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The 10th Annual Vail Valley Fine Art Show opened last Friday with the Art and Jazz Reception at CMC. It was a wonderful evening with great food, wine & beer, beautiful music by Kathy Morrow and 3 for All and a spectacular exhibit of local work from VVAG members and CMC faculty and staff. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this a special evening. If you were not able to make it to the Reception, the show is open to the public until November 3rd (during normal CMC hours). It really is worth a trip if you are in Edwards. Also, if you would like to see the images of exhibited work that is in the catalog, you can do so by clicking the button below (please note, not all works at the show are in the catalog). Thank you to Rick Spitzer for putting the images in a viewable format. The VVAG would like to thank Rosalind Reed for generously underwriting this years show. We would also like to thank Chris Sena for all her hard work the week of the show - from coordinating the hanging, taking the judges through the show and providing them with coffee and sweets, to running the sales desk the night of the event, the success of the show was due to her tremendous efforts. Lastly, we can not have successful events without our volunteers! Thank you to Melissa Nelson, Beth Levine-Rosen, Carol Calinoff, Julie Adriansen, Janet Burmeister, Soodi Kick, Tara Novak, Henry Makina, and Margo Thomas. Your help was so appreciated. Now for a few pictures. Thank you to Liz Napier and Bibiana Rivero for signing up to capture the evening for us! The following photographs in the gallery below were taken by Liz Napier The following photographs in the galleries below were taken by Bibiana Rivero

We are looking forward to Friday night! The 10th Annual Vail Valley Fine Art Show, a partnership of Colorado Mountain College and the Vail Valley Art Guild, is going to kick off with the Art & Jazz Reception at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) in Edwards from 5pm to 8pm. The show, presented by Colorado Mountain College ARTSHARE & the El Pomar Foundation, and generously underwritten by Rosalind Reed in honor of Marc Brennan, offers a unique look at work by local artists, sculptors, ceramicists and photographers. You can still get your free tickets to the event using the button below. It will open information about the event on our VVAG website, click on RSVP and you will be re-directed to Event Brite for the tickets. Tickets will also be available the night of the event at the Welcome/Check in Table. The evening features free appetizers, beer and wine (white wine generously donated by Riverwalk Wine & Spirits). Live music will feature Kathy Morrow and 3 For All with special guest star, Sean Flanigan, on trombone. The show is educational in nature, providing both Guild members and CMC students & instructors a chance to participate in an art show and display a wide variety of art forms to our community. The VVAG would like to thank our awesome volunteers who showed up on Monday to help hang. We could not have done it without your time and help! Chris Sena, Melissa Nelson, Janet Burmeister, Cindy Kelleher, Joann Carhart Levy, Laura Moore, Norm Vogel, Karen Shupe, Norm Bowles, Joyce Bradley, Nash Ogden, Soodi and Mark Kick, Julie Graham, Jill Harrison, Beth Levine-Rosen, Tara and Paul Novak, Bob Will, Neil Stewart, Lynn Feiger, Elke Wells and Willow Murphy.

Joann Carhart Levy and Laura Moore hosted a welcome reception Saturday, September 9 at the Avon Public Library for their "Painting Partners" exhibit. The exhibit showcased art in both pastel and oil mediums and included paintings from many shared painting excursions including Rocky Mountain National Park, Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, workshops and classes. The artists also provided soft pastels and paper, including a painting that was in progress, that attendees could experiment and discover the medium of pastel and see for themselves the vivid colors pastels produce. A great big "Thank You" to Pam O'Hara Geier for all her help at the reception. The exhibit is open to the public the entire month of September. Stop by and see this beautiful and vibrant display during normal operating hours.

By Elke Wells What a special evening in Downtown Eagle for 2nd Friday. A crowd gathered at the corner of Broadway and 2nd Street, in front of Broadway Station, for the EagleARTS Community Piano Project reveal. Some seriously talented young pianists wowed the crowd with their piano playing and as the night progressed and they traded in and out, the playing got better and better! I had never really thought about painting a piano before. Sometime at the end of July, Tara Novak asked me if I wanted to paint the piano as it had been sitting at ARTSPaCE for quite sometime. After some thought, I said "yes" because how often do you get a chance to paint a piano? It was truly a labor of love and seeing it come to life as it was being played made my heart very happy!!! Thank you to everyone who came out to see the reveal and to Tara for this amazing opportunity. I would especially like to thank Sadie Hoiland, Jackson Brookes, Samantha Maule and William Baca-Pika for sharing their talent with us. They made the reveal truly special!!! The Community Piano is currently in front of Broadway Station, next to Red Canyon Café. Stop on by and see it for yourself. Anyone who would like to play it, can and should (if covered, feel free to take the cover off and re-cover when you are finished).

