Art on the Lake: Come sun, snow or rain, we’ll celebrate art on Saturday, November 4, from 4-8:00 p.m. at the gallery, 311 E. Lake Street. We’ll have art, wine by Bistro 45, piano music by Mike Rutledge, and appetizers. We are pleased to welcome our guest artist for the month of November, renowned landscape painter and art educator Jim Blankenship.
After 46 years of teaching at the secondary and post-secondary levels, including BYU-Hawaii and Boise State University, Jim retired in 2006 to concentrate on making art. “I began painting in my own studio in McCall, Idaho. It has been a most inspirational setting in the mountains, trees and the beautiful Payette Lake. And, it has been a wonderful opportunity to have the time to ponder and create.”
Jim says he just had to paint this scene, a grounded C-47, which is being restored by Scotty Anderson near the corner of Mission and Scott Streets in McCall. Jim talked to Scott and found out he is a retired smokejumper who had jumped out of this very plane before it was decommissioned. Scott is planning on building a Fine Arts Center with the plane as a centerpiece for the center.
Here Jim is pictured with his canine companion Ralphie, who accompanies Jim in morning treks in the foothills of Boise and the mountains of McCall.
This year Jim published a beautiful book of his paintings, assisted by his wife, writer Colleen Blankenship, who he says is his best critic. We will have a copy of his book at the gallery.
Gallery Fifty-Five 
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