Trijesten Leach won the Best of Show award at last year’s Driggs Plein Air Festival. “The Driggs Plein Air competition does a great job of bringing everyone together,” he said.
Art hangs in the Driggs City Center before the 2019 competition. The 2022 Driggs Plein Air Festival started last week and runs through the end of the month with workshops, exhibitions, sales and competitions.
An artist competes in last year’s Downtown QuickDraw on Main Street in front of Barrels and Bins. Known for its generous payout, with 70% of sales going to artists, the Driggs Plein Air Festival saw some $53,000 in transactions last year.
Trijesten Leach won the Best of Show award at last year’s Driggs Plein Air Festival. “The Driggs Plein Air competition does a great job of bringing everyone together,” he said.
Art hangs in the Driggs City Center before the 2019 competition. The 2022 Driggs Plein Air Festival started last week and runs through the end of the month with workshops, exhibitions, sales and competitions.
An artist competes in last year’s Downtown QuickDraw on Main Street in front of Barrels and Bins. Known for its generous payout, with 70% of sales going to artists, the Driggs Plein Air Festival saw some $53,000 in transactions last year.
Hundreds of works of art will be painted, hung and sold in Teton Valley, Idaho, over the next week during the 11th annual Driggs Plein Air Festival.
Competitions, workshops, quick draws and many opportunities to appreciate and purchase art add up to one of the most popular plein air events in the country, said Alison Brush, executive director of the Downtown Driggs Association.
And the artwork changes every day.
“Art fans and everyone else should check in every day to see what’s new on the wall,” Brush said. “Some buyers make a point of coming every morning, monitoring their favorite pieces.”
The free-to-the-public event will bring 75 artists to Teton Valley to paint and mingle through the end of the month. In addition to looking to sell the work they produce, the artists will compete for awards, judged by this year’s workshop artists Kimball Geiler and Aimee Erickson, and for the People’s Choice Award, determined by audience vote.
Brush said lot of sales are made during Driggs Plein Air. In 2021, she said, over $53,000 in sales were recorded. She and a steadfast coalition of some 60 volunteers swap art out through the entire week as painters weigh what work they think will do better in competition, or because they sell pieces.
“Our artist commissions are one of the highest paybacks out there,” Brush said.
The Downtown Driggs Association pays artists a 70% commission, with the remaining 30% of sales going to cover the costs of producing the festival.
It’s not unthinkable for an artist to sell four, six or even eight paintings during Driggs Plein Air.
“Some are just prolific painters,” Brush said.
Others sell their work quickly and at high prices, making the event a kind of spectator sport for art enthusiasts.
“Allan Brockbank sells everything he paints,” Brush said. “He’s good. And he’s affordable.”
This year’s artists come from throughout the region, the Northern Rockies and even from across the country and the continent, with painters making pilgrimages from Nevada, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Canada. Registration for this year’s event was full in March; typically applications are accepted through June for all levels of artists, emerging to professional.
Many artists try to return year after year because the event’s reputation precedes itself: a high commission, a beautiful landscape to work in and an inspirational week of camaraderie.
Trijsten Leach, of Provo, Utah, won last year’s Best of Show award for his painting “Teton River Winding.” He said he comes back to Teton Valley for the people.
“It’s all about community,” he said, “and I am very much looking forward to seeing my artist friends. ... The Driggs Plein Air competition does a great job of bringing everyone together.
“In addition to being an amazing place of natural beauty and outdoor recreation,” he said, “the community in Teton Valley is just as amazing. People from the community come together to throw this amazing event, they are volunteering to help, some of them are painting, they are buying paintings, they are letting us paint on their land, and after all that they are coming to the show to celebrate the participating artists.”
Plein air painting is an endurance sport, Leach said, with many factors going into a successful outing.
“For starters, you have to travel to a location, which sometimes means driving but it can also mean climbing, hiking, biking, rowing, etc.,” he said. “Artists will do a lot to get the perfect picture.”
When painting outside, artists face many elements: heat, cold, bugs, wind. And then there’s the time limit of just one or two hours to get a painting to where it needs to be before atmospheric conditions change.
“It’s an amazing challenge, and I love it,” the three-time festival participant said.
Salt Lake City painter Blake Luther, another returning artist, agrees that the event is fastidiously organized.
“Two things make this such a great event,” he said. “First, it is well organized. Alison and all the volunteers are so welcoming to the artists and helpful throughout the event. There are numerous perks and benefits for the artists during the event, and the ample room and time to exhibit paintings are part of this.”
Second, he said, Teton Valley is a great place to paint outdoors.
“You can drive anywhere and land on a great spot,” he said. “I like to paint open scenes with some type of man-made structure or element. There are tons of these opportunities.”
Luther already has been scouting spots around the valley and has a found few that look promising.
“Last evening I painted on a bluff above the Teton River at Rainey Bridge,” he said. “It was a gorgeous evening, and the wind died down just as the good light came on.”
Luther said plein air painting saved him from getting burned out in his architecture profession.
“I was asked to design a painting studio for an excellent artist in Salt Lake about 18 years ago,” he said. “I had always wanted to try painting, and she turned me on to several Utah artists that were offering workshops.”
Painting and hanging out with other artists has grown into one of his favorite pastimes.
“It gave me a separate freedom and challenge away from the pressures of my practice,” he said. “I ended up with a much healthier balance and a renewed appreciation for the design process in general.
“Painting is direct, personal and unencumbered,” he said, “whereas architecture requires many parties to converge and hopefully produce a good building.”
Every piece of art entered in Driggs Plein Air is required to be stamped and submitted as part of the competition, and whether that piece hangs in the sale tent sale or has been selected by the artist to hang in the gallery, each is part of the commission equation.
“Collectors want to meet the artists,” Brush said. “They stop them in the field while painting, and sometimes they buy them off the easel.” 
Contact Tibby Plasse via 732-7078 or entertainment@jhnewsandguide.com.
11th annual Driggs Plein Air Festival
Driggs City Center, Driggs, Idaho
Quick Draw: 7:30-10:30 a.m. on private property in Driggs
Exhibition and Sale: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. in Driggs City Center Gallery
Final competition submissions due by 5 p.m., Driggs City Center
Exhibition and Sale: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. in Driggs City Center Gallery
People's Choice Voting: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Artists Choice Voting: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Exhibition and Sale: 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Driggs City Center Gallery
Judging and Awards Ceremony: 6-8 p.m., Driggs City Center and Plaza
Exhibition and Sale: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in Driggs City Center Gallery
Exhibition and Sale: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Driggs City Center Gallery
Gallery exhibition and online sale
Since moving to Jackson Hole in 1992, Richard has covered everything from local government and criminal justice to sports and features. He currently concentrates on arts and entertainment, heading up the Scene section.
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