Resilient (20” x 12”) by Naomi Tiry Salgado is an oil painting on a canvas panel. It is in a private collection. Photo: Mitch Rossow
Naomi Tiry Salgado brings texture and emotion to outdoor scenes.
One thing many Minnesotans love about the state is getting to experience all four seasons throughout the year. The lakes in the summer, the crisp air of fall, the beauty of a winter wonderland and the fresh renewal of spring. For Naomi Tiry Salgado, the beauty of the outdoors allows her to find inspiration for her life’s work.
After picking up painting as a hobby when her children were young, Tiry Salgado started teaching elementary school art. Though she enjoyed helping her students learn, it didn’t satisfy her own creativity. So she stopped teaching and started painting full time in 2015, and the joy she felt through painting returned.
The outdoors is where she finds her creativity. “That’s what I’m inspired by most, is just driving [through] the countryside,” Tiry Salgado says. “When I see something that would make a good painting, it flashes in my head. One second I’m like, ‘Yes, that would be beautiful.’” One Woodbury area in particular has been the inspiration for many of Tiry Salgado’s paintings. “When my kids were going to school at New Life Academy, I would drive from Manning Avenue to Bailey Road every day, and I’d get to see it in all the weather conditions all year-round,” the former Woodbury resident says. “My gosh, was it pretty—just Manning Avenue by itself. I bet I’ve painted 20 paintings from Manning just because it’s so beautiful.”
Naomi Tiry Salgado. Photo: Naomi Tiry Salgado
Painting hasn’t always been her career focus. Tiry Salgado went to school for environmental and public health and later spent time as a stay-at-home mom. She has no formal painting education and is instead self-taught through books and online videos. The freedom of ideation through painting was refreshing, if not a bit difficult at first. “When you decide to paint, it’s all wide open,” Tiry Salgado says. “If you go to a job in an office, they tell you what to do; it’s in your job description. But when you become an artist, you have to make all of it up. It was very soul-searching to figure it all out.”
That soul-searching led Tiry Salgado to a style of painting she didn’t even know existed. After seeing some buildings that inspired her, she grabbed her painting supplies and started to paint the landscape outside, on location. While she was working, a passerby stopped and called her a “plein-air” painter, also known as en plein air. It was then that she learned a new method.
Naomi Tiry Salgado’s Saturday Night Live won best in show at Season Gallery’s annual en plein air event in Hudson, Wisconsin, in 2025. She has since returned as an event judge. Scale: 8”x12” Medium: Oil on panel. Photos: Mitch Rossow
En plein air refers to painting scenes or landscapes on location rather than in a studio. “It’s this whole little subculture within the art world, and I just accidentally stumbled into it by just doing what was interesting to me,” Tiry Salgado says. One of the challenges she notes about en plein air are the constantly-changing conditions. “It’s so tricky because you’re trying to capture the light, the shadows, the color of everything, and yet it’s shifting as you stand there,” Tiry Salgado says. “The shadows are moving shapes, and then a cloud goes over the sun, and now you’ve lost your sunlight.”
En plein air isn’t just a method of painting, it’s almost a lifestyle within the industry. En plein air competitions are held throughout the country, and artists travel to compete. Each competition sets its own rules and parameters. It’s common for a competition to last a week or longer and be set within certain boundaries of a city or outdoor area. The painter starts with blank canvases, and by the end of the week needs to submit as many paintings as the competitions require—oftentimes around three or five within the week.
Naomi Tiry Salgado’s Tied but Not Tethered (12”x12”) is an oil painting on a linen panel; it is available for purchase through Tiry Salgado
Tiry Salgado has frequently competed in Seasons Gallery’s annual en plein air event in Hudson, Wisconsin. She won best in show in 2022 for her painting Where Silas Sleeps, and again in 2025 for Saturday Night Live. This year, Tiry Salgado returned to the event as a judge. Gallery director Megan Riley, who has known Tiry Salgado since 2022, says her past participation in the event and her longstanding involvement in the plein-air community made her a natural choice to judge. “She has a long history of competing and has been invited to other prestigious plein-air competitions across the state and country,” Riley says. “She’s very supportive of other artists and is an excellent instructor.”
Tiry Salgado’s methods and styles continue to evolve. “In summer, I’m competing in plein-air competitions, so I try and keep my head in competition mode,” Tiry Salgado says. “Then in winter, I shift into learning mode. I’m always evaluating myself for what I’m missing and where I’m weakest. Then the next cycle of learning, that’s what I focus on.”
Naomi Tiry Salgado practices the art of en plein air. Photo: Naomi Tiry Salgado
Tiry Salgado specializes in oil paintings and varies her techniques throughout her pieces to provide texture for different areas of focus. Early in her career, Tiry Salgado experimented with palette knives after admiring another artist’s textured work. Over time, she refined how she used thick paint applications, brushwork and drippy techniques, all to direct the viewer’s eye to a focal point in a piece. Though her techniques suggest focal points and general narratives, Tiry Salgado always leaves room for the viewer to add their own story to the pieces she creates. If she feels that something ends up too perfect, she’ll go back to the piece and add imperfections on purpose because she wants to leave room for people’s imaginations to work.
Whether competing, judging or creating a personal piece from a new point of inspiration, Tiry Salgado is drawn to painting for the creativity and effect it has on her. “Painting to me isn’t just about making money, it’s about making an impact,” Tiry Salgado says. “Your body, soul and spirit all go into your work. You can’t just show up and put in your 9-to-5, clock in and clock out. You need all your spirit and soul to create. But because you put all that in, it can help someone else’s spirit and soul on the receiving end too. And that’s what really gives it meaning.”
Naomi Tiry Salgado
Instagram: @naomi_tirysalgado
