By SHIRLEY HENRICKSON

Special to The Hays Daily News

LOGAN -- The Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum is proud to announce "Ansel Adams: The Man Who Captured the Earth's Beauty."

The exhibit of 25 black-and-white richly detailed framed photographs was organized by the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, N.C. The tour was developed and managed by Smith Kramer Fine Arts Services, Kansas City, Mo.

Adams, who lived from 1902 to 1984, was born in San Francisco and took his first photograph with a Kodak Brownie box camera in Yosemite Valley when he was 14. Although trained as a concert pianist from 1914 through 1927, he also studied photography with the photo-finisher Frank Dittman. By 1930, photography became his career choice and the American western landscape his focus.

We had the privilege of greeting a special visitor to the museum last week. Jim Black and his family came to the museum to view the exhibit. Black worked as a graphic designer for Gardner Lithograph in Buena Park, Calif. The Gardner Lithograph Co. did the black-and-white print work for Adams during the last five years of his life and continued to work for Ansel Adams Trust. Black retired in 2000, and he and his wife reside in Cedar.

The David Vollbracht oil painting workshop will be July 22 to 25. The class will be from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Vollbracht is a representational landscape painter of the West. His work reflects the quality of light, nature and spirit drawn from the land.

The class will be on the use of photography as a reference material. Special emphasis will be placed on the limitations of photography and how to use it as a point of reference instead of a crutch. Design, color, values and composition will be explored as well as the more elusive but just as important elements of mood, passion and attitude that can make a good painting better and a better painting great. Call (785) 688-4846 to enroll.

The July artist of the month will be Janice Kenney from Elm Creek, Neb. Kenney will have old door panel signs and shelves, wreaths and candle holders on display.

Museum hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays and holidays. There is no admission fee.

For more information, contact Shirley Henrickson at (785) 689-4846 or visit www.hansenmuseum.org.

Shirley Henrickson is director of the Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum in Logan.