Colorado Gallery of the Arts at Arapahoe Community College is again host for Heritage Fine Arts Guild’s annual “This Is Colorado” exhibit — running through Jan. 16. This would be a good spot for an art lover to find a soothing change from the busy round of holiday diversions.

The 2019 juror was Denver area watercolorist Steve Griggs, who selected 57 varied works, by 42 different area artists and named award winners.

Included artworks are executed in watercolor, oil, acrylics, pastels, ink, collage and combinations of those mediums, and they offer a range of styles and subjects for a viewer to enjoy.

“This is Colorado” is the largest exhibit held annually by HFAG and has been located at ACC for a number of years — after wandering in its early days. The overall effect when one enters into the gallery is an inviting continuum of color that circles the room.

Start walking and focus on individual works — perhaps cross the gallery to first find the Best of Show, “Song of the West,” by Linden Kirby. It is a skillfully rendered horizontal, 24” X 72” acrylic painting that combines and layers assorted Western images. It invites close inspection to see what storytelling bits and pieces Kirby has gathered from memories and/or his studio ...

Kirby is an active member of the National and Colorado Watercolor Societies, the Foothills Art Center and Broomfield Art Guild and has won previous awards in the metro area.

Juror Griggs awarded First Place to Randy Hale’s “Low Tide at the Point,” a small, quiet watercolor landscape that almost makes one hear the canoe paddles dipping into still waters.

Second Place was awarded to “In the Zone,” by Mariposa Marangia, portraying s deserted, dusty space in a village — is something bad about to happen? One wonders … Margaret Flink’s “Untitled” abstract, in acrylic and Venetian plaster, received Third Place.

Also, look for additional Vendor Awards. (HFAG members have worked hard to secure funding from vendors they use) and find four Juror’s Picks: “Dagmar the Dancing Cow,” by Toni Cappucccio; “Snow Dance,” by Chuck Danford; “Sisters,” by Suzanne Connors; and “Solitude” by Janice Wright. The Rose Keating Award went to Pat Barr Clarke for her “Grand Mesa Cabin.”

Some visitors to this exhibit may want to consider membership in this active local group of artists and will find information on the Heritage Fine Arts Guild of Arapahoe County website. Cross pollination is generally a good thing, although I realize there are folks who really prefer to paint alone …