Olmsted Plein Air Invitational - April 2 - 9, 2017

Announcing the 2017 Awards Judges
Olmsted Plein Air Invitational  - April 2 - 9, 2017


After seven days of capturing Atlanta's landscapes and cityscapes, an expert panel of three Awards Judges will evaluate the paintings produced by our nationally recognized Master Artists. Each artist will be vying for their piece of the  purse plus the prestige of winning the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational. 

Paintings will be first offered for sale throughout the week at events and the Artists will select their top three that will be judged at  the exclusive, ticketed Awards & Collector’s Soirée on Saturday, April 8th. All remaining paintings will be available for purchase to the public on Sunday April 9th. 

Clyde Aspevig's personal and artistic horizons have unfolded expansively since his childhood on a Montana farm near the Canadian border. That period of geographical and cultural isolation was in retrospect a blessing for the artist he recalls. "Because I grew up in a vacuum in Montana, I wasn't taught the cliches."
He sees such naivete as allowing him to be more open to everything around him, which is especially evident in his latest works. His peripatetic field easel now ranges across the wild mountains and prairies of Montana, Death Valley, Adirondacks, rocky North Atlantic coast, Scandinavian fjords and the well-tended hillside estates of Tuscany. Growing up, he witnessed the alternatingly painful and joyful cycles of agricultural life. He was unusually fortunate to be encouraged by his family in the pursuits of art and appreciation of music. Clyde learned early on to work hard and persevere against obstacles natural and manmade. Rather than scoffing at or demeaning Clyde's interests, Clyde's father, the practical but open-minded farmer, bought his twelve-year-old son's first painting.
Mr. Aspevig considers his paintings as old friends and visual souvenirs of places experienced in his life. The viewer, too, shares in Clyde's magical evocations of the landscapes that touched him.

Dan Amos is the chairman and chief executive officer of Aflac Incorporated and avid Impressionist art collector. Aflac is a Fortune 500 company that insures more than 50 million people worldwide.
He also is responsible for launching the company's national advertising program featuring the popular Aflac Duck. Today, Aflac is a top national brand and was named by FORTUNE magazine in 2016 as one of America's Most Admired Companies for the 15th year. 
In 2013, Mr. Amos was proud to accept the Salute to Greatness Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta joining a distinguished list of past recipients that include former United States Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, entertainer Oprah Winfrey, Ambassador Andrew J. Young, U.S. Poet Laureate Maya Angelou, athlete Ervin "Magic" Johnson and singers Bono and Stevie Wonder.  Mr. Amos has also received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Award and the Anti-Defamation League's Torch of Liberty Award. 
A past member of the board of trustees of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Mr. Amos also serves on the board of the House of Mercy of Columbus and previously served as a member of the Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is the former chairman of the board of the Japan America Society of Georgia and former chairman of the University of Georgia Foundation. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia in risk management.

Wes Fraser was born in Savannah, Georgia, and came of age on Hilton Head Island, SC. Fraser served for 9 years as a Board Commissioner of the South Carolina Art’s Commission; he is an artist member of the Salmagundi Club, a signature member of the prestigious PAPA (Plein Air Painters of America) and a signature member of the California Art Club.  Fraser has been honored with 8 solo museum exhibitions in the Midwest, the Southeast, and California. His most recent exhibition titled A Native Son: Paintings of West Fraser was at the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah GA, in 2012. In January 2017 Fraser will have his 3rd one man show at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. There will be a smaller traveling exhibit featured in the fall at the Coastal Discovery Museum in Hilton Head Island, S.C. 
West Fraser has been published extensively, including features in Art and Antiques, Plein Air Magazine, The Robb Report, Southern Accents, American Artist, Nautical Quarterly, Southwest Art, Art and Antiques, Charleston Magazine, and Garden & Gun, to name a few.  His second book, Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser, was released by the University of South Carolina Press in July 2016. This book represents over 40 years of West’s paintings of the Southeastern seaboard starting around Georgetown, S.C. and ending in St. Augustine, Fla. 
His paintings are in 9 museum collections and the White House Historic Society as well as numerous significant private and corporate collections nationwide. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Fine Art’s degree in 1979.