As Artist-In-Residence the artist is permitted to stay at the locale they've been chosen for, be inspired by its beauty and paint to their hearts content in Plein Air. In turn they teach a class to the public on why and how they love to paint what they paint and what we all can learn from these lands and the flora and fauna that live in it. The artist presents a show at the end of their term and donates one piece back to that entity.
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Craters of the Moon was my first residency and it was an experience like none I'd had before. I spent a total of 21 days at the Monument during the summer of 2015 sketching and painting every species I could identify from plants to mammals to birds. In all 139 species were rendered in "The Devil's Vomit", the term used by the emigrants as they passed by on their way west. My term there was meant to teach the public that the lava was indeed alive!
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Painting at the City of Rocks was another experience like no other. The uniqueness of its granite spires are awe inspiring, whittled down by millions of years of abrasion by the salt fog from the Great Salt Lake. The emigrants along the California Trail in the 1840s and 1850s nicknamed it the “Silent City of Rocks”. At every turn there was something amazing to paint whether it be scenic or alive! My residency ran for two years; it could go longer. So much to paint...so little time!
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