Author: Scott Bouma

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.

Peace Hawley Joppich’s watercolor painting of a Great Lakes Piping Plover was selected as the winner of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s 2018 kids’ artwork contest. Peace, 9, lives in Maple City and is one of the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s After School Art kids – along with her brother, Odin, 7. They both attend Leland Public School. Peace’s composition will be the artwork used on the Park’s 2019 Annual Park Entrance Pass.

SBDNL Ranger Paul Purifoy announced the winner at a ceremony on December 15 at SBD Headquarters in Empire, Michigan. This is the third year for the contest. Kids 12 years or younger submitted drawings and painting from August through October. This year, a total of 77 entries were received from young artists living in many different states, including Michigan, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The contest is part of the Park’s effort to spotlight the “Every Kid in a Park” program. Peace will receive a selection of gifts from the park’s bookstore High fives, Peace!

Every year, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore sells over 11,000 Annual Park Entrance Passes. The pass provides free entry for 12 months for the pass holder and occupants in a single, private non-commercial vehicle. If entry is by foot, bicycle, or organized group not part of a commercial tour, the pass admits the pass holder and three adults (16 years of age or older). Children under 16 are admitted free.