The US Capitol Christmas Tree 2010 jury selection has been made on the Capitol Christmas Tree Juried Art Exhibition. The winner of the "Forever - West" Award is a watercolor by Fred Kingwill, "Christmas in the Tetons". A lifetime artist, Kingwell also worked for the Forest Service for 30+years. Winner of numerous awards, he also teaches and conducts workshops throughout the West.
The next nine selected works will be posted on the US Capitol Christmas Tree website for online voting by the general public for the “People’s Choice Award”. To vote, go to http://www.capitolchristmastree2010.org/peopleschoice.cfm. The voting will be from September 27, 2010 – October 8, 2010. The "People’s Choice Award" will be presented at a reception with Wyoming’s Governor in early November. There will be a showing of all of these works in the Barrett Building in Cheyenne from November 9 to December 13, 2010.
Note cards depicting the top ten Wyoming artist’s renditions of the US Capitol Christmas Tree will be boxed in packages of 10 and sold with all the funds going to the support of the US Capitol Christmas Tree 2010 project.
As part of Wyoming’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree 2010 project, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and the Wyoming Arts Council sponsored a statewide artists’ competition to select an official painting of a Wyoming Christmas Tree for the US Capitol Christmas Tree Project. The winning art piece will be presented to the Chief of the Forest Service in December 2010.
It should come as no surprise to most Wyoming citizens at this point to hear that Wyoming has been asked to provide a 67 foot tall Christmas tree that will grace the West Lawn of the nation’s Capitol in Washington D.C. this December.
Traditionally, the painting of the tree is presented to the Chief of the Forest Service. The Wyoming painting will hang in the Chief’s office for the full year following this Christmas then will join the past years’ paintings in “The Tree Gallery” in 2011.
‘We are honored to have so many wonderful artists sharing their talent with the people of Wyoming by participating in this project,” said Capitol Christmas Tree Coordinator Mary Cernicek. “I am thrilled with the selection of Fred Kingwell’s piece and I believe it truly embodies Wyoming and the west,” she said.
