Newsletter October 2022

​In This Issue

Inspirations 22 Reception and Awards Presentation
Plein Air Festival Wraps Up a Successful Second Run
Teaching Artists Wanted
Featured Artist Openings in 2023
Members in the News

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​Inspirations 22 Reception and Awards Presentation

You are cordially invited to the Art of the Lakes Member Exhibition, Inspirations 22 reception and awards presentation. Join us on Thursday, October 6 from 1-3 pm in the Waage Fine Arts Center on the M-State campus in Fergus Falls. 

This special exhibition highlights the broad scope of talent within the Art of the Lakes organization's membership. Mediums represented include watercolor, oil, and acrylic painting, as well as printmaking, sculpture, ceramic, and fiber work, among others.

Awards will be presented by jurors Tania Blanich and Lori Charest. Member-artists juried into this exhibition include Lisa Burns, Judi Celaschi, Deb Connolly, Della Conroy, Shanna Cramer, Calvin deRuyter, Dar Eckert, Diana Fuder, Ruth Hanson, Grace Haverty, John House, Phyllis Joos, Lyssa Lovejoy, Vicky Radel, Susan Seaborn, John Shaw, Michael Weatherly, Mary Jo Wentz, Donna Westerling, and Mary Williams.

We hope you can join us!

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​Plein Air Festival Wraps Up a Successful Second Run

So Many Lakes, So Little Time (D. Davis)

​Dan Mondloch

Our second annual Prairie Lakes en Plein Air festival has wrapped up a successful summer-long extravaganza celebrating outdoor painting artistry. 

Since mid-June, thirty-one artists from across the region competed for over $2300 in prizes. The festival culminated on the last weekend of September with a Collector's Preview of all the work, an Awards Ceremony, Quick Paint competition and awards, and a plein air painting demonstration by competition judge Dan Mondloch.

Building from last year’s inaugural plein air competition judged by Lisa Stauffer, this year’s submissions were equally impressive.

​Friday evening’s Reception and Award Ceremony recognized Derek Davis’s oil painting, So Many Lakes, So Little Time, as Best in Show. Chanda Kraft’s oil, PLPA #2 was awarded 2nd Place and Cheryl LeClair-Sommer won 3rd Place with her oil painting titled, Aging Gracefully.

Honorable Mention award winners include Kim Jore’s watercolor, Restored Shoreline, Lisa Stauffer’s pastel, The Old Granary, and Susan Seaborn’s watercolor, The Sky Darkened.

Other award winners include Connie Riedman receiving both the Best Sense of Place Award and the Battle Lake Award for her tryptic oil titled Postcards From Battle Lake, Lisa Burns received the Glendalough Award for her gouache painting, Glendalough Dining Hall, and Tadas Kosciuska’s oil titled John’s White Pine Studio received the Judge’s Award.

​Our thanks go out to all the amazing artists who made this event such a great success. We invite you to join us again next year. Registration for the competition will open in March on our website, artofthelakes.org.

All paintings submitted into this year’s competition will qualify for the Minnesota Plein Air Collective Juried Exhibition in 2023 sponsored by the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota. Look for more information to come.

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Teaching Artists Wanted

Consider joining our Art Education Team
Art of the Lakes offers classes and workshops from the best artists and teachers in the region, and we'd like to do even more!  Possible offerings for 2023 include:

• Elementary School Guest Artist (4 hrs/day, 1-2 days)
• Summer Youth Art Camp (week long)
• Youth Art Classes
• Adult Art Classes and Specialized Workshops

Your skills and availability will help drive our curriculum.

• What medium(s) are you proficient in?
• What age groups do you prefer to teach, and what seasons are you available?
• Could you offer a two-hour demonstration, a whole day, or something else?
• What format do you envision, and what space is needed?
• What would students learn?

We'd love to have this discussion with you! To get the conversation going, please start here. Thanks!

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Featured Artist Openings in 2023

There are three Featured Artist spots open for 2023 - please consider signing up to be featured in the gallery. Available dates are:

• the month of May
• June 1-15, and
• September 1-21

To get on the schedule, contact Donna Westerling ([email protected], 612-386-2868)

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Members in the News

Grace Haverty had her painting Bikers accepted into the Northstar Watercolor Annual National Exhibit.

​Her painting Tulips was accepted into the Arizona Watercolor Association's Fall Exhibition judged by Michael Holter.

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Kristi Floersch is very excited to announce that she will be exhibiting her artwork at Lake Region Healthcare in Fergus Falls from Oct 1 through Dec 30.

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Two of John Shaw's ceramic cups titled, The Carnival’s Down by the River and I’ll Have Another Slice, have been accepted into the national juried exhibition, Return to Eating, Drinking, and Merriment.

​Referencing Ecclesiastes 8:15, “… there is no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry …”,  the exhibition is inspired by the rituals and places that celebrate sustenance and gathering. The show runs from October 7 through October 29 at Del Ray Artisans Gallery of Alexandria, Virginia.

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Michael Weatherly is featured in the New York Mills Cultural Center gallery from now through October 14, 2022. Michael is a Minnesota-based contemporary printmaker living in Elbow Lake. A reception will be held October 14 from 4-6pm.

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Donna Westerling’s piece A Galaxy of Stories will be in a show called PostPrize 2023.  The show is at Frames Unlimited in Grand Rapids, MI from 10/12/22 to 11/13/22. 

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Got news? Send stories and images to Tom Kuder, [email protected]