Craig Daily Press

More than 50 paintings — capturing images ranging from rustic pioneer landscapes to the solitude of single portraits — line the green-carpeted walls at the recently opened Summer Art gallery in downtown Craig.

The venue provides local artists with something they didn’t have before the gallery opened July 1 — a home for their works to be displayed to the public.

“This is a fun show,” said Jane Hume, a local artist and one of the gallery’s organizers. “We have no rules, no huge fees. (We) just want our art to be out there.

“There is no other place in town you can show that totem pole,” she added, pointing to a work about 16 feet tall in the rear of the showroom.

The gallery, formerly home to a range of businesses including a newspaper, bookstore and art and frame shop, is for sale. However, Hume said the building’s owner, Larry Welker, generously donated the space to the local artists to display their works.

“We plan to be open, we hope, through hunting season,” Hume said.

Once it opened last month, it didn’t take long for word to get out about the new venue available to local artists. After a week, the gallery had 15 artists who filled the showroom with oil paintings, watercolors, photography, leather work, wood carvings and other pieces.

Two of the local artists on display at the gallery are Craig residents Charley Hart and Joyce Peterson. Both artists describe painting as their life’s passion.

“I just enjoy doing it,” said Hart, an oil painter who specializes in traditional, pioneer-type works. “I don’t know how to describe it. I enjoy all of it, the whole process. Even the frustrating parts.”

Peterson called Hart “a true artist.”

As for her own work, Peterson primarily uses water media. She has a studio and gallery in her home, has painted for 40 to 50 years, and has work displayed in Steamboat Springs and Hayden, as well.

“It’s always been my passion,” she said.

Hume dabbles in oils and water colors, though she deflects attention from her own paintings and steers it back to Hart and Peterson, two friends and colleagues who sat at the gallery with her Monday afternoon.

“I’m not nearly as prolific as these other two are,” Hume said.

The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday until the building is sold, leased or until “the heat needs to be turned on.”

“Which may be pretty early this year,” Hume said.

There is no admission fee.

Hume said there is more room available at the gallery for other artists wanting to show work. Anyone interested should call Hume at 826-0594.

For now, Hume and the lineup of local artists are unsure of how long the gallery will be open. Perhaps the Summer Art gallery will change with the seasons, they said.

“You never know — it might go into fall art,” Hume said. “We’re hoping.”