Plein Air Rockies 2010 Festival & Competition Judges

Painting Competition Judges

Jeff Legg, OPA Master Signature Member
Jeff Legg's artistic interests developed in childhood and by age 13, he was apprentice to a well known regional artist and college art professor Darrel Dishman. This laid the foundation for his drawing and painting skills which led him to study at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The great masters, Chardin, Rembrandt, and more contemporarily the Wyeths are among his artistic influences. It is this nod to the legacy of the old masters combined with his inspired contemporary use of chiaroscuro and subject matter that engage fellow artists and collectors world wide.

Today, Legg's artwork is represented by some of the nation's most distinguished galleries coast to coast. He is honored as an Oil Painters of America Master painter and has won numerous prizes including awards at both the 2004 and 2006 National Oil Painters of America Exhibition, and more recently Salon International 2008 as well as the Oil Painters of America Western Regions "Best Master Signature Member". His paintings have been featured in The Artists Magazine, North Light books, Southwest Art, Art of the West, Western Art Collector and American Art Collector magazines. In December 2005, his artwork graced the cover of Southwest Art as featured artist and article.

Currently, Legg resides in the Northern Colorado Rockies. He paints daily in his studio. The Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park is proud to include him as an as an awards judge for PAR 2010.

John Taft
"The landscape has always spoken to me, even from my earliest memories growing up in the country working the fields on my father's tree nursery in Western NY. At best, the mundane can become music, even a symphony, the ordinary, beautiful. Painting for me, is translating to canvas what the eye "hears", and doing so in a way that considers the lessons of the artists who have come before."

In college, John studied design at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, and then illustration while on scholarship at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. John began painting on weekends in 2001. In 2004, he left a successful 18 year career as a designer and art director in television, and moved with his family from New York to Colorado to pursue painting full time. Most recently, John has been invited the last two years to show in the American Masters Show at the Salmagundi Club in New York City. Additionally, he has being included in the 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 Oil Painters of America National Exhibits, with his painting, "Trail's End At Crater Lake," winning the top landscape award in the 2006 show. In 2007 Mr. Taft was featured in "Landscapes of Colorado", a book curated by Ann Scarlett Daley, Associate Curator of the Institute of American Art at the Denver Art Museum. In 2008, John's painting, "Hidden Valley" was awarded second place out of over 330 paintings at the Nomadas del Arte's plein-air show in Santa Fe. The Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park is pleased to include him as an as an awards judge for PAR 2010.

Quick Draw Competition Judge

Robert R. Salo
Robert (Bob) Salo's love of nature and wildlife began early. As a boy growing up in Michigan's remote Keweenaw peninsula, Bob spent hours studying and drawing the animals, farms, and forests of that spectacular region.

Following a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, Bob received his first formal art instruction at Meinzinger Art School in Detroit, where he studied under George Rich.

While working for many years as a commercial artist and fine arts illustrator in Detroit and Boston, Bob continued to celebrate his love of nature through wildlife and landscape painting in his free time.

Bob fulfilled a lifelong dream when he moved to the outskirts of Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. In Colorado he perfected his painting skills, devoting his full time to capturing that area's wildlife and scenery on canvas. His work in Boston introduced him to New England's rural charm and seaside beauty.

Bob Salo's paintings can be found in galleries and museums, as well as in private and corporate collections in the United States and abroad. He is a signature artist member of the Society of Animal Artists [SAA], and has been exhibited in the prestigious national tour ARTS for the PARKS numerous times. The Cultural Arts Council welcomes Robert R. Salo to judge the PAR 2010 Quick Draw Competition on Saturday morning, August the 28.

PAR 2010 Show Juror

Robert Wands
Robert Wands was raised in the home of his artist father, the "Dean of Colorado landscape artists", Alfred Wands, who taught him to paint "en plein air" from the age of 12. Robert went on to receive his B.F.A. and M.A. in painting from the University of Denver with additional graduate work at Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Art Institute. His master thesis dealt with "Atmospheric Conditions in Paint" and he became known as a cloud painter. He also spent five years as a seasonal ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park, which added greatly to his interest in landscape painting.

Robert retired as Professor Emeritus of Art from Colorado State University at Pueblo, where he taught drawing and Painting for 33 years. He now maintains two studios, one in Pueblo, CO from October to May, and another in Estes Park, CO from June to September. Robert is an accomplished "plein air" painter, and the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park was privileged to have him serve as the show juror for PAR 2010.