More than a dozen artists from Montezuma County will participate in the Southwest Artists League art show at the Cortez Cultural Center in July. Anna Bousquet, president of the league and artist-of-the-month at the Cultural Center, said the show this year will be eclectic and not specific to a certain medium.
The Southwest Artists League started some 30 years ago. Through the years, it has been sponsored by various groups, including the Cultural Center, local libraries and banks, according to Bousquet. Many members of the league are volunteers at the Cultural Center and are active in sponsoring art workshops and classes.
They dont just foster the art in the local community and invite artists to join, but they also have had childrens classes, she said. (The league) is a big body of people that have supported the Cortez Cultural Center for a long time.
Bousquet has only been with the league for about two years. The primary medium she works in is oil painting on linen. Her art, along with more than a dozen other members of the league, will be featured in the show that begins Friday, July 1, and will run through the end of the month at the Cultural Centers main gallery.
Bousquet has been painting for more than 20 years and in her art biography at the Cultural Center she claims it is the endeavor and passion of my life. She is a member of the Durango Arts Center and Oil Painters of America, and some of her works are available at Raven House Museum and Art Gallery in Mancos.
Painting has a spiritual quality, its a place I go where time dissolves and a new dimension is explored, Bousquets bio said. For me it is a journey into forever, always growing and always learning.
Her main areas of interest, landscapes and townscapes, are evident in her paintings at the Cultural Center.
A fountain is the centerpiece of a painting of a Southwestern plaza. In others, purple thistle bloom in a forest meadow, a mother walks in the rain with her daughter who gleefully splashes in the puddles, and two geese say hello in a pond high in the mountains.
Each month the Cultural Center features a member of the league and their artwork on the south wall.
In the Southwest Artists Leagues July show, other creators will showcase acrylic, oil and pastel work, and there may be some three-dimensional pieces, Bousquet said.
An artists reception will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 8, at the Cortez Cultural Center, 25 N. Market St. The band Vixen will perform, and Guy Drew Vineyards will provide refreshments and wine.
Its an opportunity for people in the community to come and see all those folks that dedicated long years of their life to supporting the arts and the Cortez Cultural Center, Bousquet said.
The Southwest Artists League meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Cultural Center, and new members are welcome. For more information, contact Bousquet at 560-3531.
Reach Paula Bostrom at paulab@cortezjournal.com.