I joined about 90 other artists for the 2007 Wasatch Plein Air Paradise Painting Competition in Midway, Utah this past week and enjoyed four glorious days painting outdoors. The competition rules allowed artists to paint anywhere in Wasatch County, Utah, which included Wasatch Mountain State Park, Heber City, Midway and the beautiful farmland in between. After having your canvas stamped and dated you have three days to complete up to four paintings. It was a lot of fun. I filled my sketchbook with drawings, took a lot of pictures for future reference while completing four paintings on location. The little 5″ x 8″ painting above, “Gone But Not Forgotten” was done on 600 North street in Midway.
Nellie and I parked our truck right in front of this little farm scene outside of Midway. I set up my lawn chair and went to work capturing this image in a couple of hours. The challenging thing about painting outdoors on location is dealing with the changing light. This is a late afternoon scene with the light hitting hard from the front — and yes, the wildflowers and Daisies were actually there
Yours truly in front of the Midway Town Hall which served as the hub of all the activity. Artists would have their canvas stamped and dated and returned the finished paintings here, framed and ready to hang. It was quite a show. Note: These paintings are on display at the Midway Town Hall through July 4.
Sometimes Midway is called little Switzerland due to its location at the base of the towering mountains. In keeping with this theme many of the homes and hotels are steeped in Swiss chalet-style architecture. The Zermatt Resort in Midway looks like it came right out of the Swiss Alps. The resort offered the plein air artists a free night’s lodging if they painted there, so I obliged them with this little 5″ x 8″ painting.
Well said.