Friday, Aug. 08, 2008

Grapevine Artist Paints Poster for Annual Festival

Annual Festival is Weeks Away, but Grapevine Artist Sonya Terpening Reveals This Year’s Official GrapeFest Artwork

By Rita Cook

Contributing Writer

Sonya Terpening’s paintings are in permanent collections as notable as The Forbes Collection in New York City, The Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla., The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, the State of Oklahoma Capitol Building and the Pawnee Historical Museum in Pawnee, Okla. She is especially proud of her latest creation, however, which will become a permanent piece of Grapevine history.

Terpening, who paints in either watercolor or oil, has been painting professionally for almost 30 years and was recently chosen to create the art for the 22nd Annual GrapeFest, which will be in mid-September.

"I actually approached the city of Grapevine with the proposal to paint the art for this year’s GrapeFest poster," she said. "I have lived in Grapevine since 1988 and have watched GrapeFest grow from one small tent in the middle of Main Street to one of the largest wine festivals in the United States."

Terpening was all too aware that her creation would be the first visual image of the festival that the public would see, and approached the poster with that in mind.

"The project was actually quite a challenge for me," she said. "Not only did I have to convey in pictures the slogan for this year’s GrapeFest, but I wanted to create an image for the poster that was not just a picture, but also a piece of fine art."

The slogan for the festival this year, Lone Star Grown, Internationally Known, was an inspiration for her and she said she immediately saw a glass of wine on a world map.

"I wanted the wine to be taking its place in the world," she said. "Trying to say, 'Texas grown’ in pictures was a bit harder."

As a western artist, Terpening said her first inclination was a cowboy or a longhorn, but she decided that the Texas flag stayed closer to the theme.

"The drape of the flag is cradling the wine glass and grapes representing their birthplace. The grapes represent the origin of the wine, and they spill from the flag of Texas over the world map. The glass of wine sits on the world map where it can be seen in its full glory."

Terpening got involved with GrapeFest when she joined the Grapevine Wine Pouring Society several years ago.

At that time, she said she spent a lot of time on the back side of the wine bottle, pouring at the festivals.

"Being a part of the Grapevine Wine Pouring Society has given me such respect and appreciation for the Texas wine industry and how Grapevine is promoting it," she said.

Though a Grapevine resident for 30 years, Terpening was born in Oklahoma and lived there until after her graduation. She never made the decision to become an artist, she said, it just happened.

She studied with professional artists from the time she was in junior high school and received an art degree at Oklahoma State University. This year she was awarded the gold medal in watercolor at the Masters of the American West Show.

So what’s Terpening’s all-time favorite painting?

"There are a few that stand out as really capturing the mood or story that I was trying to portray. However, in all truthfulness my favorite painting is the one on the easel at any given time," she said.

The 22nd Annual GrapeFest will be Sept. 11 to 14.

For details, call 817-410-3185 or see www.grapevinetexasusa.com.