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The Sheridan Opera House is hosting the 19th annual Telluride Plein Air Festival next week. The event kicks of Tuesday and runs through July 4. (Photo by Justin Criado/Telluride Daily Planet)
The Sheridan Opera House is hosting the 19th annual Telluride Plein Air Festival next week. The event kicks of Tuesday and runs through July 4. (Photo by Justin Criado/Telluride Daily Planet)
The 19th annual Telluride Plein Air Festival starts Tuesday and runs through the Fourth of July, as the Sheridan Arts Foundation welcomes 22 nationally recognized artists during one of the organization’s biggest fundraisers of the year. The artists will spend a week painting outside capturing the light, color and unique character of this breathtaking region, including the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village.
A three-day art exhibition and sale will be held July 2-4 displaying the completed works of flower-filled meadows, majestic mountains and colorful downtown scenery. Artists typically paint 10 to 20 pieces, resulting in over 200 paintings to view and purchase over the course of the sale (only eight to 10 pieces may be displayed at one time). Artists are also allowed to display one studio piece, painted off-site from a photograph, denoted with a different price tag, of Telluride painted before arriving in town.
The Telluride Plein Air’s participating artists were selected through a competitive juried process in late 2021 with over 80 applicants.
Each year the top-selling artists and our Artist Choice first place winning artist from the previous event are invited back to participate. Attending Telluride Plein Air for the first time, Allen Brockbank of Utah won the prestigious top prize of Artist Choice. Top sellers from 2021 who will return this year are Suzie Baker, David Dallison, Mat Barber Kennedy, Christine Lashley and Alison Leigh Menke.
The Sheridan Arts Foundation created the event 19 years ago to benefit community programming, and support the continual upkeep and restoration at the historic Sheridan Opera House. All artwork profits will be split with 40 percent benefiting the Sheridan Arts Foundation’s community programming and 60 percent retained by the artists.
This year’s artists are Kirsten Anderson, Hai-Ou Hou, Marc Anderson, Jody Kauflin, Suzie Baker, Mat Barber Kennedy, Jill Banks, Christine Lashley, Paul Bergquist, Wayne McKenzie, Wendy Brayton, Alison Leigh Menke, Allen Brockbank, Bill Meuser, Krystal Brown, Antwan Ramar, Philip Alexander Carlton, Richard Sneary, David E. Dallison, Richie Vios, Catherine Hillis and Jing Zhao.
“En plein air” is a French expression, which means "in the open air," and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-19th century working in natural light became increasingly important to multiple schools of art. The Barbizon school of France was of particular influence on the Realists, who focused their work on everyday subjects versus prominent figures. These Realists inspired the Impressionists, whose style included visible brush strokes, ordinary subject matter, and an emphasis on light in its changing qualities.
The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paint in tubes, which replaced the task of grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil. It was also during this period that the "Box Easel," typically known as the French Box Easel, was invented. This development increased the ease and portability of art supplies, making treks into the forest and up the hillsides less intimidating and more appealing to those looking to paint new landscapes. Lead by Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others, the Impressionists took their paint tubes and easels outdoors, where they recreated the world as colors. At first these outdoor sketches were taken home to be finished in the studio, but eventually artists began to complete their works outdoors. Although at first rebuffed for what appeared to be unfinished paintings, the Impressionist vision soon became a standard for truthfully conveying the outdoor experience.
Artists in the United States were attracted to the concept, and many, like Californian Guy Rose, traveled to France to study with the French Impressionists. Suddenly, locations with remarkable light were of particular interest to painters including both the East and West Coasts and the American Southwest where painting colonies formed. For more information about the event, visit the Telluride Plein Air website at telluridepleinair.com or the Sheridan Arts Foundation website at sheridanoperahouse.com.
COLORADO HISTORIC OPERA HOUSES CIRCUIT
The Sheridan Opera House is also part of the first-ever Colorado Historic Opera Houses Circuit, which connects five mountain opera houses. The program officially launched Thursday.
The new cultural heritage travel offering invites visitors to experience Colorado’s Silver Rush past and the enduring importance of arts and culture in today’s remote mountain towns. The circuit includes Telluride’s opera house, the Central City Opera House, Leadville’s Tabor Opera House, Aspen’s Wheel Opera house and Ouray’s Wright Opera House.
“We're really honored to be a part of the historic Opera House Circuit. We loved the idea of putting a focus on heritage tourism and working with our sister opera houses. Colorado offers such a unique vacation opportunity for people to dive into the outdoors during the day and then enjoy some of the best music and entertainment at night,” said Maggie Stevens, the opera house’s director of PR and marketing. “These five historic opera houses allow people to experience the arts similarly to how people 110-plus years ago did. The combination of the Sheridan Opera House and Telluride are the prime example of that.”
The project is funded by $40,000 from the Colorado Tourism Office, through its Marketing Matching Grant, and a collective partner contribution of $20,000. All participating organizations are equal partners; the Lake County Tourism Panel is the formal project lead. The partners include Aspen Chamber Resort Association, Central City Opera House Association, City of Central City, City of Ouray, Gilpin Historical Society, Lake County Tourism Panel, Sheridan Arts Foundation, Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation, Wheeler Opera House and Wright Opera House.
ColoradoOperaHouses.com gives information about the opera houses, a calendar of events and a circuit map. The website links to nearby history and arts attractions, outdoor recreation, and lodging so that visitors can plan a full and rewarding trip.
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