GALLERY NEWS

Featuring two of our own gallery artists, the Colorado Mountain College exhibition “Close to Home” is on view starting tonight at the CMC Rifle campus.

This exhibition features five well-respected and collected local artists, including Dan Young, Andy Taylor, Dean Bowlby, Lanny Grant, and Jane Lee. The exhibition is on view November 7 through January 10, with an artists’ reception November 7, 6-8 pm.

All of the featured artists live and work locally, exhibiting landscapes that viewers can easily recognize and relate to. Dean Bowly, Dan Young, Lanny Grant, and Jane Lee all live in Silt, while Andy Taylor lives just down the road in Carbondale.

Dan Young and Dean Bowlby both attended Glenwood Springs High School. “It wasn’t intentional,” said Young of landing in Silt. “After I grew up in Glenwood, I wanted to get out of here but then I realized that I had grown up in a beautiful place. Silt is kind of a coincidence. It’s a more affordable place for artists who make their living painting, which we all do. So Dean (Bowlby) is here, and Jane (Lee), and Lanny (Grant).”

There is no shortage of artistic inspiration for these local artists. “To appreciate what’s in your backyard, you have to paint your backyard and my backyard is Silt,” Young said. “Sometimes my paintings literally come from what I see out my back door.”

Taylor, who’s lived in Carbondale since 1975, is equally as inspired by areas close to home. “Although I take excursions to specific places looking for something to draw,” he said, “I am surprised often about what I find on the way to and from that destination.”

Colorado Mountain College in Rifle is at 3695 Airport Road. The artists’ reception is Friday November 7, from 6 to 8 pm. The exhibition is on view November 7 through January 10.