RESORT LODGE BETTY GRAY GALLERY Summer In The High Desert JM Brodrick, Marylea Harris, Karen Ruane

The Sunriver Resort Lodge Betty Gray Gallery presents another in its quarterly series with the Summer Quarter Art Exhibition opening
June 7. The exhibit, Summer in the High Desert, with JM Brodrick, Mary Lea Harris and Karen Ruane continues through September 6.

Brodrick’s many juried exhibitions and awards evidence her expertise: American Woman Painters Juried Exhibition, Bennington, Vermont, 2016; Best of America, National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, 2016; Artists to Watch, Southwest Art Magazine, September 2015; finalist, portraits/figures. Her art also appears in numerous collections including Atlantic Richfield Corporation, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Washington D.C. and the State of Alaska.

While the artist’s paintings range from the beauty of old growth forests to portraits, recently another of her favored subjects, horses, received acclaim in the May 2017 issue of American Art Collector. Her acrylic on linen painting, Sky, appeared in their Collector’s Focus, Art of the Horse article entitled Graceful Movements.
Quoted in the article, Brodrick states, “Choosing your art should be similar to how you choose your music: an escape from reality for the moment, leaving you feeling better for having
experienced it.”

Harris, with over 15 years in arts education, has degrees in studio art and art history from Sweet Briar College with emphasis in painting and printmaking. She holds an Masters of Fine Art in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University as was honored as a Harry D. Forsyth Fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.

Harris’ contemporary abstract work features brightly colored backgrounds created by layering paint and scraping it away with plastic gift cards. Thus, these cards function not only for scraping paint but as a reminder of our consumer-driven society, quick to replace nature with man-made materials. Her continuing focus, Map Series, also mindfully explores our relationships between physical place, connection, belonging and our collective personal journeys.

Another award-winning artist, Ruane graduated magna cum laude from art school at the University of Arizona. Continuing to demonstrate her considerable talent, 1859 Oregon magazine recognized her as Artist in Residence in their May/June 2017 issue. She won the Jubleale packaging commission in 2016.

Ruane cites nature, color and form as her constant inspirations. Fascinated with the marriage between the manipulation of the medium and the “happy accidents” of chance, she works predominantly with fluid media: marbling, fluid acrylics and ink.

Her Sunriver exhibition pieces evolved using alcohol inks on various substrates. As alcohol inks are very fluid and unpredictable, colors blend in unexpected ways and the artist allows the medium to flow in its self-chosen path. Though brushes, heat gun and breath help to harness the flow of the ink, much is left to fate. The results are half crafted, half arbitrary and all unique and ethereal.

Sunriver Resort invites the public to the exhibition, open all hours, which continues through September 6.
Billye Turner organizes the Sunriver Resort Lodge art series with info at 503-780-2828 or
billyeturner@bendnet.com

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