Art Contest Is a Mountain of a Task

Can’t see the mountains for the smog?

Then you’ll have to use your imagination if you want to join an art competition sponsored by seven local artist clubs. The groups, including the San Fernando Valley Art Club and Thousand Oaks Art Assn., are offering a top prize of $2,000 for the best depiction of a Santa Monica Mountains scene.

“It can be realistic, abstract or any other artistic interpretation that the artist cares to make, as long as it’s about the mountains,” said Roy Donley, chairman of Allied Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains, a group formed by the clubs to organize the art competition.

Submissions can be made only by members of the seven clubs. “We have a dual purpose in holding this contest,” Donley said. “First of all, we want to celebrate the mountains. But secondly, we want to enhance interest in our associations and expand membership.”

The clubs, made up mostly of amateur artists, generally meet a couple times a month to discuss art and attend lectures.

The competition is limited to works completed after Jan. 1. Each of the clubs will judge its members’ submissions early next year then send the winners on to the finals, to be held in May, 1991.