For the 32nd year, artist Paul Folwell is opening his studio on County Road 203 next weekend for his annual show that kicks off Aug. 1 and runs through Aug. 3.
And while the weekends are fun, Folwell said there’s a practical reason as well.
If you go
WHAT: 32nd annual Paul Folwell Studio Show.
WHEN: Aug. 1-3: Artist Reception, 4-7 p.m. Aug.1; noon-5 p.m. Aug. 2 and 3.
WHERE: 8199 County Road 203.
MORE INFORMATION: Call Cheryl Folwell at 759-4870, email: paulfolwell@charter.net or visit www.paulfolwell.com.
“I haven’t stopped painting,” he said. “And so you get a studio full of paintings, you’ve got to do something with them.”
This year’s show features a new series of oil paintings Folwell has been working on inspired by dreams he’s been having.”
“It was pretty interesting, and it kind of turned my cap around a bit,” he said. “This is another thing that spurs you on. There was a series of dreams I kept having over and over, and so I decided to paint it.”
He said in one of the dreams, he was out painting when he found himself helping a man load hay. When the man found out Folwell was an artist, he offered him the chance to camp by a stream.
“I remember the dream and started to focus on the buttes really vividly,” Folwell said. “I remember the stream and the big hay meadows and the cattle and all of that.”
He got some paintings out of the dreams, and they also helped him work out difficulties with older pieces, he said.
“It led to a couple of paintings, big ones,” Folwell said. “That led me to thinking about other things. I was going back through some paintings I didn’t finish. There were a couple I had that weren’t quite working. And I said, ‘Why don’t you just go ahead and visualize what you think it’s about?’ And lo and behold – sometimes you do that, and they become alive.”
This year’s show will feature about 24 pieces, he said, including the new paintings, and some of the older pieces he revisited because of the dreams.
And for Folwell, this bump in inspiration only further adds to the enjoyment he gets working in his studio.
“I’m comfortable with it, and I’m having a lot of fun with it,” he said. “This is a big thing, and keeps me going.”
The show will kick off with an artist reception from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 1.
katie@durangoherald.com
