Local artists paint pictures fast for Quick Draw and Auction
On your mark.
Get set.
Paint.
Even if those weren’t the exact words said, it would have been a fitting way to kick off the first-ever Quick Draw and Auction held Saturday at the American West Heritage Center near Wellsville.
The event, sponsored by the Alliance for the Varied Arts (AVA), attracted both amateur and professional painters from within Cache Valley and the western United States.
The rules of the Quick Draw were simple: complete one painting of any size using any materials in one hour.
“I’ve never painted a painting that quickly,” said Brad Teare, a local artist. “I usually take an hour and a half.”
Ponds, barns, vegetation, mountains or animals were just a few of the subjects that the artists painted.
They had unrestricted access of the American West Heritage Center to paint what they wanted, where they wanted. However, some of the artists came the day before to scope out the scene, pick a spot and possibly begin their painting early.
“I didn’t really understand what it was,” said Jeannie Millecam, a local artist and art teacher at Sky View High School. “If we came and did a whole painting in an hour or if we just brought one and finished it in an hour. But I think it’s a great event.”
Many of the attendees agreed with Milecam’s sentiment that it was a great opportunity for artists’ work to be seen from start to finish and then be sold to an onlooking public.
“We’ve been to other Quick Draws before – a couple in Jackson Hole and one in Montana,” said Dan Toone, a Salt Lake City resident and spectator at the Quick Draw. ” We heard about this one and being so close, we thought we would take advantage of it.
The few dozen onlookers at the event and the limited time frame caused varied reactions in the artists.
“Everyone one was very kind, so it actually helped me because people would say ‘Oh, that looks nice,’ ” Teare said. “Now, whether they’re telling the truth [or not] the crowd really helped me paint better.”
After the painting was finished, the crowd turned its attention to the auction.
Because the the professional auctioneer cancelled, Colleen Howe, director of the AVA, stepped in to take over.
The highest selling painting at the auction was a Nancy Seamons-Crookston original that sold for $325. The money from the paintings was equally split between the AVA and the artist.
Many of the art pieces on display at the American West Heritage Center’s Opera House did not sell. All the unsold work was returned to the artists who are now at liberty to sell their work at galleries throughout the Western United States.
Despite the lack of a receptive buying audience, Howe has every intention to have the Quick Draw become an annual event.
“It’s fun for the public to come and watch the artists work,” Howe said.
“It would be nice to see it be an annual event that people could plan on because this is the first time the AVA has done it and that’s always hard to get people out because they don’t know what it is,” Millecam said.
The AVA, which was founded in 1959 to establish the furthering education of the arts in Cache Valley, is located in the Thatcher-Young Mansion and offers programs in visual arts, dance, drama, ceramics and holds an annual summer youth camp. For more information about the AVA visit www.variedarts.org.
Look for the next Quick Draw to be at the same time next year.
-meagkrock@cc.usu.edu