BY KAREN BOSSICK

Did you take up painting during the pandemic?

If so, you can brush up on some tips when Kneeland Gallery stages its annual Plein Air Exhibition today through Friday.

The Ketchum gallery’s stable of artists will fan out to paint in the Murdock Creek area behind the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters for most of today.

They will then paint at various sites around the Sawtooth Botanical Garden on Thursday. There is a $5 entry fee at the garden for those who are not garden members.

Ovanes Berberian, who has been conducting a workshop this week, will do a still-life demonstration at 2:30 p.m. Friday outside in the Kneeland Gallery Courtyard at 271 First Avenue N. in Ketchum. Limited seating will be provided with social distancing.

Then the collection of paintings done this week will be on display—and for sale—during a low-key reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7.

This year’s artists are Steven Lee Adams, Ovanes Berberian, Jack Braman, John Horejs, Shanna Kunz, Lori McNee, Caleb Meyer, Silas Thompson, Robert Moore and Bart Walker.

They are happy to share about their different techniques, provided observers watch them while maintaining a respectful six-foot distance.

MORE NEW EXHIBITIONS

Sun Valley’s galleries have cancelled their August Gallery Walk due to COVID. But there are some new exhibitions hanging from the wall, and the doors are open for those who would like to stop in.

• Broschofsky Galleries, 360 East Ave., is showing new wildlife paintings by Ewoud de Groot, as well as western landscapes by Carl Oscar Borg and others.
• Friesen Gallery, 320 1^st Ave. N., is featuring Fei Disbrow’s “The Space Between.” Disbrow, a Canadian artist, uses collage and photography to explore the fleeting nature of existence.
• Gail Severn Gallery, 400 First Avenue North, is featuring a solo exhibition of North California-based Linda Christensen’s “Notice,” in which the artist captures figures in moments of repose and reflection.

The gallery is also featuring “Threnody” by Kathy Moss whose flower silhouettes float above the surface of the linen canvas—a metaphor on the world in which we are currently living.

And Jane Rosen’s “Bird Book” bursts with birds of prey, which she observes in their natural surroundings at her ranch in Northern California. Rosen also transforms humble materials of glass, wood and stone through careful hand carving, tinting, cutting and burnishing to create works that reflect and show reverence for the light, shadows and lines found in nature.

The exhibitions will run through Aug. 31.