BETTY GRAY GALLERY FINE ART EXHIBITION
with Members of the High Desert Art League
Opening on November 17 is an exhibition of artwork by High Desert Art League (HDAL) members for the Thanksgiving holiday, continuing through the annual Traditions celebration of December into the New Year.
Autumn in the High Desert shows acrylic paintings by Daniel Florea featuring Central Oregon scenes. Florea’s art career began with his early 70’s move to Bend and employment as art director of the North Pacific toy company owned by the Cleveland family.
He notes that Norma Cleveland introduced his art to Betty Gray, co-developer of Sunriver Resort with husband John Gray, and Donald McCallum. Mrs. Gray invited Florea to show at the resort, his first solo exhibition and beginning of his art career. His current Sunriver exhibition marks his return to the Sunriver Lodge Gallery, now the Betty Gray Gallery.
Pat Oertley exhibits her abstract, multicolored, layered, mixed-media paintings embellished with brightly colored strips cut from her prints. The artist notes the joy of this “making marks and finding layers.”
Oertley’s previous exhibitions suggested the colorful kilims of Asia; abstracted photographic compositions created from close-up shots in auto wrecking yards; and, her Jazz Series, paying homage to jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. Her art reflects a bachelor of arts in fine art from St. Mary’s College of Notre Dame and her masters in art from Columbia University.
November 17 opens the exhibition of eight Central Oregon members of the High Desert Art League showing varied mediums. The show includes the coordinator, Vivian Olson, as well as HDAL members Helen Brown, David Kinker, Jean Lubin, Dee McBrier-Lee, Jacqueline Newbold, Janice Rhodes, Barbara Slater and Joren Traveller.
Helen Brown displays her watercolor on rice paper batik landscapes depicting scenes from the Pacific Northwest. She presents a mountain vista with a prodigious field of Fireweed as well as a peaceful creek bed on a wooded hillside.
Abstract artist Dee McBrien-Lee uses an acrylic medium infused with textures and colors of a variety of mixed-media. The paintings offer glimpses into the artist’s mind, but also invite the viewer to imagine their own story and conclusions.
Vivian Olsen creates expressive oil portraits of a variety of wild animals, from wolves and bison to owls and ravens. Her watercolor and pastel paintings reflect her special bond with animals seen in each wildlife subject. Other HDAL members’ works will be on display in the Winter in the High Desert exhibition continuing through February 2018.
Billye Turner organizes the Sunriver Resort Lodge art exhibits with info at 503-780-2828 or billyeturner@bendnet.com