Barbara Lawlor, Central City.  Across from the Central City Opera House where the gardens pop and sizzle with pink/orange geraniums, wooden steps lead to the Gilpin Arts Association Building, the Washington Hall Gallery, the home of the 70th Annual Juried Art Show.

The interior of the building, its mining artifacts, its wooden floors, its view of the gardens, is a space out of time, its walls the showcase for artists from all over the Front Range, artists that have been chosen from hundreds of applicants.

On Saturday, June 3, these artists held a reception, a chance to greet patrons of the arts and the beginning of the summer season of the arts.

Among the jurors of this year’s exhibition was John Fielder, iconic nature photographer, who mingled with guests at Saturday’s reception. He writes, “I often look for a sense of moment in successful photographs, that is, transitory and ephemeral subject matter. This could be the quality of light as a function of weather, or the activity of people or creatures.”

He went on to say that the design of the scene must be interesting, leading the eye from one place to another. This artistic tension usually involves an asymmetrical composition. The first-place photography winner was Karla Fuller for her “Wander Wonder” which truly involved the magic of light and asymmetrical composition in a dramatic rendering of a silhouetted hiker bathed in a stream of light throughout the forest.

Local pastel artist Virginia Unseld was the first place winner of the Two-Dimensional award, with “Lingering Snow,” capturing mountain spring. This piece also won the Colorado Pastel Society Award.

Local artist Gail Watson won first place for her Three Dimensional Body of Work.

The Elaine Schoelzel Memorial Best of Show Award went to Nancy Priest for her “This is My Land.”

Gallery manager Dawn Neu welcomes all visitors to the gallery which is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on opera nights.

The Showcase Gallery at the Visitor’s Center, a few doors down from the Washington Hall Gallery, is also open.

The next show begins on Saturday, August 12, with an opening reception at 4 p.m.

(Originally published in the June 15, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)