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Festivals

Plein Air artists in Telluride (see Slide show of their work below)

This week, 30 nationally recognized artists have been painting in and around Telluride for the Sheridan Arts Foundation's 6th annual Telluride Plein Air event.

Bottom line: Impressionist style plein air painting is an old idea updated by new blood.

Eugene Boudin was one of the more adventurous 19th-century painters, known primary for his beach scenes and seascapes of northern France, and luminous skies. When Boudin taught his young student, Claude Monet, the importance of painting a scene directly from nature in the light, in the air, just as it was, painting en plein air was born. In the stroke of Monet’s agitated brush, the dark palette of Realism (and the Barbizon School) gave way to the brighter highlights of painting directly from nature.

02 July, 2009 /

Unknown  Starting Monday, July 29, 30 carefully vetted artists, including locals Wayne McKenzie and Meredith Nemirov, are gathering in and around Telluride to synthesize the light hitting town and mountain scenes into color on canvas. The group is part of the 6th annual Telluride Plein Air event, produced by the Sheridan Arts Foundation to support its year 'round programming.

This year, the general public gets its first peek at the work at two venues in the Mountain Village.

The  Masterpiece Showcase & Sale takes place at Mountain Village Heritage Plaza, June 30 – July 2, where gallery quality works selected by the artists will be on sale. 

30 June, 2009 /

by Dr. Susanna Hoffman

Sunday evening at 7:30 pm, Bluepoint Restaurant: Greece meets Telluride Farmers

Konstantine Jake and Me 028 Some three decades ago as an anthropology doctoral candidate, I decided that the sort of very abstract study that had only been done among remote tribal people could also prove true  among a  people with a long literate tradition. That gave a choice of only China, India, or Europe to conduct my research and, as a woman alone in those days, I chose Europe. That settled, I determined to go to what is considered the font of European civilization, Greece. As for where in Greece, after much reading, I fixed on a site I thought boasted a very long history, clear from Minoan times the island of Santorini. There were supposedly three thousand churches on the 16-mile island. Ah, what depth, what symbolism, I thought. Clearly this was the place for me. 

27 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Citizen Cope]

123032810001 Telluride Mountainfilm and Telluride Bluegrass are known far and wide as festivals for folks with a come-to-the-neighborhood feel. On the other hand, the Telluride Wine Festival, this weekend, June 25 – June 28, is perceived to be highbrow, for a sleek, well-heeled fraternity, who are all about Reidel, not KOTO plastic beer cups. It's for "them," not "us." Right?

Wrong. What better proof of the event's parochial bent than beer – yep, brews as well as wine and spirits this year – and another Telluride Wine Fest first: a concert Saturday evening, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., featuring brooding urban poet and musical mixologist Clarence Greenwood, aka, Citizen Cope, a uncommon performer with a common touch.

27 June, 2009 /
click "Play" to hear Maria Bachman on the Festival and Philip Glass]


Telluride 2009 5 Devotees of the Telluride Musicfest have already gotten their tickets. For Festival virgins, the following is the schedule:

All Concerts at 7:30PM
    •    June 24 CONCERT #1 at Mai Home (at Skyline Ranch)
    •    Featuring Trio Solisti, founding ensemble
    •    Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op 49
         Schoenfield Cafe Music
         Mendelssohn Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op 66

    •    June 28 CONCERT #2 at Mai Home (at Skyline Ranch)
    •    Artists: David Harding, viola; Wendy Sutter, cello; and Trio Solisti
         Beethoven Duet with Obligato Eyeglasses for viola and cello Woo 32
         Ravel Sonata for violin and cello
         Mendelssohn Sonata in D major for cello and piano
         Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor

27 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Deidra Krois on the Festival]

RF09_poster Ridgway, Colorado, is much more than a bedroom community for Telluride.

The town is famous – or infamous – as the location for several movies, including "How the West Was Won," and one of actor John Wayne's late great movies, "True Grit," (1969), in which Wayne stars as Rooster Cogburn. The True Grit Cafe is filled with John Wayne memorabilia, but as far as we know, no drunken, one-eyed federal marshals.

Ridgway boasts an abundance of wildlife: mountain lions, badgers, deer, elk, bears, coyotes, and bald eagles are indigenous to the area. And a river runs through it.

The Uncompaghre is a great source for trout fishing and this weekend, the focus of Ridgway's second annual River Festival. The Mosaic Community Project, a local nonprofit dedicated to sustainable living practices, environmental awareness, and the arts, organized the FREE watershed celebration,11 a.m – 9 p.m., downtown, in and around Rollans Park.

26 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Steve Olsen discuss Telluride Wine Festival]
Pic_steve They are here in force. Telluride Wine Festivarians, the people who inhale audibly at the mere mention of the word "Bordeaux"  paired in the same sentence as the words "Chateaux Lafite Rothschild." But few of them condone torture in any form,  including phrases such as "afterthoughts of linden" and "fragrances of toasted milk bread," a few examples on a long list of poetic flights of fancy used to describe the almighty grape.

In winespeak, certain terms are universal – but nearly incomprehensible unless you happen to be in the trade and forced to pronounce words such as "malolactic" to make your assessment understood. (A close translation is creamy.) Unless you happen to be in the trade and are on a mission to make tasting fun by removing the intimidation factor and all the aforementioned pretense. Meet Steve Olson, aka wine geek, and co-director of the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival.

Grapes may be persnickety. Steve is not.

25 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Paolo Canclini]

Foto%20cavaliere%20e%20frutta (Editors note: We have corrected an error later in the story. The Italian Reserve event at the View is Friday, 2:30-4:00)

This weekend, June 25 – June 28, Telluride celebrates great wines and great food, and, for the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival, local and restauranteur Paolo Canclini (Rustico, La Piazza, The View)  has invited two distinguished guests to town.

There is little doubt where Franco Cavalero of St. Agata or Emiliano Alessi would come down in the ongoing debate among oenophiles between terroirists and wine-making scientists/technophiles: location, location, location.

25 June, 2009 /
[click "Play' to hear Mark English interview]

English_farm_to_market_road_sm Mark English is in Telluride this weekend – at least in spirit. The newest paintings of this great artist/illustrator are now on display Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. The foggy foggy dew image that became the poster for the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival is also his.

What is the syntax that unifies Mark English's magical, mystical paintings? Are there any governing principles that unite them? If you guessed that images of Native Americans, a ghost rider, a toy town, and farmscape suggest a rural Western past filtered through memory onto a canvas, you would be right.

Mark English was born in 1933 and raised in the rear view mirror town of Hubbard,Texas, which lies northeast of Waco. This no-count address once called Slap-out is a patchwork of farms, cotton fields, and snaking creeks and country roads, just exactly what is pictured in his "Farm to Market Road."

24 June, 2009 /
[click"Play" to hear Doug Frost on the Wine Fest]

Studio His handle is "wine dog" and he is always learning new tricks.

The Telluride Wine Fest is pleased to welcome back film critic Doug Frost. No, we have not conflated our festivals. Yes, we know the 28th annual gathering of poets of pinot is this coming weekend, June 25 - 28,  and that the Telluride Film Festival is not until early September. We are, however, just stating the facts of Doug's robust life.

Doug's bio begins modesty: "Doug Frost is a Kansas City author who writes and lectures about wine, beer and spirits." That is a bit like saying Leonardo was a guy who drew nice lines and invented war machines. All true, but that's just scratching the surface. Doug was only 15 when he had his Archimedes-in-the-bathtub moment upon tasting his first glass of Louis Martini 1968 Special Select Pinot Noir: Eureka! The rest is now part of the history of wine in the making.

24 June, 2009 /