Two artists, Michele Rushworth and Galina Perova, have been selected by the Governor’s Portrait Selection Committee to complete five portraits of former Wyoming Governors in the coming year.
Rushworth and Perova were selected from 37 applications received in a regional search of artists from Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington.
Rushworth, of Sammamish, Wash., has previously completed portraits of Governor Gary Locke of Washington and Governor Kenny Guinn of Nevada. She has also done portraits of corporate executives and professional athletes, including baseball player Edgar Martinez of the Seattle Mariners.
She appeared on a national CBS television broadcast when she donated a portrait of a firefighter, who died in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
Rushworth has been an artist for more than 30 years, and is a member of the Portrait Society of America. She recently received a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission, and averages 10-12 portraits a year.
Galina Perova, of Salt Lake City, had her formal training in St. Petersburg, Russia, and taught at the University of Utah from 1989 to 1991. In 2004, she received the Utah Governors’ Mansion Artist Award, and in 2005, completed a 500-square-foot mural at UU. She is currently completing a portrait of the former president of the World Bank.
The highly competitive artist selection process took into account the current portraiture work done by the artists, their experience in commission portrait work, and the quality of the submitted images viewed by the Committee.
The portraits to be painted include Governors Stan Hathaway, John Joseph Hickey, Cliff Hansen, Mike Sullivan and Jim Geringer. These will be the first portraits to be painted thanks to funding provided by the Wyoming State Legislature to complete the process of painting the portraits of all of the state’ s former governors. The portraits are expected to be completed next year and will be displayed in the Wyoming State Capitol building in Cheyenne.
