BY KAREN BOSSICK

If this year’s paltry snowfall has you yearning for spring, look no further than Kneeland Gallery. Renowned plein air painter Robert Moore is showcasing an oil on canvas painting for Friday’s Gallery Walk titled “Spring in the Sawtooths” that will knock your socks off it’s so rich in color. And, as gallery manager Carey Molter is quick to remind, the color is all the more remarkable since Moore suffers from partial color blindness.

If you were hoping for a glimpse of the new Sun Valley Contemporary Gallery, which is set to open in the former Friesen+Lantz Gallery, you will be disappointed. The gallery is undergoing a facelift and so it and Anderson Architecture, which offers lovely exhibitions featuring local artists, will not be open during the December Gallery Walk.

Here’s a look at what is open as Ketchum galleries throw open their doors from 5 to 7:30 on Friday, Dec. 29:

“Casco Bay” is a new look for James Cook whose work at Gail Severn Gallery has famously featured yellow aspen in various settings. COURTESY: Gail Severn Gallery

Kneeland Gallery, 271 First Ave. N.—Robert Moore will bring color to the kind-of white landscape outside with his heavily textured oil paintings.

Other artists in the gallery’s December exhibition include Steven Adams, whose just as apt to paint a broken fence as a majestic mountain in his quest to show the beauty of common things. Utah artist Shanna Kunz, meanwhile, offers different interpretations of the landscape of her area—chickens included--through her use of a warm palette and the play of mood, light, and color.

Gail Severn Gallery, 400 First Ave. N--Robert McCauley, who has long been represented by Gail Severn, is featuring new paintings inspired by his Native American artifact collection.

McCauley has expertly honed his depictions of Western wildlife over the past 35 years, painting salmon, trout, bears, deer and moose with his unique style rooted in the tradition of 19th century American romanticism. And in it all he has addressed such themes as cultures in collision, environmental ethics and humankind’s impact on other species.

Esther Pearl Watson painted some vivid images for the Sun Valley Museum of Art’s “Sightings” inspired by her childhood growing up outside Dallas, Texas, with a flying saucer-building father. This one is called “An Exercise in Unselfish Love.” COURTESY: SVMoA

The gallery is also showing “Past as Prelude,” a major exhibition showcasing the gallery’s internationally recognized and emerging artists who will be included in group shows or have one-person exhibitions at the gallery in 2024.

Among them: Laura McPhee, Hung Liu, Rana Rochat, Lynda Lowe, Raphaelle Goethals, Betsy Margolious, Diane Andrews Hall, Judith Kindler, Allison Stewart, Berkeley Hoerr, Kenna Moser, Lisa Kokin, Maggie Shafran, Don & Era Farnsworth, Kiki Smith, April Gornik, Squeak Carnwath and Jun Kaneko.

Gilman Contemporary, 661 Sun Valley Road—A group exhibition titled “Deck the Walls” features new work from gallery artists as it teases upcoming winter and spring shows.

There will be work from local artists such as Jill Lear, as well as works by Paul Beliveau, Matt Duffin, Tony Hernandez, Thai Mainhard, Frances McCormack, Rodney Smith, Jason Wheatley, Ellie Davies, Joanne Freeman, Michael Massaia, Kelly Ording and John Westmark.

Shanna Kunz’s “As Dusk Falls” is an oil on linen that is currently hanging at Kneeland Gallery. COURTESY: Kneeland Gallery

Broschofsky Galleries, 360 East Ave., is showcasing the iconic photographs of David Yarrow, as well as works by contemporary Western painters.

MESH Gallery, 4th and Leadville Ave., features photographs of the Sawtooth and Boulder mountains taken by Jeffery Lubeck.

Sun Valley Museum of Art, Fifth and Washington streets, is showcasing “Sightings,” which asks why we look to the night skies for signs of life that we can’t explain. It was inspired by Idaho’s being the No 1 state per capita for UFO sighting and the 1,416-square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve that Sun Valley is part of.

The gallery will offer a free tour by its curator Courtney Gilbert at 4 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through Jan. 4.

Steven Lee Adams’ “In the Vineyard” can be seen at Kneeland Gallery. COURTESY: Kneeland Gallery

The museum will open a new exhibition, “Bodies of Work: Art & Healing” on Jan. 12.

Hemmings Gallery, 340 Walnut Ave., is showcasing the realistic still life paintings of Hailey artist Sarah Bird, along with the basketry of Hailey artist Sally Metcalf, who is headed for next summer’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., and the sculptures of Wes Walworth. (See the story “Sarah Bird Gets Realistic About Still Life” in today’s Eye on Sun Valley for more information.)

BONUS FOR ART LOVERS

If you haven’t already, check out the unique art of Stephen Wilson hanging in the new Naifeh Fine Jewelry shop in Sun Valley Village. Wilson creates unique luxury art featuring cowboys on bucking bulls and other fun subjects using up-cycled materials from Gucci, Chanel and Hermes designer boxes, bags and scarves. The new store and its adjacent Helios, which exhibits crystal art, have their roots in Oklahoma.