STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Lee Higman paints the grand landscape of life—a landscape inspired by the earth and sky amidst the mountains that surround her.
But at some point she began painting flowers in space—flowers that became exploding flowers in space.
“My son is a Microsoft guy who sees things differently, and I started painting the flowers in space series for him,” said Higman, who lives in Muldoon Canyon east of Bellevue.
Now, Higman has taken those exploding flowers in space one step further, grounding them amidst the horses and antelope she saw every morning on the ranch where she once lived atop Trail Creek Summit.
And she is sharing a couple of those paintings with visitors who come to Sun Valley from around the world as part of the newest SUN Art exhibition at Friedman Memorial Airport.
The exhibit, which will run through October 2018, features 49 works by 30 artists (a few more than are listed in the brochure).
The fifth in a series of rotating exhibits, it offers local artists’ views of their sense of place.
Amanda Hedlund, for instance, has photographed an intriguing scene encompassing a vintage Sun Valley truck. Photographer Steve Dondero has captured stand up paddle boarding under the Milky Way. And Michael Olenick has captured a sharp-shinned hawk and well-worn boots hanging on a fence post in soft pastels and graphite pencil.
Debra Skelton has created a delightful portrait of a cow, while the collection features a stunningly composed photograph of a cowboy and a windmill by the late David Stoecklein.
Mimi Stuart has contributed an elk titled “Wood River Royalty,” appropriately done up in 24k gold, copper and silver leaf, along with that of a mountain biker titled “Wild Ride.”
Carol Waller has contributed three photographs of the Boulder Mountains in fall, and lupines in front of Baldy, using an app and metal print to add to the photographs’ pizzazz.
Linda Peterson has contributed a portrait of three dogs eyeing another in a swimming pool in a photograph that is sure to be near and dear to the dog lovers of the valley. Donna Pritchard has contributed a couple of abstracts, featuring her art-in-motion technique.
Anne Jeffery, who has been accepted into the 50th annual Sun Valley Arts and Crafts Festival, has a composite photograph featuring a western kingfisher and dove sitting in an ornamental tree. Lisa Holley had a new “You Are What You Eat” piece featuring little lambs eating ivy.
And Oliver Guy, who will graduate Sunday with his class at Community School, has a well-composed photo of a woman making her way up a sand dune titled, “The World Looks Different When Your Toes are in the Sand.”
Landscape architect Marty Lyon, one of the new artists to show his work, saw a photograph taken of Baldy from the Big Wood River near Bellevue in an annual report published by the Wood River Land Trust and sketched a piece in soft pastel chalk based on that work.
He later called the photographer—Blaine County Recreation District’s Dave Keir--to show him the painting he’d done and asked him whether he had another photograph he might base a painting on.
Thursday evening both men reveled in seeing both works—the Big Wood River piece and a piece of Silver Creek Preserve—on the wall.
“When my work was accepted, I called Dave and said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you, but your photographs are now my paintings and they’ve been accepted as part of an exhibition at the airport,” Lyon recounted.
It was all new for Lyon, who had taken a few art lessons during vacation on Maui several years ago where his teachers taught him to see the reds and browns in fields that had appeared all-green before and the pinks and blues in the snow diamonds of hoarfrost.
Dave Keir had similarly immersed himself in photography after taking a photography class from Bellevue photographer Craig Wolfrom at the College of Southern Idaho six years ago.
“I can’t paint or draw that well but I do like composition and light,” he said. “I think it’s incredible what Marty has done. Marty is a true artist, taking a photo and replicating it and adding his own touches.”
The show was hung by Gail Severn Gallery and includes several of the artists she represents, including Nicole Charbonnet, James Cook, Gary Komarin and Robert McCauley.
“Thank you for being the first outreach to those who visit us—and to those of us who are coming back home,” valley arts advocate Claudia McCain told the artists during the opening reception Thursday night.
A lot of work goes into the exhibition, especially from Gail Severn and her staff, added Airport Manager Chris Pomeroy.
“We’re pleased and proud to provide this forum to showcase your art, and we get a lot of good comments on it,” he added. “More than 190,000 passengers come through this airport every year so there are a lot of eyeballs on it.”