BY KAREN BOSSICK

If it’s Valentine’s Day, that means its Gallery Walk time in Ketchum.

Numerous galleries will open their doors from 5 to 7:30 p.m. tonight--Friday, Feb. 14, enticing Gallery Walkers in with colorful art designed to put a punctuation note on a snowy day and a little wine, to boot! Here are the highlights:

… HEMMINGS GALLERY, 340 Walnut Ave., is showcasing “Meeting Ground,” a solo exhibition featuring Jan Freeman Long’s works from her Cross Section & Vessel series and her Signpost series. And Long will be on hand for the reception.

Eric G. Thompson’s “Landmark,” -made with egg tempera on panel, can be seen at Kneeland Gallery.

As a student of painting at the California College of the Arts, Long was attracted to the abstract. She paired that with a fascination for the beauty and longevity of ancient buildings and artifacts during a stint at the Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, during which she took countless trips through the country.

Her work today is gleaned from nature’s ongoing pattern and cycles to explore what is timeless and universal. “Ultimately, a visual sense of calm and contemplation is what I wish to share,” she says.

… SUN VALLEY CONTEMPORARY ART, 320 1st Ave. N., is introducing Gallery Walkers to two new artists coming on board. First is Guy Stanley Philoche, whose works reflect who we are as everyday people, showing strength and resilience in families that is rarely celebrated.

The second is John Seph Hanright, who combines vintage and contemporary ideas to form paintings with a story, history and presence to create fun pieces like “Snow Bunny” out of acrylic and resin on panel.

Guy Stanley Philoche’s work at Sun Valley Contemporary Art spotlights the resiliency of families.

… KNEELAND Gallery, which is settling into its new location next to Ozzie’s Shoes at 411 N. Leadville Ave., will have a salon-style wall displaying small paintings ideal for Valentine’s Day gift-giving, as well as larger works from artists who will be part of the gallery’s summer exhibition schedule.

The artists include Ovanes Berberian, Andrew Bolam, Mark Gibson, Caleb Meyer, Robert Moore, Shanna Kunz, Andrew Skorut and Lori McNee.

… GAIL SEVERN GALLERY, 400 1st Ave. N., is showcasing the work of several artists. One exhibition, Part II of “Bark,” features Alexander Rohrig’s three-dimensional canine sculptures that he has carved out of wood and stone to celebrate the joy and loyalty found in the relationships we share with our cats and dogs.

“By the Light in Darkness Part II” offers more of Lynda Lowe’s paintings, which showcase a rich tapestry of objects, gestural text, geometric diagrams and expansive color fields. And “Emanate” features Kathy Moss’s engaging take on flowers created with charcoal on rag vellum paper and oil on linen.

Ellie Davies’ “Stars 11” combines images of the Milky Way and other celestial phenomena with mature and ancient forest landscapes, ruminating on our connection to or detachment from the natural world.

… GILMAN CONTEMPORARY, 661 Sun Valley Road, is staging a group show called “Come Together” that features photographic and digital art works by Dana Hart-Stone, Ellie Davies, Jim Westphalen and Paulette Tavormina.

Paulette Tavormina’s still-life photography, for instance, evokes the rich detail of seventeenth-century Old Master painters, offering deeply personal interpretations of timeless themes. Ellie Davies’ images delve into the fabricated nature of landscape, creating temporary interventions in forests that blur the line between reality and fantasy.

Dana Hart-Stone, inspired by childhood explorations of abandoned homesteads in Eastern Montana, integrates vintage photographs into his “digital paintings,” preserving lost histories of the American experience. (See Eye on Sun Valley’s https://eyeonsunvalley.com/Story_Reader/12549/Mining-For-Stories-in-Vernacular-Photographs/ to learn more.)

And Jim Westphalen uses the camera to document the enduring beauty of decaying barns, schoolhouses, and rural landmarks, preserving the spirit of rural America as it fades into history.  

“Cache” by Jan Freeman Long, which features acrylic and molding paste on canvas, shows her interest in historical objects like those she saw in Italy.

… SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART, Fifth and Washington streets, continues its SnowShow featuring a variety of works that depict winter. Among them, the engaging works of Mungo Thomson, a Los Angeles artist who has transformed majestic mountain peaks with large lightbox works that juxtapose the front and back of a page from a wall calendar.

… BROSCHOFSKY GALLERIES, 360 East Ave., has a new photograph by David Yarrow amongs its fine art with a focus on the West.