Captions for photos:
“The Wild Garden” by Susette Gertsch, Midway, First Place
“Farm to Market Road” by Don Miskin, Logan, Second Place
“Morning Flight” by G. Russell Case, Brigham City, Third Place
“Mantua Lake” by Nancy Calderwood, North Logan, Honorable Mention
