'Naturescapes' exhibit celebrates 15th year at Walkers Gallery

The walkers at the Walkers’ Gallery are in their “happy place” as round and round they go, inevitably they are rewarded by their favorite show of the year, “Naturescapes.” Celebrating its 15th year, like vintage wine, it seems to get better and better each year — but beyond the annual judging that selects the best of the entries, it would be a hard call to select the best from all the Naturescapes exhibits — they have all been so beautiful.  

Capturing so many perfect moments — we’ve all seen them, but could we catch them?— we relish the opportunity to linger eye to eye with hummingbirds, dragon flies and fox, and marvel at macro portraits of critters that astonish us with their survival.

Exhibits at the Walkers’ Gallery are sponsored by the San Marcos Area Arts Council and the City of San Marcos with support from the San Marcos Arts Commission and the department of Parks and Recreation. The Naturescapes annual contest is sponsored by the Hill Country Photography Club and the Hays County Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program. 

The Hill Country Photography Club is an informal group of photographers of all ages and experience who are interested in exploring photography as an art medium. HCPC strives to help members improve their individual photographic styles as well as to learn more about the art and science of photography.

Hide and Seek” by Annissa Clewell.

The Hays County Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program is an educational, nonprofit, volunteer organization dedicated to developing a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within Hays County. 

This was also a banner year for entries; according to Art Arizpe, former HCPC president, this was the contest’s best year ever. 

“We received 315 entries from 56 photographers. 47 of the photographers were adults and nine were youths. For comparison, in 2018, we received 192 entries from 31 photographers, of which 27 were adults and four were youths.” 

60 were selected for the exhibit by this year’s juror, Jason Weingart. 

Weingart is a professional photographer out of Austin. His work has been featured by National Geographic, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, the Weather Channel, Good Morning America, BBC, among other media outlets.  He runs photography workshops full time, teaching people how to chase storms, photograph the night sky, and create stunning landscape photography.

A $100 prize will be awarded for Best in Show, $75 for the best Youth Category photo, and $75 for the best Natural Waterscape photo. Up to four $50 Awards of Excellence will be presented for the next most outstanding photographs. Additional Awards of Merit will be presented at the discretion of the contest juror. 

“Evening at the Falls” by Carolyn Whiteside

As is customary, each Naturescapes exhibit is accompanied by a Hill Country Photography Club members exhibit.  This year the selected  theme was “Seeing Reds” and the thirty six photographs by 22 photographers are splendidly diverse in their treatment of this bold and expressive color.  Two black and white images leave the suggestion of red in the viewers mind only; a Stop Sign can not comply to it own command; vintage treatment of a bowl of fresh tomatoes is a richly satisfying still life; and so much more. That red is the complementary color to green — the prevalent color in Naturecapes — makes this pairing of exhibits work remarkably well.  

The public is invited to the reception for both exhibits and contest award presentation on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 5-7 p.m.  Musical entertainment will be by Tom Delaney (of Knockferry Bridge) and light refreshments will be served.  

They call this the Walkers’ Gallery “pretty show,” but it is so much more than that. We see ourselves in nature’s many variations — from tangled roots and startled eyes, to momentary suspensions and multiple reflections…Thanks to the skill and patience of multiple photographers, we are able to walk the cool halls amidst so much natural beauty.