Wine Store Show

Valerie will begin showing a series of river paintings at the wine store in Salt Lake later this week. The show is entitled "Down Stream" and it features much of the new work she has done this year, including this piece from a hike we took in Zion National Park. The wine store is located at 255 South 300 East in Salt Lake City. It is open daily from 11a to 7p, except for Sundays and holidays. All the pieces are for sale, but the wine store will not handle the transaction. So, contact Valerie to buy.

Black and White in Springdale

Our Springdale show opened today. It is called Southern Utah in Black and White, and it features images and charcoal sketches from around southern Utah. If you are headed to Zion during June, stop and check it out. The show is at the Canyon Community Center in Springdale until July 5th. The address: 126 Lion Boulevard (Beside the Springdale Town Hall) Springdale UT 84767.

Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival

Each year, Cedar Breaks National Monument hosts a Wildflower Festival. This year, the festival runs from July 2-July 18. To advertise the festival, the Monument publishes a nice color poster that is distributed throughout southern Utah. To produce the artwork for the poster, the Monument conducts a contest. You are looking at this year's contest winner. This is a large painting of a bristlecone pine that Valerie completed during March. Today, the National Monument selected it for its 2010 Wildflower Festival poster. Keep your eyes open for its debut.

Two Awards

The weather was quite pleasant in St. George this year. And the turn-out was great, lots more people than last year. Plus, Valerie won a pair of awards for two paintings that she made of the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument. She called the works, Lodore I and Lodore II, because they were of, you guessed it, Lodore Canyon. It was a good festival . . . and we'll likely return again next year.

St. George Arts Festival

For the second straight year, Valerie will be participating in the St. George Arts Festival. It is scheduled for April 2nd and 3rd, next Friday and Saturday. The weather in St. George can be very warm and spring-like at the beginning of April. In fact, tomorrow it is supposed to be 76F and sunny there. Unfortunately, the weather in St. George can also be cold and wet and windy at the beginning of April. Last year it was cold and wet. Those conditions really seemed to dampen the croud and kept art sales to a minimum. We are hoping for better this year. The forecast has it at partly to mostly sunny with highs in the low sixties. Should be OK, if we can get it. Of course, the worst possible conditions involve high winds. They are not in the forecast for this year's event, but they did cause considerable damage to Valerie's equipment a couple of years ago: A strong gust overnight picked up her tent and flung it into her neighbor's display, causing damage to both of them, but almost destroying Valerie's. Fortunately, Grandpa was able to rebuild it.