GO Paint! Chippewa Valley
Mask up and paint the rolling farmlands, dramatic river banks, charming downtown areas, prairies and forests of Buffalo, Chippewa, Dunn, Pepin and Eau Claire Counties.
Participating artists will be painting within a 10 mile radius of the Eau Claire & Chippewa Rivers between Augusta, Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Durand, and Nelson, Wisconsin starting Saturday, September 26 through Friday, October 2, 2020.
Reflected Light : The Plein Air Art of GO Paint!
Virtual exhibition opening October 9, 2020
Click Image to Enter Exhibit
The artists of GO Paint! Chippewa Valley have painted the rolling farmlands, dramatic river banks, charming downtown areas, prairies and forests of Pepin, Buffalo, Chippewa, Dunn, and Eau Claire Counties. This is a great opportunity for our community to purchase a local landscape for their business or home.
ARTISTS STATEMENTS AND BIOGRAPHIES
Statements and biographies are written by the individual artists and are published with their permission. The views expressed are their own. All artwork pricing is set by the artist and is non-negotiable and non-refundable. All artwork sales are by commission with Pablo Center at the Confluence. Your purchase supports our endeavors to present quality visual arts programming that is free and open to the public. Thank you.
Award Winners
- Best of Show – Nathanial Brandner - "Bottom of the Bowl"
- First Place – Martha Hayden - "Quarry and Birches, near Durand"
- Second Place – Jean Accola - "Creepers on Red Pine: Carson Park"
- Third Place – Anders Shafer - "Big Falls"
- Best River - Gale Berndt - "Big Falls 1"
- Best of Pablo Center Staff Pick - Cari Raynae Jacobson - "Pablo Portal"
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley painters race to paint the flora, fauna, and folks of nearby Phoenix Park and the surround confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers in only 2 hours.
Adult Quick Paint Award Winners
- Best of Show - Randy Palmer
- First Place - Andy Shafer
- Second Place - Janice Roberts
- Third Place - Martha Hayden
“Art is something seen and felt, interpreted for the public through the painter’s aesthetic sense, plus the artists technical knowledge to make this understandable, so that the observer’s reaction is what the painter intends.” - John Folinsbee
I would like to congratulate all of you for your courage and passion to go forth and paint in nature’s elements, especially in times like these. Plein air painting is demanding, even in the best weather but it is a catalyst that issues the greatest concentration and a unique kind of focus that transcends time, cold, rain and heat. Have you ever thought you were out for an hour and it was closer to four hours? I can see in your images that sweet embrace of nature, where you only shiver a little when you pack-up to go home. I am pleased by all your efforts and deciding who gets an award out of such a variety of good work was very difficult. I think the winner is anyone who takes paint to canvas and stands by their art, just as you did.
With any image I’m most interested in value, color and composition but with plein air sketching there is slightly less emphasis placed on composition because it’s the impression that counts. The sketch is, after all, an abbreviated statement. From these bits of painting shorthand knowledge is gained along with an improvement of our skills and all last week you did just that. So, like the quote by John Folinsbee and having viewed all your work, I can say you speak most eloquently! Thank you.
- ROBERT HODGES BONAWITZ
Bottom of the Bowl
Oil on Panel, 12x24 | $850
Juror’s Notes: I know this view well and I’ve painted it many times, but in this sketch, I think it has been captured beautifully! The direct and economical approach to the application of paint and placement of the elements in the composition strengthens the main focal point, a silver rivulet of water. Truly a well abbreviated statement.
Quarry and Birches, near Durand
Gouache on paper, not framed, 12x16 | $350
Juror’s Notes: What a fresh and nononsense approach with careful placement of elements but wonderfully frosted with juicy complimentary colors. It reminds me of a Pietro Annigoni study.
Artist’s Statement: My painting is both realistic and abstract, it is on that elusive edge between there and not there. On first look everything is in place, then all dissolves. I want realism and abstraction to take turns. I want a painting sometimes very evocative of time and place, sometimes overwhelming in abstract, structural logic. I look for a surprise, a drama, a different way of seeing. I try not to see anything for itself alone, but as a part of the whole. In this context, my subjects take on meanings other than the accustomed ones. They are more than still life and landscape; they are comments on thinking and seeing.
