Plein Air Painter in the Act

Leave a comment

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh 

Last Christmas, our Kiwanis Club had a banner year of fundraising through sales of our collectible, uniquely designed Christmas ornaments. We feel the increase in sales was attributable to doing something a little different last year. We offered two separate designs rather than one. One ornament had an iconic Steamboat Springs scene (which is typical) and the second ornament choice had an image of the four 2010 Olympians from Ski Town U.S.A.We wanted to honor the gold and glory that the athletes brought back to this town! Guess what happened? People couldn’t decide which they wanted to so they purchased both! 

Now the pressure is on to try to top last year’s sales! We have decided that for a second year in a row, we would veer from the norm. This year, we will feature the art work of a plein air painter who has given permission to let the Kiwanis Club of Steamboat use an image of her painting for the ornament design. 

This artist, has found inspiration for her plein air paintings all over the world and she recently independently published images of her art work in her book “Thirty Years Of Plein-Air Painting: The Art Of Jean Perry.” For more information on her book and to read what representational painter Richard Schmid has to say about the artist, please visit http://bit.ly/mXOEuV

I am quite excited to see how the ornament turns out. I like having local artists, no matter what medium they work in, involved in the process of creating art for the benefit of community. 

The fundraising dollars from ornament sales will help support a number of worthy causes focused on “improving the lives of children – one child and one community at time.” 

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Artists Supporting Communities

Leave a comment

In art the hand can never execute anything  higher than the heart can inspire.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Adele in the Garden” by Richard Schmid ’09

In just a few more days August will be upon us! This year, Old Man Winter found it hard to leave and the sun-filled summer arrived much too late, for my taste, here in the mountainous areas of Colorado. The benefit of long lasting snow did provide extra days for plein air painters to capture those last winter landscapes on canvas, however. 

Attention Artists and Art Collectors: Save the Date of September 4th for the 16th Annual Richard Schmid Fine Art Auction. This auction has been held to benefit the Rist Canyon Fire Department since 1996. Since it’s beginnings, over 1,100 paintings have been auctioned off generating a total of 1.6 million dollars. The proceeds of $600,000 have benefited the volunteer Fire Department and the art auction has created the center attraction for the Rist Canyon Mountain Festival each summer. This is the  Fire Department’s big fundraising event of the year and a great chance for collectors to acquire a new pieces of Art.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with artist Richard Schmid, he has received the John Singer Sargent Award for Life Time Achievement and also has been honored in Washington, DC by the Portrait Society of America. In the opinion of many, Richard is the finest  representational painter of our time. This year he is offering for auction his painting “Adele in Our Garden.”
Other art for auction includes portrait paintings, landscapes, western-theme art, florals, animal-themes, still life, seascapes and even a few abstracts too. For more information on this ever popular art event, visit the following links: 

 Thanks to the generosity of Artist Richard Schmid and the other participating artists, the Rist Canyon is a much safer community in which to live.  This canyon area is dry, and susceptible to fire, particularly in the heat of the summer. The Richard Schmid Art Auction does a great job in fulfilling the financial needs of keeping the Rist Canyon Fire Department operating all year long.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.