Putney Painters Paint Scottsdale

We heard they were coming!  Scottsdale Artists’ School hosted Putney Painter workshop week January 16-20. And nearby in the arts district the Legacy Gallery advertised a Putney Painters and Friends exhibit with several ticketed events. Emily and I were intrigued and signed up.

For some background; nine years ago when Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik relocated to New England they invited artists to paint and learn from them at the Village Art Center in Putney, Vermont. Thus the Putney Painters formed and later expanded to include artists from other areas of the country.

Emily met Casey Baugh at WWM in Monterey and invited him to enter our contest. He entered in the last month and was a prize winner!  She also met Kathy Anderson at the New York Intensive hosted by American Artist last June. So we signed up for Casey Baugh’s demo at the School, Stephanie Birdsall and Kathy Anderson’s swinging brushes dual demo and Nancy Guzik’s slide presentation at the gallery.

Casey painted Stephanie Birdsall’s daughter Marion in an all day demo at the school and mesmerized us. Then at the gallery Nancy shared paintings from the past that inspire her and showed some special works she and Richard created over the years. I had never seen two artists paint on the same painting and it was a thrill to watch Stephanie and Kathy create one.

Bids seemed stalled in the silent auction for their dual painting. When Scott Jones, the General Manager of the Legacy Gallery, announced bidding would close soon I put my name down a few times and overheard someone say “that painting is mine”. I got caught up in other conversations, then got a surprise tap on my shoulder and was shown the clipboard with congratulations written next to my name. The painting was mine!

I couldn’t imagine how the evening could have been more perfect, until Daniel Keys invited us to go to dinner with all the Putney painters.  As I chatted with Michelle Dunaway and Kathy Anderson, I looked over the table of more than twenty top professional artists including Nancy Guzik and felt so proud of our products and contest that brought us into this world of artists!  

Cathy Dietrich  

Kathy Anderson (left) and Stephanie Birdsall (middle) and the painting the artists created with Cathy Dietrich (right) who won the painting in the silent auction.