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Greetings!
"DESERT DWELLERS," the title of our November group exhibition, is a show featuring several of our talented gallery artists. The show opens on Friday, November 4th and coincides with the Bend, First Friday art walk. The tie-in for these artists and the focus of the show is to highlight the incredible beauty and diversity of the Central and Eastern Oregon landscape. This eclectic group of artists create their art using different mediums, technique and a variety of subject matter drawing from individual perspectives and life experiences. There will be plein air pieces, studio works and/or a combination of both. We're excited to see what they are bringing to the gallery for this show. We think you will be also.
The November/December issue of Art of the West magazine contains a wonderful article on John DeMott, one of our very own gallery artists. DeMott, a totally self-taught western artist, loves to paint what he calls, "the spirit of the Western frontier." If you haven't already had a chance to see this article, it is definitely worth a look.
It's always interesting to find out what's going on in the careers of our talented Mockingbird Gallery artists. Today we'll be sharing news from Dawn Emerson and Lorenzo Chavez in our monthly, "Honors & Achievements," feature.
Along with the new art pieces from our featured artists in this month's show, we also have fresh artwork in from Joseph Alleman, H. Shane Ross, Ed Koch, Walt Horton and John DeMott. Check them out on the "New Works" section of the Mockingbird Gallery website and let us know what you think. Your feedback is always welcome.
Thanks again for allowing us to stay in touch and we hope you enjoy our November issue of the Mockingbird Gallery Newsletter!
Jim & Nathalie Peterson and the Mockingbird Staff |
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DESERT DWELLERS
| | | Group show featuring
Central & Eastern Oregon Subjects
We're pleased to be opening a group show here at Mockingbird Gallery on Friday, November 4th, titled "Desert Dwellers." We'll be featuring fresh works by eight of our Mockingbird Gallery artists who share an appreciation for the diverse beauty that can be found in the Central and Eastern Oregon high deserts.
Some of the paintings depict vast expanses of light-filled space and windswept hills dotted with juniper and sagebrush. Others reveal quiet, almost intimate scenes of High Desert beauty. Here and there, rivers wind through sun-baked hills producing lush greenery on riverbanks accented with colorful wildflowers. Other works capture stunning cloud formations and birds of prey. All of the paintings reveal the deft brushwork and soft nuances of classic plein-air painting.
Here is a list of the featured artists and their works:
 | | Richard Boyer |
Richard Boyer
divides his time between Utah and Sweden, the home of his wife, Karin. He travels frequently throughout Europe and America forever searching for new locations and intriguing subject matter. His travels have also brought him to Central Oregon when participating in our Mockingbird plein-air events. These visits have given Richard a strong appreciation for the beauty of this area and an understanding of its subtle palette. His landscapes reflect a traditional approach to oil painting but are enhanced by a rich, textured quality. Boyer utilizes his talent of "plein air" painting, which involves setting up an easel in front of the "subject" and patiently capturing the immediate effects of light on color.
"Most people won't view a scene for two hours. They'll stop for five minutes, take pictures and move on. As an artist you learn the joy of studying the subtle nuances over a lengthier period of time and you also reap the rewards in the process."
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"Camp Sherman" 24 x 36 Oil by Richard Boyer
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more works by Richard Boyer
 | Pamela Claflin
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Pamela Claflin,
a native Oregonian, paints in the "plein air" tradition. She sets up her easel before carefully selected natural scenes and paints the subject bathed in natural light. Pamela has a special fondness for the Steens Mountain region of Southeastern Oregon. Her studies have been with Delbert Gish, an Impressionist/Realist master painter of Pacific Northwest fame. She has also attended workshops with Matt Smith and Howard Friedland.
"The desert areas restore my soul. The wide-open space is exhilarating. I appreciate the colors of the fall the most with the bright spots of yellows, golds and reds among the gray-greens and blues. When looking for a place to paint, I find a gentle water source among the arid dryness of the desert. It feels like a rebirth occurring. I enjoy the calm and peaceful textures of pools and ponds against the brittle textures of the land."
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"April Dusting, Summer Lake" 24 x 24 Oil by Pamela Claflin
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more works by Pamela Claflin
 | | Norma Holmes |
Norma Holmes
is a native Californian who moved to Central Oregon in the 1990's. Norma prefers to paint on location, starting with a "plein air" study. Many of her pieces are finished entirely on location. She sometimes returns several times (weather permitting), or the same time of day, to catch the proper light, retaining her initial inspiration.
"Painting is my passion. I paint with joy...the drama of the Cascade Mountains bathed in early morning light, the intriguing silence of the High Desert and the many hues of the Metolius River. Mother Nature is my inspiration."
