2020 Manitou Music Poster Winner

Illinois painter Sally Wille’s Full Color Beach Day is the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s iconic 2020 Manitou Music Poster image.

“I have painted this scene on the beach at Glen Haven many times,” Wille said. Working through direct observation, and with an array of photographs that capture the receding and encroaching Lake Michigan water levels on the beach, Wille has created an abstracted impression of the beach. Full Color Beach Day was executed in gouache and cold wax.

“I apply cold wax after the painting is finished,” she said. “It acts as a protective seal on top of the painting and I don’t have to frame the watercolor under glass. I like the added texture cold wax gives and adds another dimension to the painting.”

The Manitou Music concerts are one of the GAAC’s summer highlights. Manitou Music offers a series of live musical performances between July and August.

“The landscape all over Leelanau County provides inspiration,” Wille said.” This painting is a journey of color and abstract representation that hopefully excites the viewer.”

For more than two decades, Wille and her family have divided their year between a home in Glencoe, Illinois, and Glen Arbor. She earned a BFA from the University of Arizona, and worked as a graphic designer and art director for Northern Trust Bank and Beltone Electronics before raising her family.

Wille’s painting was selected by the GAAC’s Manitou Music Poster Committee from a field of 25 entries. The poster competition is open to all GAAC members. Applications for the 2021 poster competition are online at GlenArborArt.org/FOR ARTISTS, and will be available for review in early May 2020. Deadline for submissions is September 17. Copies of the 2020 poster are available now. The poster price is $18.