Regional Art
A Passion for Animals in Vivian Olsen’s ArtVivian Olsen’s interest in portraying animals developed when she was very young and her constant playmates were her animal friends. Although she has come a long way from drawing piglets and chicks, her love of animals remains strong and is expressed in her art. While growing up in the countryside near Montery Bay in California, she always knew she would be an artist. In her early college years Olsen majored in art but it wasn’t until years later that she returned to college to finish two degrees. In these intervening years she raised three daughters while painting and producing illustrations professionally. She then became the art teacher at Socorro High School in New Mexico where she lived for 26 years. While teaching for 18 years she continued to display her painting in galleries and in state and national exhibits. When she and her husband retired they relocated to Central Oregon and this area that they love has been their home now for over a decade.
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Sunriver Library Exhibits Pottery & PastelsThe Friends of the Sunriver Area Library present an exhibit featuring pottery by Ceci Capen and pastel paintings by Barbara Bailey, at the Sunriver Area Library. Capen, born in Oahu, Hawaii, has a heritage of Filipina, Portuguese and Chinese, and says that this blend of cultures has shaped her philosophical artistic approach to her work. Visual arts was Capen’s first love -- first drawing with charcoal and then turning to photography. After moving to the Oregon coast, she had several opportunities to enter her art in juried exhibitions, with excellent results. After moving to Bend, Ceci took a pottery class at COCC and there discovered the joys of working with clay. Capen says “using a potter’s wheel allowed me to concentrate and block out all of the world’s troubles.” Capen has continued to learn and experiment in clay – attending a raku pottery workshop with clay artist Jim Romberg – and now works in raku as well as traditional pottery, and has experimented with glaze mixing. Capen is co-chair of Potters for Education, a partnership between Oregon potters and Arts Central. Potters for Education conducts several shows each year, exhibiting and selling local potters’ work while raising funds for the Arts Central Art Scholarship Fund.
Caldera Presents Artists’ Open StudiosCaldera will host a series of Saturday “Open Studio” events that are free and open to the public. Caldera presents the work of professional artists from across the country. Upcoming Open Studio dates are February 25 and March 24, 1-3pm. Open Studios take place in Caldera’s beautiful Arts Center at Blue Lake, just west of the town of Sisters, Oregon.
Stuart L Gordon Photography of Columbia River Gorge at BellatazzaLandscape photographer Stuart L Gordon will be showcasing an exhibit of his prints of the Columbia River Gorge at Bellatazza, 869 NW Wall St., in downtown Bend through February. Gordon will be available to discuss his work at an artist’s reception to be held on First Friday Art Walk, Febuary 3 from 6-8:30pm. The eight to 10 images included in the exhibit are part of a larger collection of photographs made during a trip to the gorge in May 2011. “My goal was to visit a dozen waterfalls in four days. As it turns out, that’s a lot of hiking!” Gordon said. “I made it to only 11 beautiful waterfalls, mostly because it rained heavily two of those days and that slowed me down.” Among the waterfalls featured in the exhibit are Triple Falls, Punchbowl Falls, Wahclella Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Ponytail Falls and Latourell Falls. A print from Gordon’s visit to the nearby Roweena Plateau, renowned for its abundant display of spring wildflowers, also will be on display.
Mary Marquiss Creates Memorable Wine Label Dennis and Diane Sienko proprietors of Bend Wine Cellar and Women Tasting Wine, Bend’s wine education program for women, hope to see the Central Oregon vineyards succeed. That desire to depict what Central Oregon would be with lush vineyards hugging our geographic icons is powerful. The Sienkos cooperated with Chris Baker of Ancient Cellars in Dundee to craft a Zinfandel wine from 2010 Columbia Valley grapes as a birth year wine for their grandson, Asher. Making this wine provided an opportunity to create an artful wine label to marry the Sienko’s love of fine wine with their love of Central Oregon. They approached their friend and renowned artist, Mary Marquiss, and commissioned her to create a watercolor for the wine’s label. Marquiss says, “I often hear people say they purchase wine because they love the label, and I understand why. The interesting range of art on wine bottles runs from black and white European wood block prints to whimsical cartoons and even Marilyn Monroe signature peel and reveal labels. Branding wine is serious business.” As an artist, creating a wine label has been a desire Marquiss has envisioned for a long time, so when the Sienkos approached her to create their label she was thrilled, at first. Then the reality of actually creating their vision to appear real became challenging.
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