Three things I truly enjoy intersect just 2 miles from our home: local history, a local artist and landscape art.
Physically, they intersect at Tejon and Vermijo in downtown Colorado Springs.
The Pioneers Museum is dedicated to local history, including the settlement and development of the Colorado Springs area. Its home is the former El Paso County Courthouse; one of the exhibits is a fully restored courtroom. It used to be open from 10am-5pm every day of the week, but the city budget is an absolute wreck. It’s always free to the public and absolutely worth a visit by locals and visitors alike.
The Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs is housed in the former El Paso County Courthouse
One of my favorite exhibits is “Looming Large: The Artistic Legacy of Pikes Peak,” which was developed during the 2006 bicentennial of Zebulon Montgomery Pike’s expedition up the southwestern slopes of America’s Mountain. It’s a room filled with various artistic renderings of the mountain that now bears Pike’s name. One painting truly stands out from the rest and earns prominent placement.
Entrance to the Looming Large exhibit at the Pioneers Museum
The oil painting is “Pikes Peak 2004” by Tracy Felix, who grew up and worked as an artist in Colorado Springs. Within the past few years, he and his wife, artist Sushe Felix, moved to Denver.
Pikes Peak 2004 by Tracy Felix
Perhaps for my love of mountains, wilderness and trails, I’ve always favored landscape photography and landscape painting over most other artistic forms. Fold in the fact that the artist is local and the subject is Colorado mountains and I’m all in.
The style here is obviously bright, playful and inviting. Though this treatment of Pikes Peak is relatively straightforward, much of his other work is a bit more abstract.
His work hangs at the Denver Art Museum, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center in Pueblo, among other places.
Here’s a sampling of Felix’s treatment of other Colorado landmarks.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mount Yale, Maroon Bells
Longs Peak, Sangre de Cristo Mountains
With this post, I simply wanted to draw your attention to a few things I enjoy that happen to intersect.
Related Links:
Pioneers Museum: home
Pioneers Museum: about
Pioneers Museum: exhibits
Pioneers Museum: photos from my Flickr stream
Tracy Felix: artist statement
Tracy Felix: gallery
Enjoy!
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