Nora Bushong Larimer's Rock Run Gallery Opens in Buena Vista, Colorado About the Gallery

For thirty years the dream sat in the back of their minds.  Preston and Nora Larimer followed their careers, one as an artist, and the other as an environmental educator.  But the dream persisted of someday opening a gallery with a living space above it. In their travels they kept looking, wondering what would be the ideal place.

In 2008, they saw the dream become a reality.  They opened Rock Run Gallery on South Main St. in Buena Vista, CO. In addition to Nora's work, they represent many other fine crafts including pottery, glass, jewelry, handcrafted furniture, and wool and cotton rugs.

Nora Bushong Larimer, currently living in Buena Vista, CO grew up in a farming community in Illinois.  Nora studied at Illinois State University and Principia College and graduated with a B.A. in studio art in 1975.  Since then, she has added extensive coursework to her experience, including print-making and graduate level courses in drawing, painting, and art history.  A professional artist since 1976, she has also had her own custom framing business since 1981.  She has taught watercolor classes on location and from her various studio-galleries for 25 years, in addition to being a watercolor and oil painting instructor at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL.

Since college, she has spent time painting on location all over the U.S. from rural and coastal Maine, to the forests of Pennsylvania, the Amish Farms of Ohio, to Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, as well as abroad in S. E. Asia and Belize, Central America.  This broad experience has helped to shape her bold fresh watercolors and oil paintings of natural landscapes, florals, and fish.
 
Nationally recognized, Nora has won numerous awards at juried shows and festivals throughout the U.S.  Some highlights include:
2006- Missouri Watercolor Society’s National Exhibition.
2007- Two 1st place awards for watercolor at juried art shows
2008- Became a signature member of Texas Watercolor Society
2008- 1st place for painting and also memorial award in the AVAC show in Buena Vista, CO
2008- Best in show for the 1st annual Plein Air Festival, CMPAF, Colorado
2009- A 1st place award during “paint-out” at 2nd annual Plein Air Festival, CMPAF, Colorado
2009- Best of show and 1st place for the AVAC awards show, Buena Vista, CO
2010- Invited to be in Best of America Watermedia  by Kennedy Publishing
 
***    Three trout paintings selected by Patagonia, Inc to be on shirts for their 2011 line.
***    A reproduction of one of her floral pieces is presently included in 1800 Home Depot stores as a window covering.
Her paintings are in hundreds of private collections across the country.

Artist Statement

While painting, my goal is to depict the essence of an idea but not to copy it.   An extreme close up view of a flower, for instance, can create an exciting and interesting abstraction. Strong color is used, too, and sometimes (particularly in landscapes) those colors are not realistic to the viewer not willing to stretch his imagination.  My hope is to help the viewer to see the world around him/her with “new eyes” - to see purple in the trees, for instance, when they normally wouldn’t; to connect to their surroundings in a new way or to visually go somewhere new.  Sometimes, though, it takes them someplace old by stirring up a memory. While my flowers are painted after careful drawing and planning, the landscapes and fish are done with a more direct and spontaneous energy.  I find there’s nothing like painting on location to get this creativity flowing, and it’s not uncommon for several hours to pass by and I’m still feeling the excitement of immersing myself in my environment through the medium of applying paint to paper or canvas.