Paint the Parks

Emerging Blue Shadow

14 x 11 oil on canvas

Although I developed a love of painting people while attending college, I've had an interest in painting wildlife since I was a little kid. My interest in painting people has definately been my main focus for the past thirteen years, however, for about ten years, I really wanted to take a break and revert to my childhood interests by finishing a nice painting to enter into the "Arts for the Parks" international show which showcases paintings depicting various scenes and wildlife of the many U.S. National Parks. Each year, however, I would find myself heavily involved in other projects around the time of the deadline and consequently, never had anything ready for the show. Then, sadly, a couple years ago, I noticed that the show would no longer be taking place. My disappointment turned around however, when I found that a similar show, "Paint the Parks", was being instituted with the same type of theme and organization. They take the top 100 juried paintings from those submitted and they travel to various locations around the country. It's been a fun show to look forward to over the past couple of years and this year I finally had two small paintings ready for the deadline and submitted them for the "Mini 50" show. This Mini 50 show travels with the Top 100, however it involves smaller paintings, and they only select the top 50 to join the show. I was pleasently suprised and honored to have one of my two entries "Emerging Blue Shadow", selected for the "Top 50" and my second painting, "Steam and Reflections in Yellowstone" was selected into the "2nd 50". I hope to have some larger scale paintings ready for next year, but for now I'm thrilled to finally be a part of the show! It's first destination is Kolob Studio, Grand Canyon, AZ. For any questions regarding the show, or sales of the art involved, please check out their website at: http://www.paintamerica.org/winners09ptp.html.