((Left) Faith Hope and Charity by Dave Fox, (Center) Multi media art by Dottie Moniz, (Right) Sassy by Jesica Carleton)
“I’d like to paint the way a bird sings.” Claude Monet said that, and it’s a funny thing to picture at first. A bird doesn’t sing to win a prize. It doesn’t sing because someone is watching. It sings because singing is what it does, and there’s joy in the doing.
That’s the theme for this month’s featured artists at Artists’ Gallery Sunriver. Featured this month is multi-media artist Dottie Moniz. She embodies Monet’s quote, explaining, “Painting the way a bird sings is what I strive for in my art. To find that flow where the art happens freely without overthinking. Much of my art comes from the beauty I see around me, from my imagination and from memories of my childhood. The goal is to create these images from feeling and not from thinking or “trying” to paint the perfect painting. Thinking gets in the way of playing, exploring and enjoying the process.” Dottie starts with the idea or feeling she wants to express and then chooses the techniques and materials to complete each piece. Some pieces lend themselves to fabric, others to papers, watercolors or acrylics. Her pieces range from earthy forest scenes made in fabric to delicate flower cutouts arranged on wood.
Two glass artists are also featured, Jesica Carleton and Becky Henson. Carleton creates bright, richly colored mosaics from abstracts to detailed wildlife and stylized landscapes. “I love mosaic for how it brings individual and widely diverse pieces together, the final product being a whole new creation made more beautiful for all the unique pieces. I feel the same way about humankind and strive to be an advocate for celebrating our diversity and uniqueness. Imagine how boring art would be if we only used one color, and how drab our lives would be if we were all the same!” Carleton, her husband, and their five rescue animals moved to Bend in 2014. She conducts mosaic classes in Bend to share the joy and the beauty.
Becky Henson is a stained glass artist whose leaded glass pieces, like her Three Sisters circle pattern, are inspired by the mountains and nature around us here in Bend. “I see the Cascades under many different lighting conditions. I couldn’t resist putting the view in glass and, like the real views, no two projects are ever the same.” She was moved to work with glass because of a beveled glass window in her childhood home that fascinated her. Along with sun catchers and hanging window art, her new pieces include glass bud vases that sit in the window or on a windowsill.
Dave Fox’s paintings will call you from across the gallery and will brighten any room where they hang. You’re struck by the quality of light captured in his landscapes and the use of bright color in both his nature and wildlife pieces. “I’m drawn to the way light transforms a scene and creates a connection. While my colors are often more vivid than what you’d see in a photograph, I still want them to feel believable. My goal isn’t to paint an exact copy of a place; it’s to capture the feeling of being there. If a viewer looks at a painting and feels the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the shade, or a memory of a place they’ve loved, then I’ve succeeded.”
“A lot of my thinking happens long before I ever put a brush on the canvas,” Fox continues. “I spend a great deal of time creating the reference photo, finding the right composition, simplifying the scene, and deciding what I want the painting to say. Once the groundwork is done, I’m not constantly analyzing every decision. I’m simply responding to what’s in front of me.
“I think that’s the closest I come to painting the way a bird sings. The preparation is important, but when the painting is going well, the process feels natural and unforced. The planning fades into the background, and the painting seems to find its own rhythm.”
Join us for Second Saturday on July 11 from 4-6pm to meet the artists and see their work.
artistsgallerysunriver.com • 541-593-4382 • The Village at Sunriver, Bldg. 19