The City of St. George presents the St. George Arts Festival
The Independent
Don’t miss the annual St. George Arts Festival coming April 3-4 at Town Square. The St. George Art Festival began 36 years ago, showcasing the many artists who call St. George their home. Since then it has expanded to include over 110 artists juried from hundreds of entries from throughout the United States. Festival goers enjoy thousands of original works of art, live entertainment on two stages, a vibrant children’s area, and foods of all kinds.
Over 30,000 residents and visitors from around the West converge in the beautiful town of St. George on Easter weekend, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. The festival is set in the beautiful Town Square with its carousel, fountains and water features, flower gardens, and historic buildings. The Art Festival is known for consistently outstanding artwork, and treating artists as special guests.
The mild, sunny climate of St. George is particularly suited for this outdoor event. Artwork is displayed in booths designed individually by each artist. Categories include painting, ceramics and pottery, sculpture, drawing and pastels, photography, woodwork, jewelry, leather, mixed media, glass, metal, graphics, printmaking, fiber/wearables, and digital art. The show offers cash awards for Best of Show, Best 2D and 3D and ribbons for all categories. In addition, an artist’s work is selected each year to grace the following year’s poster. The Featured Artist and blue ribbon winners receive a complementary entry into the festival the following year.
Featured Artist for 2015 is Bonnie Conrad.
Bonnie gratified a long-standing and unquenchable desire to paint when she began study under Kent Goodliffe at Utah Valley University (1986) for two years and then branched out into workshops. Countless trips to examine paintings at galleries and museums amidst hours of practice rounded out Conrad’s education. She experimented with pastels and watercolors but her medium of choice became oils and a painterly style, skillful use of color and scintillating light became hallmarks of her work. Her subject is the West.
Ranch manager and cowboy poet husband, Roger, and Bonnie have lived on several ranches throughout the West and have called Montana, Nevada, Washington, Utah, Wyoming and Texas home at various times. Years of living on ranches have supplied a wealth of information about the Western way of life. Conrad wishes the art enthusiast to hear the drumbeat and feel the exuberance radiating from a dancing Indian child, to experience the tenderness of a mother-child relationship, or to feel the wooliness of a cowboy who is wilder than the horse he’s on.
As a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America (OPA), American Women Artists (AWA) and American Plains Artists (APA), Bonnie values her acceptance in the highly competitive world of art. Bonnie Conrad’s studio, Windance Fine Art, is now located in St. George, Utah near the singular red rock area of scenic southern Utah.
The St. George Art Festival is produced by the City of St. George Leisure Services Department. For additional information please visit www.sgartfestival.org or call 435 -627-4525
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