Sangres Art Guild

Westcliffe, CO

SAG Meeting June 19

Posted on in Announcements

The Sangres Art Guild will hold its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 19 at 5:15 p.m. at the 3rd St. Gallery, 59000, N. Hwy. 69.

Gary Benson will present his research on spray varnishes, especially as applied to photographs.

SAG meetings are free and open to the public. The Sangres Art Guild meets every third Tuesday of the month at 5:15 pm at the 3rd St. Gallery.

Calendar Show Reception June 2

Posted on in Press Releases

Our annual Fine Art Calendar competition really kicks off the summer! Make sure to attend the gala Artists’ Reception on June 2, 2012 from 4pm to 7pm at the 3rd Street Gallery.

Twelve magnificent pieces of art were chosen to fill the pages of our 2013 calendar. Dozens of other great pieces will be on display. All artwork will be for sale. Hors d’ouevres and drinks will be served. Door prizes will be given. Its a great social time.

A portion of sales benefit the Sangres Art Guild and all of the great work the Guild does to bring business to the community. Join in the fun and cast your vote for the Peoples Choice awards!  The Juror’s Choice and Peoples Choice will be announced at the Artists’ Reception and awarded during the reception. Please join us!  The Show runs through through July 22nd.

SAG Meeting May 15, 2012

Posted on in Press Releases

The Sangres Art Guild will hold its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 15 at 5:15 p.m. at the 3rd St. Gallery, 59000, N. Hwy. 69.  Paul Biron and Curt Gillespie will present the roll-out of the new web site.

SAG meetings are free and open to the public. The Sangres Art Guild meets every third Tuesday of the month.

Passion in Photography

Posted on in Inspirational | Photography

So lets talk photography and what makes a “good” photograph, one which turns you on, makes you stop, and most of all makes your heart beat a little faster.

Take the  idea of passion.  I am not referring to the stuff which keeps the tabloid press in business, but that which we really get excited about.  For some people this may mean camping in wilderness, for others it may be the pulsing life of a city.  Some people have a passion for horses, other people for man’s best friend the dog.  It really does not make much difference, passion  as defined by the dictionary is “any emotion such as any intense emotional excitement.”  In other words passion is that thing, person, place or idea which really turns us on and gets the juices of life stirring.

So what does all this have to do with making photographs?  To me it means choosing a subject we really can get involved with. The important thing is that we can become excited about this subject.  We study, we learn, we watch, we comprehend.  We narrow our photography to explore this subject in many different ways.  With passion for a subject we can move out of bed in the morning to greet the dawn and sunset just to see how the light effects our subject.  We continue to photograph even when we are freezing or bathed in sweat. We photograph to explore and to be with our subject.  Sometimes this passion can become almost an obsession, one which drives us to make images hoping one will spark our emotions.
Perhaps one of the most demanding jobs in photography is working for National Geographic.  Talk with one of those outstanding people and you feel their zest for life and for their profession. They are involved in the deepest sense of the word.  Once in the field their days usually  mean getting up before dawn and not going to bed until well after dark.  They shoot hundreds of cards of images, all technically perfect, to be sure they have captured the one image or set of images which best communicate the sense of their subject.  They are expected to come back with images which show their subject in a new and interesting and informative way.  Only excellence is accepted, and a passion for photography and their assignment is assumed.
Now for  most of us this level of involvement is difficult to say the least. However, we all  do have emotional attachments. Often they are just buried by the demands of everyday life. What we need is to simply choose one of these buried passions and bring it to life by making it the focus for our work.  No need to travel to an exotic local, we can find images in our own town, even in our own block or even our own living room.  The images are there waiting to be seen.  A horse with foal running bathed in the light of a rising sun, or a photograph of a child reading by window light, or just a simple image of a puppy running free in a field.
A little passion will take us a long way toward the “seeing” and thus to wonderful, meaningful, and exciting photographs.  Only you can do this.  Cameras and lenses after all are just ways of capturing what you see.  They are but constructions of metal and glass.  What you feel, what you see, and what you have in your heart are the most important things.  The next time you see a photograph which stops you in your tracks and gives your heart a tug ask yourself why this is happening.  It just might be passion, the passion the photographer had in making the image and the passion you have in seeing and experiencing the image.  Bill Gillette.

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Welcome!

Posted on in Announcements

The Sangres Art Guild in Custer County, Colorado, promotes the arts in the Wet Mountain Valley to create a dynamic, supportive environment for the visual arts to flourish. We operate the 3rd Street Gallery in Westcliffe to provide support for our members’ artistic endeavors and foster commerce in our community through the visual arts. Explore the site to learn more about our art Shows and Events, art Classes and Programs, and Our Artists. Become a Member. Learn more About SAG.