Painting project to feature parks

Bloomington is known for its beauty, especially during the changing of the seasons. The City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, the Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District and the Bloomington Watercolor Society hope to capture that beauty with their newest project, “We Paint ... Parks!”

The project and competition will be a yearlong effort for the 83 members of the Bloomington Watercolor Society.

Members are asked to paint a watercolor of one of 45 parks, trails and other natural sites in Bloomington by October 2011. The sites are assigned randomly by drawing from a hat.

All of the paintings will be on display in the Showers Atrium in City Hall at the annual Bloomington Watercolor Society Membership Show in November 2011. The winner of the competition will receive a small cash prize, and the winning painting will be featured on the cover of the 2012 Bloomington Parks and Recreation program guide.
 
Miah Michaelsen, assistant economic development director for the arts for the City of Bloomington, said adding an award component unifies the project on a bigger scale.  
Kriste Lindberg, the activities and workshops chairwoman for Bloomington Watercolor Society, said that although the project is designed as a competition, participants should find the experience fun and relaxed.

“It’s a friendly competition, I guess you could say,” she said. “Even though names are drawn out of a hat, if they want a certain site, they can always trade with someone else. It’s a friendly way of competing.”

Lindberg is also painting Jackson Creek Trail in the competition. She said one of the most important goals of this competition is to feature Bloomington parks to which people might have never had access to before.

“I hope it will help with education and educating people about what’s around us,” she said. “It encourages people to see more and take advantage of what’s available to them.”
Another aspect of the competition is journaling. Participants are asked to record their experiences in writing and sketches. 

“I think it will be fun to experience a site, to see it for what it really is and the beauty it has to offer, in painting and in writing,” Lindberg said.

Michaelsen said she hopes this competition will encourage artists who have not found an outlet to pursue their passions. Michaelsen said the Bloomington Watercolor Society is a very supportive organization.

“They try to embrace the idea of collective artists working in a certain media,” she said. “They offer a lot of encouragement.”

The competition is also generating proceeds for the Parks Foundation fund, and part of the percentages of any paintings sold at the membership show will go the Parks and Recreation Department. This is to help maintain the beauty and upkeep of the parks.

Jeanne Dutton, publicity chairwoman for the Bloomington Watercolor Society, said this project is exciting in that it exposes the community to the vibrant artistic culture in town. She also said that the partnership between the three organizations fosters a great community effort.

“I think it’s exciting that this project is a community project, and I don’t know of any other project that’s been a kind of cooperative deal like this,” she said. “It’s wonderful that we have BEAD and Parks and the Watercolor Society involved. It’s a great trio.”