Southern Utah Art Guild announces winners of “Winter Blues”
By John Mangels
The Southern Utah Art Guild announced the winners of its 2018 winter art show, “Winter Blues,” at an artist reception Jan. 8. The show will remain on display Mondays–Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except holidays, through Feb. 8 in the Red Cliff Gallery.
This show illustrates how 31 artists interpret the theme of “Winter Blues” using a variety of media and styles, from realistic and impressionistic photography to impressionistic oils and watercolors to abstract acrylics, glass, and mixed media pieces. The result is 79 unique, original pieces echoing the same theme: “Winter Blues.” All of the art is for sale.
The following are the winners of the Southern Utah Art Guild’s “Winter Blues” show:
—Best of show: Brandi Mostowy, “Misty Morning Sunrise” (oil)
—First place: Nancy Lamb, “Frozen Tricycle” (watercolor)
—Second place: Gayla Folkman, “Warm Light Softens” (oil)
—Third place: Robin Mueller, “Full Steam Ahead” — (photography)
Honorable mentions
—Ray Pittman, “Another Cold Night” (oil)
—Rebekah Tucker, “Winter Frost” (acrylic)
—Barbara Bengston, “Burgeoning” and “Diamond Back” (mixed media)
—Mel Scott, “Zion Snow” (watercolor)
—Mari Wittek, “Off Season” (watercolor)
The judge for the show was Shirley Smith, head of the Color Country Camera Club.
The best of show winner, “Misty Morning Sunrise” by Brandi Mostowy, shows a peaceful, calm winter morning with hues of blues and violets with an old barn highlighted by the warm glows of a morning sunrise.
Contrast this to “Full Steam Ahead,” a photograph by Robin Mueller, showing the dynamic forces at play during winter. Here you have the powerful black steam locomotive surging through the fresh white snow accumulated by the tracks and the enormous clouds of steam pouring from the smoke stack.
Completely different is the landscape “Warm Light Softens” by Gayla Folkman, where she uses predominately warm tones in the sky, trees, and water reflections to contrast the subtle blue tones on the snow surface and in the shadows. This is a surprising color palette that does express winter, especially here in the Southwest.
Nancy Lamb in her watercolor, “Frozen Tricycle,” uses a theme from the past to remind us of winter during our childhood. The imagery makes you feel the cold of that winter day.
Rebekah Tucker used a completely different approach in her non-objective abstract, “Winter Frost.” Here Rebekah uses a blue and silver color palette and pattern to express the feeling of frost on a winter’s day.
The Red Cliff Gallery is located in the St. George City Commons Building, located at 220 N 200 E in St George.
The Southern Utah Art Guild is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the visual arts and artists in southern Utah.
“We accomplish this goal by having shows like ‘Winter Blues’ in the Red Cliff Gallery and by operating the Arrowhead Gallery ETC, a ‘co-op’ gallery,” said Michael Foot, president of the Southern Utah Art Guild. These galleries allow members to display and sell their art, and give them the “gallery experience” that will help them grow as artists. These venues also showcase the art from southern Utah artists to the community, showing the outstanding and diverse artistic talent that exists in southern Utah.
The Southern Utah Art Guild’s programs would not be possible without the encouragement and cooperation from the City of St. George and the Washington County Arts Commission with partial funding from the RAP Tax.
For more information, contact me at (435) 674-4323 or joshmangels@msn.com or guild president Michael Foot at (435) 652-8143. Go to our website, southernutahartguild.com, to learn more about the Southern Utah Art Guild and its programs.
