December art in Niwot

Niwot is filled with art for the holidays.

This past Saturday, Open Studios Pop! Gallery at the former Niwot Rental and Feed store on 2nd Avenue was open to the public in a holiday showing. The space showcased between 20 and 30 artists in a variety of mediums, and artists with work on display are available, in turns, to speak to gallery visitors.

Megan Morgan and Terri Ficken were two of the artists available for the weekend shift. Morgan showcased her work as a variety of subjects portrayed on framed burlap, and Ficken showcased her work as landscape, still life and animal portraits.

This showcase was part of a holiday effort by the Niwot Cultural Arts Association to bring in Boulder-based nonprofit Open Studios Pop! to expand art accessibility in the area. The gallery debuted during the Enchanted Evening celebration on Nov. 25, and will be in place through New Year's Eve.

According to the Open Studios website, artists maintain a membership in the nonprofit and the project can appear at any place where a landlord or owner of a location with a suitable size is open to having the space used for the project. For more information about participating as an artist or a host, readers are invited to visit the nonprofit's website at https://www.openstudios.org/pop-gallery.

Across the street from the pop up gallery, Osmosis Art and Architecture gallery is currently showing a wide range of art, including art that depicts extremely local Niwot scenery from artist Bill Enyart, who is both the grandson and son of an artist, and the father of a son who is an artist and art teacher, and is also the owner of a forge and fabrication business.

Art is in his family culture and he embodies it with, among other things, the local depictions that are in Osmosis gallery, including the former feed store and a beautiful work that depicts a team of horses, who happened to be walking through the town as part of the Niwot Holiday Market event.

Other local work is on sale at Osmosis, including that of artist Scott Roebuck, who created art depicting the Wandering Jellyfish/Niwot Tribune building and The Niwot Grange, which received the Grand Prize award at this year's Why Not Niwot? Juried Art Show.

In addition, both coffee houses in Niwot are displaying their usual monthly art shows. Winot Coffee is featuring art from Niwot newcomer Dorothy Weiner. Although professionally, Weiner was a journalist, she's received artists' training at Washington University, at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and at The Art Students League of Denver. Her art includes depictions of area scenes including flowers, fruit, barns and the Niwot Tribune building that is currently the home of the Wandering Jellyfish bookstore.

One of Weiner's paintings was sold just a day after the exhibit which was exciting to Laurie Algar, who coordinated the show. She is thrilled for her current artists, and for those who might be shown in future months.

Algar said the space is proving popular enough that all spots for next year, except for one month, are already taken. That being said, Algar encourages interested artists to contact her in case there is a cancellation. She said the art should be family friendly, and she tries to show artists regionally and artists of all ages, including kids.

On Second Avenue, The Old Oak Coffeehouse is brightening the winter with an up-close view of spring and summer botanicals. The photographic gallery wraps and acrylic paintings from Boulder County Artist Sandy Backlund comprise a show called, "Just a Moment."

The subject in each painting receives an intense focus taking up most of the room in the frame. According to the artist's statement that accompanies the show, that is intentional. It reads, "Being present in the moment is easy when she's looking through her camera's lens – and sometimes she is lucky enough to be still enough to capture images that take her breath away. That allows her to look and to see."