I am a graduate of the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. On an Art Institute fellowship, I studied in Europe with the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka, winning the top award for my work. Later, I left Chicago for life in rural Wisconsin, a move that took me out of the “art world”, but left me free to work and develop in isolation. More recently, I began spending winters in New York City, and found friendships and acceptance for my work there. I have participated in shows at the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Wustum Museum in Racine (WI), Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, El Paso (TX) Museum and many others. My work has been in over 450 regional and national exhibitions. It is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum and the British Museum Library and has recently been acquired by Harvard and Yale libraries.
Creepers on Red Pine: Carson Park
Oil painting, framed, 9.5 x 14 | $295
Juror’s Notes: A very good “all in” alla prima wood scene. The color harmonies cheer up a gray, damp day, nicely. The paint and brush work all join hands in unison!
Artist’s Statement: Jean Accola has been a painter most of her life. In 1980 she moved to rural Western Wisconsin where she lived a creative life with her musician husband and two children.
In 1985 she opened the Accola Gallery in Durand WI, where she continues to work and exhibit. She has studied with many influential artists where she established her skills in watercolor, oil and finally acrylic. Jean Accola founded the Fresh Art Tour in 1998 and the Go Paint Plein Air painting event in 2013 and is now looking forward to years of 'just painting'.
Big Falls
Watercolor on paper, 12 x 18 | $250
Juror’s Notes: The trees dance and wave in a breeze and are warmed by soft splashes of fall color. The placid reflection eases the viewer into picture.
Big Falls 1
Acrylic, 16x20 | $1150
Juror’s Notes: Solid and fluid, beautiful. Anyone can join this image by the stepping stones cross the river to new horizons.
Pablo Portal
Watercolor, ink, 12x12 | $125
Artist's Statement: This unique sculpture allowed me to make the Pablo Center building the focal point. The rough textured logs with their angles pointing to the center of the painting, and the contrasting smooth black metal of the circle all help to make the Pablo the star.GO Paint! Chippewa Valley Awards Juror and Featured Artist - Robert Hodges-Bonawitz
Artist Robert Hodges-Bonawitz Bio
Painter of landscape, still life, portraits in oil, fresco and watercolor; Bonawitz began his art training at the Saint Paul School of The Associated Arts where he earned a degree in graphic design in 1982. The following year Robert entered the Atelier Lack and for five years studied with Richard Lack, Steve Gjertsen and Don Koestner, winning two gold medals for figure drawing. In the summers of 1985-1990 Bonawitz supplemented his studies by an apprentiship with Mark Balma where he learned the craft of Buon fresco. In late 1990, Robert went to work for Evergreen Painting studios where he painted murals and decorative finishes for state buildings. By 1993, Bonawitz had established his own mural company, Studio Intonaco, producing works for state and private clients, winning him the coveted CUE (Committee for Urban Environments) award in 1994.
For the next ten years, Robert worked on various projects, in 2005 he stepped outside to paint a landscape (for the first time in eleven years) and fell, forever, under the spell of plein air painting. In March of 2006, he enrolled in Ray Robert's workshop and in 2007 after receiving a Kenser scholarship from Scottsdale Artists School, Robert participated in Skip Whitcomb's plein air workshop. Bonawitz continues to paint and along the banks of the Mississippi.
Robert lives with wife Cindy in South Saint Paul, MN.
GO Paint! Chippewa Valley Quick Paint Judge and Founding Member - Jean Accola
Artist Jean Accola Bio
Jean Accola has been a painter most of her life. In 1980 she moved to rural Western Wisconsin where she lived a creative life with her musician husband and two children.
In 1985 she opened the Accola Gallery in Durand WI, where she continues to work and exhibit. She has studied with many influential artists where she established her skills in watercolor, oil and finally acrylic. Jean Accola founded the Fresh Art Tour in 1998 and the Go Paint Plein Air painting event in 2013 and is now looking forward to years of 'just painting'.
All artwork pricing is set be the artists and is non-negotiable and non-refundable. All artwork sales are by commission with Pablo Center at the Confluence. Your purchase supports our endeavors to present quality visual art programming that is free and open to the public.
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