Mountainfilm: Artist-in-Residence Emilie Lee

Mountainfilm: Artist-in-Residence Emilie Lee

Buy passes here for world-class event, Mountainfilm, kick-off of Telluride’s summer festival season. Starts at High Camp, Friday, May 22, MpvTelluride Conference Center, Mountain Village, with Moving Mountains Symposium on Afghanistan.
It’s been said that Mountainfilm is much more than a film festival — it’s a community of creative, adventurous people who inspire us to make the world a better place. As an artist in residence this year, I’ll share my landscape paintings and talk about my current work, but I also want to focus on the individuals who make this community so special. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hunting down Mountainfilm contributors and asking them to sit still for three hours while I paint their portraits. This is a lot to ask of a busy person, and I’m grateful that so many have been willing to work with me on my idea. In these three hours, we get to know each other a bit and I try to capture something more than just a physical likeness.
Josh Bernstein sits for his portrait to be painted at Emilie Lee's studio in New York City

Josh Bernstein sits for his portrait to be painted at Emilie Lee’s studio in New York City

Working from life is central to all the art I create. Whether I’m painting a person or a landscape, being there allows me to not only see, but to feel the living qualities of my subject. I consciously choose not to use photographs for reference, instead relying on the paintings and notes I make on location to inform my ideas. In the case of my landscapes, my process begins with an adventure. My painting gear is dialed to fit in a backpack, and I’m free to hike out to remote locations. I like to feel exposed to the weather, the smells and the sounds of a place, and in those dynamic conditions unexpected things come to life on my canvas.

At Mountainfilm, I will also share my current work: studies of a unique conservation area in the iconic landscape of Montana’s northern Great Plains…

Continue reading Emilie’s Lee’s words here.

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