BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley artist Sally King Benedict traded her childhood home of Atlanta, Ga., for Sun Valley five years ago. And, since, she has plunged into the outdoor lifestyle, letting it inform her abstract painting.

Her painting is very physical, every genre of music from jazz to country pushing her on as she pushes her paint around.

HEMMINGS GALLERY, 340 Walnut Ave., will turn the spotlight on the work of Sun Valley artist Sally King Benedict during tonight’s Gallery Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m.—Friday, Aug. 7. And, Benedict will hold an Artist Talk from 4 to 5 p.m. Saturday Aug. 15, at the gallery.

Benedict is a contemporary painter known for her expressive figurative works, bold colors and layered mark-making. Her latest exhibition, “Frequency of Seeing,” explores perception as a kind of frequency or emotional sensitivity to light, color and repetition. Silver and gold leaf embedded in the paintings allows the artwork to respond to changing light and movement.

SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART, Fifth and Washington streets, will add a touch of music to this evening’s Gallery Walk as part of its First Fridays music series. Ian Janco, an award-winning recording artist and songwriter who has been hailed by Carole King and James Taylor, will perform.

Janco, who grew up in rural Idaho, has a catalog that spans folks, Americana, pop, EDM, rock and R&B.

While there, check out Jordan D. Schnitzer’s “Circa 1971” exhibit offering an intimate portrait of Ameran art at a pivotal cultural moment.

GILMAN CONTEMPORARY, 661 Sun Valley Road, is holding a reception for Stephen Wilkes, the National Geographic photographer whose work has redefined what one photograph can hold. On view are eight large-scale works from his Day to Night series; four woven tapestries, including a “Homage to Monet” that translate his imagery into entirely new material language, and five works from Bethlehem Steel, where his eye for time and place began.

ANDERSON ARCHITECTURE, 320 1st Ave. N., a block south of Gail Severn Gallery, is showcasing the work of Susan Harris. Harris began oil painting as a teenager growing up in northern Utah and continued to take art classes as she earned a living as a horticulturist. Both gardening and landscape painting, she says, reflect her desire to form a kinship with the natural world.

She is inspired both by the Rocky Mountains and the Snake River Plain where the mountains recede and the open horizon and sky are immovable forces. And she captures both with plein air painting.

“I love people and I crave solitude. The solitary nature of plein air painting is part of its attraction for me,” she says. “As I observe, and seek to interpret, the natural world, I feel a connection--to nature and to people. I believe this feeling becomes a part of the painting and offers the viewer an opportunity to feel the quiet and the reflective process of its creation; to feel something of what I felt while creating it.”

AZAI FINE RUGS and BELLA FINE GOODS has opened at 660 Sun Valley Road where the wonderfully expressive Graham Galleries was. They will be participating in Gallery Walk

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY, 400 First Avenue North, is featuring oil paintings of Tom Hammick, a London painter and printmaker whose works are informed by his passion for poetry, opera, film and the environment, as part of the gallery’s Golden Anniversary. The gallery is also featuring Tony Berlant’s painterly collages and three-dimensional works in the shape of rectangular boxes covered in collage.

KNEELAND GALLERY, 4th and Leadville Avenue, will have six artists on hand to show the works they created in and around Ketchum this week en plein air. The gallery’s 35th annual Plein Air Exhibition will conclude today with a Paint-Out in Ketchum Town Square.

Participating artists this year are Steven Lee Adams, Jack Braman, Shanna Kunz, Lori McNee, Robert Moore and his son Robbie Moore.

SUN VALLEY ANTIQUES, 491 Washington Ave., across from SVMoA, is hosting rarely seen paintings and prints of places we know and love by Ketchum artist Will Caldwell. Caldwell has four decades of painting in his portfolio with a wide array of paintings depicting his travels to places like Israel, Bali, China, Peru and Guatemala, as well as nostalgic American culture and music and his Idaho homeland.

A graduate of Oregon State, Caldwell is a Vietnam veteran who worked as an architect and graphic artist before turning to painting full time in 1974. Early on, he exhibited his work in Ketchum’s first art gallery, and his work has since been exhibited in top tier galleries in Santa Fe, Taos, Tucson, Scottsdale, Telluride, Jack Beveraly Hills and Carmel.

He claims the Russian figure painter Nicolai Fechin and the French and American impressionists as his strongest influences.

BROSCHOFSKY GALLERIES, 360 East Avenue in the Courtyard, is “Reframing the West” through the work of historically significant and contemporary artists that use a variety of media and perspectives. Works range from Edward Curtis’ vintage photographs to iconic prints from Andy Warhol’s “Cowboys and Indian” series.

SUN VALLEY CONTEMPORARY ART, 360 East Ave. in The Courtyard, is showcasing works by Havoc Hendricks, who uses unconventional tools and mixed media techniques to offer a unique perspective on mountains. Also, works by photographer David Yarrow, who stages iconic people and animals in iconic landscapes to tell unique stories.

Other galleries to check out: Saddletree Gallery at 360 East Ave. in The Courtyard and MESH Gallery at 4th Street and Leadville Avenue.