If not for artists like Claude Monet, would gardens ever have become such an engaging spot for art? When the master placed his easel in a garden, he joined two of the most colorful of disciplines.
Now add a dog at the feet of the painter and the image conjures up Expressions in the Garden, a new event to showcase women artists and raise money for the non-profit Positive Partners Assistance Dogs.
Founded five years ago by Fran Jewell, a longtime, valley-based dog trainer, Positive Partners Assistance Dogs' specialty is partnering a custom-trained dog with people whose disabilities may make them ineligible for other programs.
The organization placed its first dog with a blind woman in Hawaii in 2006. The woman, who is approximately 95 percent blind, was unable to get a dog guide from other organizations because of her partial sight.
One of the dogs will soon go to a woman with cerebral palsy in Meridian, and the other will go to a deaf woman in Bellevue, Wash. A 13-week old puppy, Isabella, is in training.
The art show will feature the work of Margery Freidlander, Jennifer Galpin-Mikesh, Angie Maisenberfer, Esperanza Grundy, Fran Jewell, Annie May and Gay Odmark. It will be held at Elizabeth's Garden, 118 Buttercup Rd. in Hailey, from 3-6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17.
"This is the first one and we hope to do it on a regular basis," said Jewell, who is a photographer. "Margery Freidlander is on our board of directors and she organized it. It's coming along well. There are a variety of different artists with works in print, watercolor, oils and mixed media. It's really very cool."
Florida resident Maisenberger is inspired in her paintings and prints by her travels around the globe.
Hailey resident Jen Galpin-Mikesh owns Vita Brevis Press, where she works with artists to create etching editions and monotypes. Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary gallery currently represents Galpin-Mikesh in Jackson Hole.
Gay Bawa Odmark was born in Lahore, India. She designed and manufactured her own line of jewelry, which was sold through I. Magnin, Saks, Lankin and Cie in Los Angeles, O.C. Tanner in Salt Lake City, and Concepts Gallery in Carmel, Calif. Now a resident of Ketchum, she works in mixed media, inspired by her Eastern heritage.
"I enter a world where memory and psyche intertwine in a dance with the paint," she said. "Over time, the vivid images from my past have been resolved and have become more abstracted, and collage has begun to play more of a dominant role, combining the past and present."
Friedlander studied watercolor painting and journaling in 2000 after she retired. Her repertoire includes collage, monotypes and etching.
Jewell's photographs have been published in many periodicals. Her specialty is custom canine portraits in natural settings.
Though Grundy shows paintings in the Pacific Northwest, she has Southwest influences.
"Esperanza has an eye for capturing sentiments, memories and experiences into a two-dimensional format," Odmark said.
Annie May paints in watercolor, pastel, oil and Prismacolor pencil. She is currently creating etchings and monotypes at Vita Brevis Press. Her art reflects her love of nature and the human form.
"Passion fruitvine," by Jennifer Galpin-Mikesh.
