Here, in his own words, is some interesting information from our professional member Ned Mueller:
The "Quick Draw" has alway been a big crowd pleaser and it originated with a group of Artists that I have been affiliated with, "The Northwest Rendezvous Group", where we used to have our annual exhibitions in Montana. I was not a member at the time, but we would have a campout and paintout the week before the exhibition, somewhere nice in Montana.
The first few years the campout was in the Madison Valley, just Northwest of Yellowstone Park. We would invite models to the campout, including Mountain Men, Indians, Cowboys, with their horses, Tipis and such. A wonderful gathering of Artists and subject matter suited for one of the top Western Shows.
Artist, Robert Morgan (may he rest in peace) had the ingenious idea to invite the collectors to the campout to watch the Artists create a drawing within 30 minutes and then auction off the work. It was mostly to let the Artists show off their drawing skills and so that the Artists literally have enough money for gas to get home!!
Well the quick draw has changed in so many ways now..mostly all painting and for much longer periods of time...in fact the Rendezvous show has recently given us Artists up to 5 hours to do a work and those who do not paint from life..they could bring in a painting two thirds done and finish them off at the Quick Draw...anyways..I have done a lot of quick draws over the years and everyone does them in paint, including me; well for some reason I thought..wouldn't it be nice and "Unique" to go back to the original intent..after all it is called a "Quick DRAW" and so in the "Paint the Peninsula" plein air event out of Port Angeles I did a drawing of the other Plein Air Artists..in fact I had so much time, I did three drawings..and lo and behold I got First Place and could have sold the drawing three or four times! Very grateful that we had a judge that understood the importance and uniqueness of a drawing!
Some Plein Air Artists I painted last summer at "Art in the Open" in Wexford, Ireland
Ned Mueller, “Quick Draw,” 2017, conté crayon on blue paper, 16 x 22 inchesJust this last summer, I did a drawing for the Quick Draw in the largest Plein Air Event in the world in Wexford, Ireland and got a second place award... This drawing shown, of Some Plein Air Artists I also did at this last summers "Art in the Open" in Wexford, and got picked as the "Best Drawing" in last months Plein Air Salon..I am mentioning these awards I have gotten to emphasize that often the judges are looking for something different..I have juried a lot of shows and seen a lot of the same paintings, same subjects over and over again and so most judges are looking for something, not just well done..but also has that "Uniqueness" that so many of us are looking for.
I realize so much of this has been about my experiences..but I am familiar with the circumstances and the motivation behind them and at least hope that you might gain something that you can apply to your own work"
