Warm up your art-walking muscles with a pre-season show of Four Corners landscapes by Colorado artist Annie Gibbons. The Moonflower Market will launch its month-long exhibit of Gibbons’ work on Saturday March 8, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. with light refreshments in their library gallery space. Gibbons will be present at the opening.
Gibbons is a photographer and painter who currently lives in Naturita, Colo. Her paintings that will be on display at Moonflower Market for the entire month of March celebrate the beauty of nature in this area, Gibbons said.
Although Gibbons painted primarily watercolors for 40 years, she has more recently turned to digital photography and acrylic painting.
“As I got older, the whole intense struggle of painting outdoors from life began to wane as my eyesight changed, so then I began to use my own digital photography and then copy that and translate that into acrylic paintings on canvas,” Gibbons said.
Her show at Moonflower will consist mostly of her acrylic work.
“I’m becoming more fond of acrylic than I was of water colors because I can make a bolder statement,” Gibbons said. “The way I paint, I’m still following the same format as water colors. That is, I start with my light colors and move towards dark without a lot of over painting or layers. The effect is bright, very bright, colorful, decorative artwork, more impressionistic than realism.”
Most of Gibbons landscapes are of areas in Colorado, but include similar geological features as found in this southeastern Utah.
Though Gibbons has not spent as much time as she’d like in the Moab area, she has had opportunity to visit.
“I have spent enough time in the area to connect spiritually with the land, which is the kind of person I am,” Gibbons said.
In the future, Gibbons said she plans to use a series of photographs she has taken in Arches National Park to create new paintings.
Moonflower Market traditionally participates in Moab’s Art Walk, a popular monthly celebration of art, artists, and local art galleries that typically runs spring through fall, but this show is part of the market’s independent winter exhibits. Moonflower Market sponsored an art show for the months of December and February, as well.
“Things tend to slow down quite a bit and there isn’t that much to do as far as events in the winter time for Moab so we thought why not just continue,” Moonflower Market community outreach coordinator Eula Gonzales said. “It is an indoor thing. People can come in and enjoy some light refreshments and take a look at art.”
Month-long exhibit opening on March 8
Who: Annie Gibbons, acrylic and water-color painter
When: Saturday March 8, 5 to 6:30 pm
Where: Moonflower Market, 39 E. 100 North
“As I got older, the whole intense struggle of painting outdoors from life began to wane as my eyesight changed, so then I began to use my own digital photography and then copy that and translate that into acrylic paintings on canvas.”