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"Mountain Magic" 13 x 17 Pastel by Norma Holmes
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more works by Norma Holmes
 | | Fran Kievet |
Fran Kievet is an Oregon artist who hos been observing, questioning, analyzing and practicing her craft (visual art) for forty years as a graphic designer and painter. Her work encompasses a wide range of subjects including figurative, landscape, still life and wildlife. Fran's explorations and pursuits in painting are always driven by the need to understand and master the subtleties and materials in maintaining control of the materials and methods she is using.
"Whatever the subject matter, the design of the main shapes and then the colors are foremost in my mind. It is the passion to create works that visually stir the emotions and enliven the spirit that keeps painting forever exciting."
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"Full Bloom" 18 x 24 Oil by Fran Kievet
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more works by Fran Kievet
 | | Ken Roth |
Ken Roth is a diverse oil painter whose works are inspired by the beauty of nature. It was nature that drew him to Bend where he lives with his family. His landscapes are painted in the "plein air" tradition, and his subjects also include still life, human figures and wildlife. Ken has studied under Spanish master Sebastion Capella, Russion impressionist Ovanes Berberian as well as Scott Christensen. His paintings range in size from small and intimate to large architectural installations.
"I'm now learning the craft of painting with all the techniques that are involved, and attempting to join my imagination with the motif. The paintings are representational, but they are equally about what I'm feeling as I'm painting. It's a blending of the inner world and the outer world."
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"Bald Eagle" 32 x 30 Oil by Ken Roth
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more works by Ken Roth
 | | Joey VanBlokland |
Joey VanBlokland's love of painting has always been a part of her life. Since 1997 she's been exploring the pastel medium as her chosen way of communicating her experience with the landscape. Practicing in the operating room for 30 years she seeks emotional release through vivid pastels, painting beauty and warmth into the High Desert Central Oregon landscape. She lives in Bend with her family on 30 acres overlooking the Cascade Range, which inspires much of her painting. Her satisfaction continues to come from responding to the sky and the horizon leading to it.
"There is a beauty in the simple distance. Sometimes the horizon is a spectacular white mountain, sometimes a blue line that becomes the sky. To me, painting is about my intimate relationship with places. It feels like the paintings are waiting for me to come to them; they are about change. The sky of Central Oregon is an emotional mirror."
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"Clouds over Smith Rock" 24 x 42 Pastel by Joey VanBlokland
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more works by Joey VanBlokland
 | | Xiaogang Zhu |
Xiaogang Zhu is known for his mastery with the gouache medium. He creates light-filled landscapes and beautifully illuminated waterscapes of places with which he is familiar - cities in China and the Yangtze River, Washington State, Arizona and now Central Oregon. Xiaogang is also an accomplished oil painter who enjoys being able to paint larger, studio works in the oil medium which are often inspired by his "plein air" gouache studies. Although the two mediums have very unique qualities, he is comfortable working with either.
Xiaogang Zhu and his wife Mingwei have recently made a full time move to Bend, Oregon from Olympia, Washington. We're excited to welcome them into the Central Oregon artists' community and look forward to seeing more of them!
"The most important thing for me is to catch the moment of beauty, light and color. The subject matter is always secondary, although my feelings seem to link more with my hometown landscape of China. Since I'm more interested in color, I treat almost any object as color blocks, shapes or dots. I concentrate more on pursuing the right relationship among those color blocks, instead of trying to paint each individual object."
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"Oregon Farm" 14 x 20 Gouache by Xiaogang Zhu
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more works by Xiaogang Zhu
 | | Craig Zuger |
Craig Zuger was raised in a family that spent a great deal of time outdoors, and he found a developing interest in painting the areas he loved. Most of his time was spent in the high desert region of Oregon where his inspiration was rooted. As he developed as an artist, he found inspiration in the paintings of Albert Bierstadt, John Gamble, Maynard Dixon and other painters of the western theme. His love of wildlife and his respect for the environment have given him inspiration and a well spring of subjects to paint in carefully rendered oils. Craig is a lifelong resident of the Willamette Valley in Oregon where he lives with his wife Yolanda.
"The masters of the renaissance and baroque, especially Rembrandt and Vermeer, caught my eye with the dramatic contrast of light and shadow in their paintings. The romantic landscapes of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were very influential to me. I was fascinated by the challenge of how to capture, with paint, the landscape as it is affected by the atmosphere."
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"East Rim" 14 x 20 Oil by Craig Zuger
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more works by Craig Zuger
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Honors & Achievements
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THE LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND AWARDS RECEIVED BY OUR MOCKINGBIRD GALLERY ARTISTS!
