Tree Hugging Cowgirl, part 10

I’ve been busy getting ready for my exhibits coming up in December in Paoina and Crested Butte. I’ve put in the press release I’ve sent out below. Also here are some of the images of the paintings that will be in the shows.

No Public Access, oil, 16″ x 20″

Tucked In The Trees, oil, 6″ x 8″

Tree Hugging Cowgirl

Heidi “Cedar” Keshet was raised in El Paso, Texas/Sunland Park, New Mexico. She spent many hours in the desert of southern New Mexico, near her family home, on her horse, with a sketchbook in the saddle bag. The light, colors in nature and huge expanse of sky was being infused into her artistic psyche as a young person. Keshet feels a deep connection with the land. She received her BFA in 1999. She has been creating art since she was five years old.

“I paint as a way of distilling the feelings of completeness and joy I experience from the landscapes of the Western United States. When a viewer of my work feels a connection to place, then I have succeeded in my work. I believe that painting the beauty of the West documents and supports these lands. I hope this will move others to recognize these amazing places and advocate for them as well.”

Keshet live in western Colorado where she creates art, rides horses, hugs trees and dabbles in Biodynamic farming.

Keshet is collaborating with the Western Slope Conservation Center in Paonia on this series of paintings to raise awareness about the parcels of land that are up for a lease sale by the BLM in December that are in the area where she and her family live, the North Fork of the Gunnison River in Western Colorado. The WSCC has helped her with technical details and information about where and what the BLM has planned for these parcels of land up for oil and gas production lease sales.

Keshet has gone to many of the places that are up for lease sale by the BLM in December. These leases are for gas and oil drilling a.k.a. Fracking. They are very near to her home and studio in Paonia. There are already many roads and fences installed even before the permission has been given to purchase the oil and gas leases. She speculates that the oil companies follow the adage that its easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.

Cedar wants to document what the areas are like before they are forever altered by fracking. She has referred to a map from the BLM which shows the areas up for lease sale, much of the area is already under production. She relates that makes her extremely sad and keeps her from sleeping at night when she thinks about the environmental damage done to many of these beautiful areas. She plans to raise people’s awareness through this series of paintings and her posts on Facebook and Instagram at Plein Air Cedar. She is also blogging about her experiences while painting this series.

Keshet is using many of the plein air studies as references for larger paintings to be created in her studio. Both plein air and studio pieces will be in at the December 2018 exhibits in Paonia at the Cirque Cyclery and in Crested Butte at the Piper gallery in the Crested Butte Center for the Arts. The Western Slope Conservation Center will be joining Keshet at the Cirque. The exhibit at the Cirque in Paonia opens on November 30 and runs through the month of December. The Piper gallery exhibition opens with a reception on December 7^th from 5-7pm and closes on December 30^th.

I hope I get to see a lot of you at one or both of the exhibits in December.