Montana painter Dale Livezey is a poet of dusk and daybreak, working exclusively in oils to document fictional landscapes he creates in his mind. Interested in swiftly changing light and the intensities of color inspired by early morning or afternoon radiance, Livezey demonstrates a true balance in both composition and color while depicting breathtaking elements of the natural world. His paintings speak directly to the memories of places and the feelings that these places evoke. Livezey’s work has appeared on several book covers, including A.B. Guthrie's The Big Sky (Houghton Mifflin) and is included in numerous private collections, as well as the Holter Museum of Art and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Craig Mitchell is drawn to the process of creation and engaging viewers in captured and transient moments in time and place that typically escape the busy experience of everyday life. Nearly all of his paintings begin as plein air studies and are then used as references in the studio. For Mitchell, inspiration comes from extended trips into remote wilderness areas of the West. There he finds a spiritual exchange within a pristine environment, an experience that cannot be substituted when it comes to truthfully observing colors and an unfiltered view of the earth. Mitchell strives to balance the respect of nature’s conventions with his own interpretation of hue, composition and unity expressed in a fluid painterly style. He has been recognized by the Oil Painters of America and the National Park Academy of the Arts and purchased by the Nevada Museum of Art, the Whittemore Peterson Institute and Renown Medical, Reno, NV.
Energized by the vibrant hills, valleys and mountains of Northern California, James Shay evokes western American landscapes using simple shapes, forms and bold colors to represent the sensuality found within nature. An architect until the mid nineties, Shay developed a passion for the visual richness arrived at through the process of painting and discovered inspiration in the colorful and visceral medium of fresco painting. Shay’s landscapes involve layering and scraping the surfaces of the work to achieve a sense of time's passage with ample visual brilliance. Recent exhibitions include “New Works,” Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV and “James Shay,” Susan Street Fine Art, Solana Beach, California. Shay appears in the private collections of the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and Renown Medical, Reno, NV.
Valerie Shesko has built a long and successful career that includes numerous museum and group exhibitions, solo shows, awards and public and private commissions. Through her abstract and innovative use of painting materials, she explores how meaning and subject matter are revealed through the process of trial and error. Composed of fiery color harmonies, rich textures and subtle, translucent layers, her canvases glow from within, reflecting transcendental landscapes inspired by earth, water and air. Based in Cincinnati Ohio, Shesko holds advanced degrees in painting, art history and art education.
Alan Sonneman has spent the last twelve years summering in the High Sierras, snapping photographs of the California mountain range with a large format camera to transform into photorealistic paintings. He has received several grants and fellowships for his super-realist landscapes, most notably a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Sonneman’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, The Alternative Museum, NYC and The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC. Dividing his career between the fine arts and film industry, he has contributed as a matte painter to movies like Titanic, Matrix Revolution, and Dante’s Peak, as well as worked as a studio artist for Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks.
