Plein Air in the Parks puts regional artists beneath Western skies

Sep. 2—If it's fun for the artists, it should be just as fun for those in attendance.

Plein Air in the Parks, an outdoor landscape painting event hosted in joint operation by the Wyoming Arts Council and Wyoming State Parks, is a yearly event that gathers local artists for three days of outdoor painting, known as plein air painting.

It isn't an unusual medium to work in, though it's one that does come with some limitations in execution. The style requires artists to enter the wilderness with an easel, find a location that inspires them and then paint that location.

For five years now, the event has been held in different locations throughout the state, sometimes in historic buildings, other times in vast plains.

This year, artists will set up their easels in the relatively contained wilderness of Curt Gowdy State Park, just outside of Cheyenne, from Sept. 15-18, and at the Trail End State Historic Site in Sheridan, from Sept. 22-25.

This is the first time that the event will be held in Curt Gowdy, and the first time that Laramie County artists will have easy access to try their hand at an iconic, and slightly taxing, form of landscape portraiture. Unexpectedly, the event has also ended up attracting artists from Northern Colorado.

"Originally, we had the thought of driving a new or a different audience into the state parks and advocating for the parks as a place that is conducive to not just hiking or fishing, but also creativity," said Rachel Clifton, assistant director of the Wyoming Arts Council. "We're getting artists out into the park to do that and explore.

"Then it also creates an opportunity for artists to show their work and talk with one another."

The artists have free rein to explore the park and set up where they like. Clifton said that part of the fun for attendees at the event will likely be the ability to hike through Curt Gowdy and possibly stumble upon an artist at work.

Not every artist is practiced or regularly paints in a plein air fashion. There are still artists coming to participate that rarely produce traditional work, like Bria Hammock. She sticks to vibrant colors and blocky, stylized shapes reminiscent of her daytime profession as a graphic designer.

Georgia Rowswell, owner of Blue Door Arts in Cheyenne, will be working with fiber art for her landscape.

Then there's local artist James Overstreet, who has undergone subtle changes in his artistic style throughout his career. For Overstreet, it's more about the medium of painting, and the plein air event will give him some extra practice and room for experimentation.

He doesn't normally paint traditional oil landscapes, and admittedly, there's no way that he's going to neglect some of the more out-of-the-box thinking that he applies to the rest of his art.

This year, he will repurpose what he did last year for the event to a more extensive degree with a set of "mint tin" paintings, for which he placed third in last year's event.

Equipped with his mountain bike and a backpack of tin containers, he plans to arrive at Curt Gowdy early and ride the trails, stopping for any scenes that catch his interest. When he does, he will paint the landscape in a small, three-by-five inch tin.

Across two days, he can probably complete four to six paintings.

"Last year, I did wake up at 3 a.m. to drive to Laramie to get a sunrise. I think I might do that again," Overstreet said. "My strategy is thinking about time of day. I definitely wanna try to get a sunset or sunrise, just because the lighting during that time is so magical that you can make your painting come alive and look more vibrant."

It helps that he's familiar with the trails at Curt Gowdy, so the majority of preparation is going into being in the right place at the right time during his rides through the mountains.

Cheyenne newcomer Larissa Akhmatova doesn't have such a luxury.

Having relocated to the area from the Gulf Coast of Texas in April, she's only made the trip out to the state park once before, and even more pressing — has never practiced plein air painting.

"I haven't done formal plein air painting or landscape painting," she said. "Usually, when I go camping, I draw in my sketchbook and observe stuff around me, but I've never brought a bunch of paints or pastels with me. This is really an experiment."

It's an experiment that offers a potential payout of $1,000 to the artist awarded first place.

Plein Air painting is also seriously outside of her typical cartoon and anime inspired art. She's illustrated comic books, painted murals, crafted sculptures and painted portraits, but all of them are heavily stylized.

Akhmatova plans to practice in the week leading up to the event. She's also hoping that she comes across an animal while she camps out at Curt Gowdy for the weekend, planning to be present at dusk and dawn to increase her chances.

From her perspective, there's no reason to be discouraged.

"I can do some more realistic stuff, like portraits, but I tend to use brighter colors than natural colors," Akhmatova said. "I'm not gonna do neon or anything, but I think it might look a little bit brighter than what I'm used to seeing when I just look up landscape paintings."

A final art show and sale containing the artists work will be held on Sept. 18 from 1-3 p.m. at the Curt Gowdy Visitors center. The event is free. The mobile ArtHaus will also be on site Saturday with plein air work from regional artists on display.

Artists can still register online leading up to the start of the event.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.