The Eagle Valley Land Trust, located in Eagle County, Colorado, is dedicated to preserving 2,000 acres of land every year. That’s an ambitious task all on its own, but this fall, the trust is cohosting the exhibition Nature’s Preservation at Claggett/Rey Gallery, in which painters Kent Lemon and Lanny Grant and sculptor Steve Kestrel highlight the land’s natural beauty. 
Lanny Grant, Spring Awakening, oil, 36 x 48"
Lemon and Grant took trips out to the trust’s preservations, and both will show paintings inspired by that area and other Colorado landscapes.
Grant’s painting Spring Awakening depicts a valley near Aspen, Colorado, just as winter thaws into spring. “This and other areas of Colorado’s high country are seeing unprecedented recreational use, with ever-increasing human impact on the vegetation, water features and wildlife,” he explains. “In the painting, I wanted to share the beauty of winter slowly releasing its grip on the high country as the trees, grasses and wildflowers awaken again to the warmth of spring.”
Kent Lemon, Liquid Elegy, oil, 48 x 30"
In Liquid Elegy, Lemon takes a traditional landscape subject—a creek—and paints it in a nontraditional manner. Instead of a sky, a background and a foreground, viewers of the painting look directly into the water.
“I happened to be wandering around Bear Creek State Park, and the water that day was really clear,” Lemon remembers. The style of the painting is realistic, but the composition and perspective make it nearly abstract. He adds, “I want my landscapes to be from an angle the viewer doesn’t see very often. It’s a new take on an old subject.”
Carving out of natural field and river stones, Kestrel’s sculptures focus on the consequences that human actions have on the environment. “The hardships experienced by many animal species are unseen by most people, especially those of small creatures labeled reptile and amphibian,” he says. 
Steve Kestrel, Drought, Colorado schist river stone, sandstone and slate, 9½ x 44 x 16"
In his sculpture Drought, a frog sits in a dry riverbed. The issue hits close to home for Kestrel. Last year, the Cameron Peak Fire burned up Colorado’s drought-stricken land and came within a mile of his home.
“My hope is that this exhibition will create a greater awareness and connection with all things beautiful through these three masters’ hands,” says gallery owner Bill Rey. “We are at a precarious point which none of us wants to see, but we are all a part of it. We can only look in the mirror, as we are the starting point for respect, change or plight of this perilous planet.” —
Claggett/Rey Gallery
216 Main Street, Suite C-100 • Edwards, CO 81632
(970) 476-9350 • www.claggettrey.com
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