BY KAREN BOSSICK

The plein air watercolors of Ketchum artist Leslie Rego will be featured in a new exhibit at Ketchum’s Community Library through August 2025.

An opening reception for “The Beauty of the Sketch: Capturing the Ephemeral Moment” will take place at 5 p.m. Monday, June 16, in the foyer of the library.

Rego will be on hand to greet guests. She said she is delighted to share her artwork with the community.

This watercolor was created at Titus Lake near Galena Summit north of Sun Valley.

"I have exhibited in many different spaces but never in a space as beautiful as The Community Library,” said Rego. “The open ambiance and the elegance of the vitrines is unique. Being able to walk around and mingle among the sketchbooks makes the artwork come alive.”

The exhibit features 25 sketches that were drawn, sketched or painted outdoors in one setting. Most of the paintings are in watercolor, but there are also works in charcoal, pencil and nib pen and ink.

They offer moments of stillness and peace in an often-chaotic world.

Rego did many of the sketches during hikes into the Pioneer and Sawtooth mountains. Others reflect trips to such countries as Morocco, Guatemala and Jordan.

Rego teaches free Nature Journaling and watercolor classes at The Community Library during spring and fall. She also teaches workshops in her Ketchum studio and is part owner of Sketchbook Travels, which offer travel adventures abroad with small groups of travel-loving painters.

Five of her watercolors are on display in the “Portrait of a Mountain” exhibit, which tells the story of Bald Mountain at The Library’s Wood River Museum of History + Culture.

Registration for those who wish to attend the opening reception can be made at https://comlib.org/calendar/.