DAWN EMERSON
 | | Dawn Emerson |
Dawn Emerson was recently juried into the 2011 National Juried Exhibition of AWA Master Signature and Signature Member Show. The AWA (American Women Artists) has been in existence since 1990 and started the annual juried show in 1997 with over 500 entries. This year's competition included entries from over 1,300 artists and only 30 were accepted. Dawn Emerson was one of the 30 finalists with her mixed media painting titled "Prayer Rags II", shown below. The show opened at the Huff Harrington Fine Art gallery in Atlanta, Georgia on October 14th and closes on November 3rd, 2011.
Dawn was also recently invited to be the Animal and Wildlife judge for both The Artists Magazine 2011 annual show and the Pastel Journal's, 2011 Pastel 100 competition. The Pastel 100 competition is an annual showcase of the 100 best works of pastel in five categories - landscape & interior, still life & floral, portrait & figure, animal & wildlife and abstract & non-objective.
As a resident of Central Oregon, we couldn't be prouder of Dawn Emerson and all of her impressive accomplishments!
 | | "Prayer Rags II" by Dawn Emerson |
Please click HERE to be taken to the 2011 show images on the AWA website.
LORENZO CHAVEZ
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Lorenzo Chavez
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Here are some recent highlights in the career of Colorado Pastel and Oil painter, Lorenzo Chavez.
Lorenzo was recently invited to send 3 pastels to the Pastel Society of Spain - ASPAS for the Bienal Internacional de pintura Exhibition in Oviedo, Spain. At the same time, he was honored to have his 18 x 24 pastel, "Sierra Sunrise," placed on exhibition with the Society of American Impressionists in Carmel, California.
Lorenzo also has two pastels featured in the current Northwest Pastel Society exhibition in Seattle, Washington and he will be featured in the December issue of The Pastel Journal magazine with a full article on his winter landscapes. His 20 x 24 Pastel, "Winter Along the Foothills," will also grace the cover of the December issue. Congratulations on an impressive run of honors Lorenzo, and keep up the exciting work!
 | | December, 2011 The Pastel Journal |
Please click HERE to learn more about the December issue of the The Pastel Journal magazine, and how you can order a copy.
more works by Lorenzo Chavez
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ART OF THE WEST MAGAZINE featuring John DeMott
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 | | November/December Issue of Art of the West |
We've just received our November/December 2011 issue of Art of the West magazine and we're excited to share the news with you. Our very own John DeMott is one of this months feature artists, and not only did they publish an amazing 6-page article on John titled "Back in the Saddle," written by Barbara Coyner, they also featured John's beautiful 24 x 18 oil, "Her Finery" on the cover of the issue.
Here's a link to Art of the West's website were you can get more information on the issue and don't forget to swing by your Barnes and Noble or local bookstore to pick up your copy!
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John DeMott
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Please click HERE to be taken to the Art of the West website to learn more about the November/December issue featuring John DeMott. more works by John DeMott |
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4th Annual
HIGH DESERT CHAMBER MUSIC Gala featuring Troy Collins
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"Boundless Life" 24 x 20 Oil by Troy Collins
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YOU ARE INVITED TO THE 4TH ANNUAL
HIGH DESERT CHAMBER MUSIC
GALA
NOVEMBER 12, 2011, 6:00 pm
BROKEN TOP CLUB
62000 Broken Top Drive
Bend, OR 97702
Dinner, Silent Auction, Raffle
No-host bar, Semi-formal attire
$85 per person
 | | Mockingbird Gallery Artist, Troy Collins |
You will have a chance to bid on "BOUNDLESS LIFE" 24 x 20 Oil by Troy Collins $2,100 value with an opening bid of $800!
Performance featuring
Isabelle Senger & Julian Hallmark
Please Purchase tickets online, or call (541) 306-3988
www.highdesertchambermusic.com
If you would like to place an early or absentee bid on "Boundless Life," please feel free to stop by Mockingbird Gallery to sign up before the November 12th Gala. We will have it featured in the gallery this First Friday Art Walk, Friday, November 4th, 5-9 pm.
Please click HERE to see more original works by Troy Collins on the Mockingbird Gallery website. |
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What's New at Mockingbird??
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"Winter Profile" 30 x 22 Oil by Joseph Alleman
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Aside from the great new works in from our 8 featured artists this month, we also have some great new works in from Joseph Alleman, H. Shane Ross, Walt Horton, Edwin Koch and John DeMott. We hope you'll take the time to visit our New Works page on the Mockingbird Gallery website to have a closer look.
Please click HERE to be taken to New Works on the Mockingbird Gallery website.
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