Denver Plein Air Fesitval Winners show work at Byers-Evans

Denver hosts the largest urban plein air (painting outdoors) event in the nation. The 2012 juried exhibition will be hosted Nov. 14 through Dec. 31 in the seventh-floor gallery at the Denver Public Library, Broadway and 13th Avenue.

But the winners of the 2011 Denver Plein Air Festival are exhibiting their works through October 31 at the Byers-Evans House Museum, 1310 Bannock St. (just west of the Denver Art Museum). Admission to the gallery area is free, although there is a charge for those who want to tour this beautiful historic house.

• Denver painter Jim Beckner graduated from Colorado State University in 1994, after study with Patrice Sullivan. He continued his education at Denver’s Art Students League under Mark Daily. Urban settings and their energy draw his attention as he seeks new visual solutions to interpret them. He uses a more realistic approach to figurative images, often focusing on his wife, daughters and friends with experiments in color harmonies.

• Photographer Siobham Keleher, a fourth-generation Colorado native, enjoys her journey to “brief quiet moments observed amidst frenetic life, (which) compel me to record and share them.” She takes pictures “at whim” everywhere. “The camera has limited options — I can’t zoom or choose focus — forcing me to make more judicious decisions about the features I can control, honing my sense of composition.”

• Mikael Olson grew up in Evergreen and now lives in Denver, where he has studied painting at the Art Students League since 1995. Teachers include Quong Ho and Mark Daily. Spontaneous moments and occurrences inspire him to express his responses in bold colors, shapes, lines and textures. He said he loves it best when his work is “raw and lush, with a look that’s far from polished.”

The Byers-Evans Museum gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Free admission. Byersevanshousemuseum.org, 303-620-4933.