Prugh at PSB; new venue in Victor; Ham at Mountain Trails

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Many Jacksonites know Peggy Prugh as ‘Mrs. Prugh,’ due to the 30 years she spent at the Jackson Hole High School as an English and Humanities teacher. Prugh has a new passion for painting, and she has revealed her work at Pearl Street Bagels, where it currently hangs.

Since her retirement, Prugh “can now say yes” to herself “for the first time after raising two children and working full-time.” She now sits on the board of the Art Association, volunteers at the library and paints. Along with her show at PSB, she has a piece on exhibit in the Art Association’s “Labor of Love” at the Center for the Arts.
As a teacher, Prugh would often incorporate art into her curriculum. “I gave students journals and they drew...what they felt after reading passages from ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God,’ or anything by Kingsolver,” she said. “It became highly personal and fun for them.”

Now that Prugh can devote more time to her practice, she finds the observation of visual art subjects interesting, as opposed to the logical expression of writing - as if she is learning to see for the first time.

“I never truly saw what was around me until I started painting,” she said. “I look at patterns now and colors - I observe the neutrals in the landscapes here and then the vibrancy of a saturated color like the Cerulean blue of the sky really vibrates and stands out.” She prefers to work in plein air and with soft pastels. “I love the immediacy of pastels,” she said. “I have to mix oils, since oils have a palette of 12 colors or fewer. … Pastels have 200 to 500 colors and I can layer them to find my exact color.”

Prugh is fascinated by the function of color in painting. She has studied neoimpressionists like George Seurat, who learned to fool the eye using pointillism and color combinations from the color wheel of primary and intermediary hues, invented by French chemist Michel Chevreul in the 19th century.

Prugh explained that color complements will vibrate, and analogous colors will have a harmonious, pleasing effect to the eye. Her small-scaled landscapes, priced at $200 to $350, portray the Turquoise Trail south of Santa Fe, and scenes from Hawaii, Provence, and Jackson. Prugh’s show will be up until March 15 at Pearl Street Bagels, 145 West Pearl.

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Perhaps Victor’s new clothing and furniture consignment store, The Monkey Barrel, will serve as an interim replacement for the soon-departing Ciao Gallery. Four local artists will show their work at this new venue, with an artists’ reception from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday in the Old Dewey House, next to Festive Living, 37 S. Main Street.

The artists were handpicked by the owner. They are Abby Paffrath with batik (an ancient art form she learned while living in Indonesia); Molly Armour and Marlene Wusinich with mixed media; and Sarah Lott with photography. Lott works in Polaroid Manipulation, a photographic process that results in a painterly image.
Appetizers and wine will be served.

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Regrettably, I missed Jim Vilona’s show “Functional Art” at Mountain Trails Gallery, which unveiled his contemporary, organically-shaped interpretations of benches, chairs and tables, and propelled the gallery into a new direction - away from their arrangement of “New West” genre painters.

Hopefully, this brilliant furniture designer and member of the America National Ski Team will return soon. Mountain Trails is now introducing another New West painter, Jeff Ham, in a “One Man Show.” Ham’s artwork is brightly colored and bold, using primary colors in acrylic paint. It features portrait and wildlife subjects.

Ham works in Indiana and Utah and he has illustrated books and magazines. His children’s books illustrations include “Black Beauty,” “Frankenstein,” “Anne of Green Gables,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Companies like Keebler, Disney, Bush Beer, Budweiser, Kellogg’s and McDonalds have used his work. Ham said, “My goal is to capture spontaneity. As an artist I am learning to express myself in an honest and straightforward manner.”

Ham’s show will hang through Feb. 28 at Mountain Trails Gallery, 150 Center Street. Call 734-8150 for more information.

Courtesy Jeff Ham
Jeff Ham’s “Sitting Bull.” 61”x57” acrylic.

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Prugh at PSB; new venue in Victor; Ham at Mountain Trails | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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