BY KAREN BOSSICK

Jordyn Dooley’s brush strokes in her painting of the Big Wood River swirl around rocks in the river, creating a sense of movement. Her circular paint strokes turn the purple lupine on a hillside in Democrat Gulch into big bouncy somewhat exaggerated lupine. And her painting of a scene in the Big Lost River Range invites viewers to stand at the bottom of a creek looking up at a monumental mountain peak, reminding them of how small they are.

“I’m painting something real, but the strokes give it movement,” said Dooley. “I want you to feel like you’re looking at an art piece but that you can walk right into it. I want you to see that it looks like water, but that it also feels like water, given the texture. I want you to touch a rock in the painting and have it feel like a rock.”

Dooley will be among nearly 150 artists and crafts people who will take part in the 26th annual Ketchum Arts Festival Friday through Sunday, July 12-14, at Sun Valley’s Festival Meadows. The free festival will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and will include kids’ activities and food trucks.

Dooley started her art career far removed from Sun Valley. She grew up in Florida where she spent her elementary school years drawing people and making up stories about them. She attended a magnet school for art in high school, then pursued an English degree at the University of Florida after becoming burned out on art.

But spending time in Sun Valley inspired her to get back in touch with her art. She got a Master’s in art therapy at Florida State University and then returned to Sun Valley where she worked at the Sun Valley Museum of Art before starting her own counseling business.

She began painting her big scale works—the biggest at 5-by-6-feet—three years ago.

“I like the magnitude, the bigness of the mountains that surround us,” she said. “This is a big land with big vistas. I paint them so that they’re vibrant, so that they stand out.”

Mountains are easier to paint than the oceans surrounding Florida, she added, because they’re figurative: “I can create a figure and build on it.”

Dooley uses reds to convey the energy of Adams Gulch in a painting she calls “Power Hour at Adams Gulch.” It is, she says, a painting that glows.

The snow she painted around the Reinheimer Ranch embodies several shades of white, since nothing is truly white.

“When I’m on a hike I can feel the energy…the trees look warmer. You look at a river and you don’t just see yellow you see different shades of yellow, and maybe even some red and some other color that’s unexpected.”

Dooley has painted the Big Rock and its swimming hole outside the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood. And, like so many, she’s painted the iconic red Sun Valley Barn. She gave personality to the sheep that trail down Ketchum’s Main Street during the Trailing of the Sheep Festival.  And she’s done the same with the horses that greet those walking the bike path along Sun Valley Road.

“They have such character,” Dooley said. “Everyone loves the horses at Sun Valley I feel like they’re neighbors there to greet you. So, I called it ‘Neighbors.’ ”