Communities

Gray’s ‘Weeping Winter’ wins People’s Choice

NEW ULM -- The votes for the 18th Annual ArtScape People’s Choice Award is in and the winner is Maggie Gray for her piece "Weeping Winter."

The prize for People’s Choice is a $200 gift certificate to Blick Art Materials, an art supply store. Marketing and program director at the Grand, Olivia Haggerty presented the certificate to Gray on Tuesday.

“Weeping Winter” is a digital photograph on giclée canvas that captures a serene, early morning scene at a Twin Cities park, featuring a melting pond, fresh snow, hoarfrost, and reflections of a willow tree during the season’s final snowfall.

Gray said the canvas is UV protected and water protected and has a pearlized finish. She said the canvas costs more to produce because it is custom made by an artist in Minneapolis.

“You can see how pearlized it is," Gray said. "I can drop a bottle of water on this."

Gray had one other piece in the show, called, “Heavenly Bridge,” described as digital photography on metal.

Gray said she won Judge’s Second Place two years ago at ArtScape for a photograph of a wild Spanish mustang on a beach in the Carolinas.

Winning the People’s Choice prize this year means a lot for Gray.

"Two years ago, I took second place by art judges, and that was $200, and I was very happy,” Gray said. “But this is different.”

She said winning against all mediums in the show confirmed her direction.

“This solidified in my heart that I’m doing the right thing,” Gray said. “When you have People’s Choice of everything in that room, that tells me that’s a high five for every photographer that’s out there that believes in the art and is working so hard.”

Gray will be 74 in February. She said she now focuses her work on winter photography, including snow, hoarfrost and fog.

She said she was tutored by the late highly-acclaimed photographer Marion Brown. He was an American fine art photographer whose gelatin silver prints focus on natural textures, geological formations, and southern landscapes. 

Brown's work is preserved in major institutional archives, including the International Center of Photography (ICP) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), with well-known pieces such as Kudzu Vines, Mississippi and Rock Forms, Natural Bridge, Alabama.  

Brown served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and worked professionally as a chemical engineer while also pursuing photography.

Brown told Gray to “narrow her focus.”

“I try to focus most of my work on winter photography,” Gray said. “That’s my preference. I like to be out when it’s cold and brutal and snowy and foggy.”

She said “Weeping Winter” was taken at 7 a.m. on the last snow of the season at a small park in the Twin Cities. The pond in the image was melting.

“It was the last snow of the season, and I was crying that there was no more snow,” Gray said about the title.

She said she photographed the scene with two different lenses that morning. 

She shot one wide image, 16 inches high and five feet wide, that now hangs in her home. 

She shot the winning image from across the lake with a 300mm lens and a 1.4 converter.

“I knew the pond was melting, and I knew there was never going to be another opportunity to get that reflection with all that snow,” Gray said. “It was fresh snow. Seven o’clock in the morning.”

Gray said getting the right winter conditions can take years. She said she waited four years to photograph a covered bridge near Fairfax, waiting for snow, frost, fog and sun at the same time.

“It was like 25 below,” Gray said. “I got the fog. I got the sun bleeding through. I got the hoarfrost.”

Gray said she started in the performing arts as a singer in theater, bands and nightclubs. Her mother was a professional singer.

“I started out in the performing arts, and then one day I picked up a camera and started photographing everything,” Gray said.

When being tutored by Brown she said, “He told me to focus and to hone,” Gray said. “Quit shooting 15 different things and find where your heart is.”

Gray said she chose wildlife and nature, and later winter. 

She said the People’s Choice Award, decided by votes gathered from visitors, has meaning because of changes in photography.

“I wanted to be a photographic artist,” Gray said. “I wanted my work to be art.”

She said she edits only with Photoshop and Lightroom and does not add elements that were not in the scene. She does not use AI.

“That shot was really there,” Gray said. “That image, which was the People’s Choice piece, that really exists. I didn’t make it up in my mind.”

Gray said she wants to inspire other women to pick up a camera. She previously ran a Facebook group called Wild Women Photography with 3,500 women in her group.

“I want other women to pick up a camera, even call me, text me, email me, and I’ll help you,” Gray said.

Gray said she shoots with a Nikon D4S DSLR that shoots 11 frames per second. She said she does not shoot mirrorless and does not use a tripod.

“I ground shoot the majority of my work because I don’t use a tripod,” Gray said.

She said she is now learning acrylics and molding paste and plans to enter a larger piece next year.

“Just pull yourself into the image,” Gray said. “It’s dreamy. It’s never going to happen again. That is the genius of photography.”

Gray is from Fairfax. Her website with portfolio is found at grayheart.com.