The two-person show featuring contemporary western painter Maura Allen and contemporary Americana-style photographer Jenny Gummersall commences with an opening reception on Friday, September 9 from 5:00-7:00 pm. The show not only welcomes these two artists as new to Sorrel Sky Gallery’s talented cadre of artists, but also highlights their striking and individual ability to portray the American West by means of their chosen medium. Both artists will be present at the opening reception and the show will continue through September.
Maura Allen presents new works that portray the American West with rich texture, vibrant color and dynamic patterns. Her paintings have a cinematic quality that is her signature style. Using wood steel and glass as her surfaces, Allen brings a unique vision to her work. To begin her creative process, she looks directly at the sun, drawing inspiration from stark silhouettes and obsured details. “For centuries, the West has represented beginnings not endings, a place where experimentation and the pioneering spirit - no matter your passion - has enough sky to thrive.”
Allen is now represented year-round at Sorrel Sky Gallery’s Durango location. Her painting “Belvidere” was selected as the official Cheyenne Frontier Days 2016 poster image, the first time a cowgirl image will be featured in the rodeo’s century-long history. Her work is regularly featured in top art publication, including a cover feature in Southwest Art Magazine in 2014.
Jenny Gummersall presents new photographic imagery that depicts familiar southwest icons presented in a contemporary Americana-style, encapsulating her distinctive vision of the West. Gummersall’s images of horses, landscapes and natural objects may be playful, sublime or endearing, and are always inspired by an interest in capturing the illuminated forms she observes in her environment. “My art is a place where the viewer can escape their everyday realities and enter mine. It is hopefully a created space to pause, enter and be within, offering humor, awe, inspiration and happiness. This is “My West”.
Gummersall is now represented year-round at Sorrel Sky Gallery’s Durango location. Her work can be viewed throughout the U.S. and abroad, in fine art galleries, private collection, corporate installations and museum exhibitions. Such publications as The Briar Cliff Review, Cowboys & Indians and Oxford American have featured her art.