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Fine Art

IMG_1808 Telluride Inside... and Out scratched the surface of Denver's robust art scene, visiting two major public spaces and our favorite gallery.

IMG_1815 On a beautiful albeit very windy Spring afternoon, we made a pilgrimage to see Henry Moore (1898 – 1986) in the Denver Botanic Gardens and were blown away (very nearly literally). The show, the very first major outdoor exhibition of the artist's works in the American West, features 20 monumental sculptures, primarily bronze, some fiberglass, by the celebrated Brit, from a reclining " Naked Maya" stretching nearly 30 feet long and dominating a grassy knoll to an tender depiction of  a mother cradling a child, standing under three feet tall, hidden in a clearing.
19 April, 2010 /
[To hear Adrienne Lent's conversation with Susan click "Play"]

Telluride's First Thursday Art Walk is a blast.

_MG_4657 The first Thursday of every month – April Fool's Day is the last of the winter season – the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities organizes a walkabout to showcase the town's fine art scene. Art venues and retail shops stay open late until 8 p.m.

A relatively new must-visit in the line of march, is Amy Boebel's Sapsucker Studios, 299 South Spruce.

In case you were wondering, Sapsuckers Studios got its name from a dead bird owner/artist Amy Boebel found stiffening outside the door of her studio space before she turned it into a gallery.

01 April, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Masriera rep Sally Lake's conversation with Susan]

CO-40 The bling at Telluride's Lustre Gallery, 171 South Pine, is as extravagantly fabulous as a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne.

Founded in 1839, the House of Masriera became synonymous with Art Noveau jewelry in Spain, ultimately sharing a podium with Lalique glass and Gaudi's over the top architecture. Lluís Masriera (1872-1958), son of jewelers and painters, pioneered several innovations in his field, including the technique known as “Barcelona Enamel”, a translucent enamel possessing brilliant luminosity and remarkable definition. Fortunately for jewelry collectors today, Masriera saved every mold used in his design process. Each contemporary Masriera is made from these original molds, and so they are not considered reproductions, but originals.
15 March, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Julee Hutchison on her art]

The pearl Telluride local Julee Hutchison paints in oils on canvas with loose, open brushstrokes. Her focus is almost always the Big Picture, as she creates valentines to broad, open vistas and little corners of the world, although her landscapes are unmistakably American. Even in her portraits, the artist remains at one cool remove to take in and reflect the whole package, mining poetry from a smile or the tilt of a shoulder. Hutchison, however, is not strictly speaking a realist. She takes liberties with color to add punch or direct the eye of her viewer.


06 March, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Malcolm Liepke speaking about his art]


Will Thompson's Telluride Gallery of Fine Art features a higgledy-piggledy mix of artists with one theme in common: They march to their own drum.

Malcolm Liepke was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the unabridged honesty that comes with Midwestern roots shows up in his work. Liepke is an unapologetic realist, who paints with a smoking brush. His images, these freshly minted portraits of women, have evolved into a patented cocktail of sensuality and draftsmanly stylishness: definitely PG-13, as much for what comes through the surface as what's on the surface.

04 March, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Michelle Scrivner]

Trio of Aspens Telluride's First Thursday Art Walk, produced by the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities, is a celebration of the local art scene, when galleries, studios and stores around Main Street stay open late until 8 p.m. In March Lustre Gallery, 171 South Pine, celebrates the work of artists Michele Scrivner and her partner/assistant Brian Billow, which in turn celebrates nature.

It is not so much that Scrivner aims to exactly replicate the beauty of the natural world, but rather to express the feelings a place evokes through simple lines, rich hues, and complex textures. These feelings are colored green, as in eco-crusader.
04 March, 2010 /

 The 2010 First Thursday Telluride Art Walk continues Thursday, March 4, 5-8p.m. at galleries around town.

Sponsored by the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, the Art Walk is a day-long showcase of our local fine arts scene, galleries, studios and arts organizations staying open “late ‘til 8” the First Thursday of every month.  The event, which kicked off three years ago, includes galleries located in and around Colorado Avenue (Main Street), all within walking distance of one another.  Stop by after work, après ski, or on your way to dinner and add a little art to your life. 

The free Art Walk brochures, available at any participating venue (and our hotels and coffee shops), offer a self-guided map of the participating establishments. 

04 March, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Adam Field discussing his work]


In March, the Daniel Tucker Gallery at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts features the work of sculptor Adam Field. The opening of the show coincides with the First Thursday Art Walk, when galleries and retail outlets around Telluride stay open late until 8 p.m. Field will be in town for the reception at the school, 300 South Townsend, 5 – 8 p.m., which includes an artist's talk/ slideshow scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

In a case of aesthetic whiplash, in Adam Field's ceramic work crosses boundaries as it simultaneously looks back in time and into the future: past meets present, East meets West.

03 March, 2010 /

Flynn hearts Size matters when it comes to Valentine's presents. And small is better. The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art features bling made by some of the finest jewelers in the world, including the work of New York-based goldsmith Pat Flynn.

Flynn's creations are in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Norway to name a few prestigious institutions.

06 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Katia and Steve]

Necklace-mask-b-e Sponsored by the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, First Thursday Art Walk has become what to do apres ski or pre-prandial for Telluride locals and guests, who get to soak in the town's fine art and retail scene: galleries, studios, arts organizations (such as the Council) and retail stores located in and around Colorado Avenue (Main Street) stay open late until 8 p.m. Lustre Artisans Gallery is one of the participating venues.

For Art Walk, February 4 (also Friday, February 5), 4 – 7 p.m., the husband and wife team of Steve Pflipsen and Katia Pflipsen-Olivová are on hand at Lustre for an artists’ reception. The couple will be talking about their newest large-scale sculptural glass vessels.( Also at Lustre, a trunk show featuring 24K gold jewelry by Gurham, who fashions his contemporary pieces based on techniques dating back thousands of years.)

04 February, 2010 /