The Sunriver Resort Lodge Betty Gray Gallery presents the High Desert Art League (HDAL) exhibition entitled Art in a Series continuing through September 5. The artists will be present at a public reception in their honor on Saturday, July 9 from 4:30–6pm.
Art in a Series unites the 12 members of the League in the show of varied imagery and mediums. Professional artist members include Cindy Briggs, JM Broderick, Helen Brown, Patricia (Pat) Clark, MaryLea Harris, David Kinker, Lisa and Lori Lubbesmeyer, Jacqueline Newbold, Vivian Olsen, Janice Rhodes, Barbara Slater and JorenTraveller. .
Briggs, inspired by western skyscapes, exhibits three water-media paintings. She creates her dramatic skies using brushwork and her fingers to create energy and movement, lost and found edges, bright light and colorful shadow shapes. A member of the American Watercolor and the National Watercolor Society, she has won numerous national awards.
Clark presents ink drawings of water storage, usage, water tables and water flows depicting environmental concerns. After nearly 40 years as a full professor at the University of Southern California and elsewhere, she moved to Bendand founded Atelier 6000 (A6), a printmaking workshop. Her life of service to education and the arts earned her the recognition of an I Am Oregon award.
Fine artist, muralist and teacher, Kinker explores his wilderness experience in vivid acrylic paintings. Inspired by his deep connection to nature and water from 25 years as a naturalist and river guide on different rivers, the artist shows paintings of the Grand Canyon as seen from the Colorado River. His public murals appear at Deschutes Brewery, Tower Theatre, St. Charles Medical Center and other locations.
Harris shows three acrylic paintings of abstracted nature. She creates bright backgrounds by layering colorful acrylics then, to create texture and depth, scrapes the painted surface with unwanted, disposable plastic gift cards. While useful tools, the plastic cards also symbolize our consumer-driven society polluted with man-made waste. From this ironic use of waste comes her light-filled and whimsical imagery, emphasizing the beauty of “nature in its still state.”
Twin artists Lisa and Lori Lubbesmeyer, turn their attention to cityscapes. Known internationally for their expressionistic compositions of fiber applique with overstitching, depicting both nature and the city, the sisters now turn to painting. Through the use of acrylic and graphite, the artists draw and paint on canvas, blurring the lines and angles of the man-made landscape to represent the dynamism of urban dwelling.
Rhoades works with encaustic. A challenging medium, the Greek word encaustic means “to burn in” and combines pure beeswax, resin and pigment fused with heat. The method originated thousands of years ago for painting on hulls of ships as well as for Fayum funeral masks used in Egyptian burial tombs now in collections of the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.
Billye Turner, art consultant, organizes the art exhibits for SunriverResort, open all hours to the public. For information contact Turner at billyeturner@bendnet.com.