Our Sponsors, Partners & Donors make an amazing difference in our community to help connect local visual artists to our community, create exhibition and gallery opportunities, provide classes and education, and build awareness of the artistic talent in the Vail Valley. Though the year is not over yet, we would like to thank the following for their generosity and support of the Vail Valley Art Guild: Vail Valley Cares, Colorado Creative Industries and the National Endowment for the Arts, El Pomar Foundation, Rosalind Reed, Colorado Mountain College, The Town of Avon, The Eagle Valley Library District, the Town of Vail Public Library, and the Arkay Foundation. We would also like to send a great big "Thank You" to all our volunteers that have made our events possible and successful.

(Edited for brevity from list serve email sent out by Raymond Bleesz - August 21st) (Pictures are a mix sent by Joann Carhart Levy, Chris Sena & Raymond Bleesz) Yesterday, at the Patti Dixon house in Eby Creek, there was a prior open invitation sent out to all Artists & Photogs, spouses & friends in the Guild to participate in a “painters Rendezvous”, a late afternoon to paint, socialize & partake of the food and spirits which people bought to the table as the sun set. There was a “birthday” amongst the gathered people. Patti’s backyard served as a backdrop for the painters for the evening and her backyard was very nicely arranged, formatted & landscaped (a la natural). Very Nice Patti & Harold! It was an enjoyable event.

The Affordable Art Event in Minturn netted some $3000 in sales which is outstanding, all going to furthering the Guild, all donated items at $100 or less. There was a lot of work in the event—the planning stages, the connection to the Bunkhouse, the staging of the event at the Bunkhouse and the list continues. This may have been one of our most successful events, ever. On Friday afternoon, at the Eagle gallery, several of us met Woody & his trailer which hauled stuff up to the garage at the Bunkhouse—chairs, tables, tent, racks, banners, and all matter of “stuff to put on the event”. At 8am, Saturday morning at Lynne’s & Woody’s shed, the massive amt of affordable art stuff, all donated items from Guild members, was loaded into cars & trucks to haul down to the Bunkhouse—Chris, myself, Bob, Lynne and Rick. Guild Ladies provide cookies in great quantities which was appreciated by those in attendance. Guild Posters* were given out, complimentary. People were complimentary and pleasant—this was no Beaver Creek event, so people seemed to enjoy the Norman Rockwellian atmosphere. (*Posters of Historic Downtown Minturn Buildings were drawn, created by and generously donated by Beth Levine). Then at the Bunkhouse, all of the material, all the stuff needed to be set up prior to the opening of the event at 10am.—Banners unfurled, colorful decorations & signs placed, art work staged according to whatever—frames, art work framed and unframed, metal structures were set up and art work hung. Those in attendance did sales work on each & others pieces of art. A paid musician & caricature artist was present for “atmosphere". At the end of the event, all had to be taken back to the gallery, less those items sold which “made the day for us”. Rick’s knowledge and technical ability to make “sales” on the wireless internet system enabled the event to have sales & be successful. The Team Work of those involved in the Affordable Art Work Sale was outstanding as it took team work to accomplish this event—and it was a long tiring day. Well done to those who made it happen. Raymond A. Bleesz Photographer/Histographer VVAG Board Member VVAGP Co Founder CPAC Member Since Since 1976 "Alumni Student”, Utah State University, ’68 & 70 Alama Mater,—Jared Ragland, Mentor & Professor, presently.

