Valerie Orlemann – About the Artist

I’m a realist landscape painter.  My work is traditional in the sense that I communicate through recognizable images and try to capture a realistic sense of light, color and place.   My paintings are contemporary in the sense that I paint what’s there now (with a little artistic license).  I paint western landscapes, but I don’t try to recreate the old west. Unlike the great western painters of the last century, I tend to focus on landscape rather than figures. I feel that the grandeur and emptiness of the modern western landscape are inspiring on their own terms.

I studied art at the University of Utah, completing most of the BFA program before parenthood (and a new job for my husband in Escalante) redirected my artistic efforts. I wound up far away from art school, but surrounded by beautiful landscapes to paint. With our little girl in tow, my husband and I have explored much of southern Utah and the four corners. Out in the field and back in my studio (painting during naps), I’ve tried to capture what I find most engaging in the landscape around me.

While I am still fairly new as a professional artist, my work has received some recognition. I have won awards in the professional division at the River Runner’s Art Show in Green River (including 1^st place, 2008) and awards for plein air painting at the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Escalante Canyons Art Festival. I was jury-selected to participate in the 22^nd Annual Robert N. and Peggy Sears Dixie Invitational, the St. George Art Festival, the Cedar City Arts Committee’s 65^th Annual Art Exhibit, the Provo Freedom Festival art exhibit, and the Outdoor Painters’ Society’s Plein Air Southwest 2009. I was also chosen to be Artist in Residence in the San Juan Public Lands Center’s Aspen Guard Station program (September, 2006), and at Mesa Verde National Park (May, 2008). I am currently represented by the Gallery Escalante and The Gallery at Clarke’s (opening in April of 2009).