In addition to fine art, West Winds Gallery will provide wine-tasting and custom framing

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Quicker than a dab with a paintbrush, Cindy Duff and Greg Tapp had proof there’s a need for their new business, West Winds Gallery of Fine Art, in downtown Grand Junction.

The gallery at 504 Main St., formerly home to Main Street Cafe, hadn’t opened its doors to the public, and it already had artists on a waiting list to show their work.

“There are a lot of terrific artists in this valley,” Duff said. “I’m afraid once we open the door, I’m gonna be blasted with artists wanting to be in here.”

Actually they aren’t waiting until then. Duff made that comment on Feb. 19, then added, “We already had one this morning.”

The official opening date is March 3, tied to the full moon, and the grand opening will be March 6, tied to downtown’s First Friday art events.

What customers are going to see are the works of a variety of local artists, be it painting, woodworking, photography.

There will be a wine-tasting area toward the back of the gallery, where Palisade winemaker Sauvage Spectrum will showcase its wines. Duff thinks people will appreciate that element.

“I added the wine tasting, because at artists’ receptions, it just always is a nice thing to have,” she said. “We feel that this is just going to be a nice place to visit, have a glass of wine, look at art, and relax a little bit at the end of the day.”

But she quickly added, “We’re not a bar.”

The gallery also will offer custom framing through Desert Canyon Custom Framing, which will be receiving and delivering work, and Duff said the owner probably will be in the gallery one day per week.

Duff said there’s going to be a lot going on, and she’s thrilled to provide it.

“We want people to come in and just enjoy and breathe in, take a break from life. Breathe in the art, enjoy,” she said.

West Winds Gallery marks a return to owning a gallery for Duff, who said she owned and operated Prairie Winds Art Center in Grand Island, Neb., for 21 years.

But in the course of her travels as an artist, she encountered Grand Junction a number of times, and there was something about it, she said, that felt good. Good enough to move to the Grand Valley in 2006.

That was the end of gallery owning for the time being, though. She returned to operating a studio in her home and displaying her works in others’ galleries in the Grand Valley, such as Main Street Gallery and Blue Pig Gallery.

The itch to own a gallery resurfaced after the COVID pandemic, and it didn’t matter that she already was traditional retirement age. Then, Main Street Gallery closed, and Duff committed to taking the ownership plunge.

Of course, she needed to find a place to do that, and she wanted to own the building where she set up shop. Duff said she looked for three to four years, and she eyed the former Main Street Cafe location, but someone else was already there, looking to put in a restaurant. But that didn’t happen.

“And then the building went up for sale,” Duff said, “and we just snatched it up, because it was right on Main Street. Finding property on Main Street is not easy. There’s not that much of it.

“And so we purchased the building, totally gutted everything, new heating system, everything. Merritt Construction helped us put the place back together. And we are so pleased. It’s really coming together.”

Duff hired a staff of three employees: Art Director Eva Green; and sales associates Diane Colburn and Naomi Shepherd Smith.

“If someone comes in, they’re gonna explain everything to them, show them around, tell the stories,” Duff said.

Green thinks local artists needed a fine-arts gallery like West Winds.

“We have such amazing talent in the valley that hasn’t had a chance to be displayed like this,” she said. “We’re going to bring this scene here.”

Tish Collins, a metalsmith and owner of fer•es, seconds that sentiment. She was one of the lucky ones who gets to display her jewelry from the outset at West Winds Gallery, which she said meets the standards of the high-end galleries she seeks.

Collins said West Winds Gallery is needed in Grand Junction, because “there are many more like me. Over the years I’ve been forced to go outside the area to show my work.”

Collins was working on her displays in the gallery on Feb. 26 and said co-op galleries aren’t for her. She called herself an introvert who works at home and needs places to display her art. She needs the fine-art approach of West Winds Gallery and someone else to do the selling of her handiwork.

“And since COVID, that is harder and harder to find. It’s harder to find galleries that are full-service and where we don’t work there,” Collins said. “Those are things that are important to me, as I am not that. I’m good at making art, not selling it, so I appreciate a good gallery.”

Duff is glad to hear it, and she referred to Collins’ resistance to co-ops when she said, “The people I show are not going to show in a co-op.”

That meant they weren’t showing in Grand Junction, as Duff said, “A lot of them don’t even exhibit in town, because they needed a place like this.”

No such thing as retirement for artists

As husband and wife co-owners of West Winds Gallery, 504 Main St. in Grand Junction, Cindy Duff and Greg Tapp decided they aren’t going the retirement route despite being septuagenarians. Cindy is 71 years old, and Greg is 70.

“Artists, we don’t retire,” Duff said. “We do it until we die.”

She said she told Tapp about that when they met, which was 19 years ago, shortly after Duff arrived in Grand Junction. If they were going to be together, he needed to be OK with that, she said, “because I’m doing it until I die.”

She likes the wind – and the moon

Cindy Duff loves the full moon and the wind, the latter evidenced in the name of her business now and the one she owned and operated in Grand Island, Neb., for 21 years: Prairie Winds Art Center.

Joining Duff in her love of the full moon is Tapp.

“My husband and I howl at the moon when it’s full,” Duff said.

She said West Winds Gallery will do the First Friday art events, but the problem with First Friday is “a lot of people have receptions on First Friday, and it’s hard for people to get around to all the galleries. So, we decided we’re gonna do it different. We’ll be open first Friday, but we’re also gonna do full moon.”

Duff said she learned Native Americans gave each full moon a name and a certain description.

“And so we’re kind of tailoring our shows to those descriptions,” she said. “We’ll have Celestial Blush in April and New Growth for May.

“And we’ll have certain artists that will be featured up front (in the gallery) for these shows. … It’s a wonderful time for us to feature. We have areas for each artist, but when we pull them up front, they can bring more of a body of work in. So we’ll do that throughout the year.”