The first ever Eagle County Veterans' Art Show is now on display at the Vail Public Library for the entire month of July (during normal library hours). Jacki Allen-Benson, a Vietnam Era Marine, VVAG member, and Assistant Veterans Services Officer for Eagle County, devoted the July Vail Library Exhibit to showcasing Veteran Art. Next time you go to Vail be sure to stop at the library to check out this beautiful show! The following Veterans are on display: Dennis Baniewicz, Jacquie Benson, Raymond Bleesz, Mio Cirkovic, Cecil Frank Clement, Moses Gonzales, Pat Hammon, Steve Hilbert, E. Irene Olive, Allen Peterson, Richard Surette, Norm Vogel & Robert Will. An Artists’ Reception is scheduled for July 16th, from 12pm to 5pm at the Vail Public Library. This show is made possible by the Vail Valley Art Guild in partnership with the Vail Public Library & Eagle County Veterans Services. Vail Public Library July 01 – July 31 292 W Meadow Drive, Vail, CO 81657, USA

Our first workshop of 2023, at ARTSPaCE in Eagle, was amazing! We had so much fun! Christian is a wonderful instructor - funny, encouraging, gracious, talented... We started out the day introducing ourselves. Afterwards, we watched a demonstration on how to sketch shapes, any shape that spoke to the individual. Once we had sketched for about 45 minutes or so, we moved on to filling in a small square with the shapes we had drawn earlier - overlapping them to fill the square and creating new shapes. Then we had another demonstration showing how to fill the various spaces with dark, medium and no shading to create an image with depth and forming more new spaces within the image. After a wonderful lunch from Red Canyon Café (thank you Joann for ordering for all of us), we started painting on our canvases and eventually painting black lines using our sketched shapes. Every step of the way, we had a demonstration and then went back and worked on our own paintings. It is amazing how just using three colors (unbleached titanium white, black and a color of your choice) can produce such an intricate piece of work with different tints and shades to fill in between the painted lines. Lastly, we started painting over our canvases to create a shape over the original, constantly working back and forth, sometimes re-adding our black lines, sometimes covering entire sections. I think I can speak for everyone at the workshop when I say that we had a great time!!!

As written in an email by Raymond Bleesz (06/17/2023) Today, at 9 am, with a slight drizzle & indications of clear weather to the West, we met at CMC—those being Laura Moore, Laurie Brower, Mark who was standing in for Soodi, Ellen and myself. We travelled up 131 to the Colo Rd cutoff, the road being somewhat muddy at that point, and into the Horse Rescue Ranch site where there were a good number of other vehicles—volunteers who came to help out with ranch chores, a good number of younger people as well as kids. After an introduction, those in attendance signed paper work, and one automatically became a future volunteer if one chose to do so. Chores included putting horse manure in buckets from the various stalls and which was then picked up by a ATV/trailer & hauled off to a dumping site. One could, if one desired, drive this combo to the dumping site as a volunteer experience. Enclosed are some pictures of the event and of various sightings this photographer saw. It was an enjoyable event as the weather cleared up and to the West the sun broke out giving a nice “horsey” feeling . Note: There will be other “volunteer” days going into the summer. So if you cancelled perhaps to the inclement weather or had other responsibilities, then there will be another opportunity. Further Note: This would be an opportunity for the Guild to build a “relationship” with this horse rescue organization. It certainly gives one an opportunity to get down to the ranching heritage, where the horse has been the historical animal of the West. Raymond A. Bleesz Photographer/Histographer VVAGP Co Founder CPAC Member Since 1976 To learn more about Mountain Valley Horse Rescue visit https://www.mountainvalleyhorserescue.com/

Several VVAG Members toured the Powers Art Center in Carbondale, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, and Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, on Thursday, June 8th. The Powers Art Center is a museum dedicated to contemporary art. The views from the museum alone are stunning. Their newest exhibits are Seasons of Change - Works by Jasper Johns exploring the fragility of the passage of time and American Pop Art - Works by Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenburg. To learn more about these exhibits and the Powers Art Center visit www.powersartcenter.org Members also visited and ate lunch at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. The Ranch has an outdoor sculpture exhibition, the ArtWorks Store, Gallery and Café. Several of our own VVAG members have painted at the Ranch. The Ranch has lectures and visiting artists through out the year, so to learn more visit www.andersonranch.org Thank you Joann Carhart Levy for taking and sharing photos of the trip!

Thank you to the Eagle Chamber of Commerce Board and members and the VVAG Board and members who came to our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony yesterday afternoon. It was a great event! Thank you to Beth Levine for signing and giving away her posters of Broadway Street-Eagle-Colorado historic buildings to all that were in attendance. Thank you also to Sweet Mustache for the delectable desserts! They were beautiful and delicious.