((L-R) Teaching Grace, Maquette – Ed 3/25, Enamel on Steel Sculpture, 16.5 h x 9.5 w x 6 d in” by Alisa Looney; Cloud Reflections, 30×40 by Kathleen Keliher and artwork by Ruth Carroll)
Ruth Carroll ~ Fine Artist
Ruth has been drawing and painting most of her life. She earned her B.F.A. in drawing from C.C.A.C. in Oakland, California in 1987. She believes that a strong foundation in drawing is essential to painting well. In the years spent raising her three children Ruth painted and sculpted commercial artwork for the amusement park industry and worked on her fine art when she could. For the past 30+ years Ruth has shown and sold her work through juried exhibitions, juried open studios and local art galleries in the Monterey Bay, California area. Her paintings have been purchased by art collectors all over the USA and abroad. She is committed to paint what inspires her emotionally and spiritually. Favorite subjects include landscape, still life and figurative works. Her creative energy is spent painting in plein air and in her studio. She is inspired by her love of the landscape in dramatic light situations. She has been primarily a landscape painter in oils since 2009 and has won numerous awards in this genre. In 2020 Ruth moved with her husband to Bend, and frequently visits the Monterey Bay area in California, where she is represented by several fine art galleries. She is an artist member at Hood Avenue Arts in Sisters. Ruth will be one of the featured artists beginning the fourth Friday in June.
You can learn more by visiting her website at ruthcarrollfineartist.com.
Kathleen Keliher
Kathleen began her career as a working artist after moving from Seattle, Washington to Bend in 1998. Working primarily in pastels, she focused her attention on her surrounding landscape, working plein air in the summer months and retreating to her studio for the cold winters. While in Bend Kathleen founded and became president of the Plein Air Painters of Oregon, as well as the High Desert Art League. She was a twice poster artist for the Sunriver Music Festival and a featured artist for Wine by the River, hosted by the then Hospice of Bend-La Pine. In 2007 Kathleen moved from Bend to Portland, Oregon to weather the recession. There she worked as a cardiac rehab nurse while studying oil painting. She completed her move back to Central Oregon in 2014. She is currently working out of her studio in Bend, creating works in both pastel and oil. She is a member of the Plein Air Painters of Oregon and the Pastel Society of America.
Her work can be currently seen in Hood Avenue Art Gallery in Sisters.
Alisa Looney
Alisa Looney’s enamel (glass) on steel works will be featured in June, 2023 at Hood Avenue Art in Sisters. The show will run June 22 through July 23, with the opening reception and enameling demo on Fourth Friday Art Stroll, June 23, from 4-7pm.
The focus of Alisa’s work is not only to appreciate the beauty and rhythms of nature, and our connection to it but also to inspire the care and healing of our natural world and each other. Nature and its unseen connections inform her work. Sketching and documenting while on hikes, bikes, paddles and skis throughout the seasons, she observes nature and looks for signs of life and movement… seedlings sprouting through lava rocks, clear water flowing and bubbling over snags, fungi growing from the hidden mycelium network, fish swimming gracefully to their native spawning grounds. Alisa creates original images in glass by fusing kiln-fired layers of enamel to steel sculptures, panels and jewelry. Come by and watch her demonstrate her enameling process during Fourth Friday Art Stroll in Sisters on June 23! More of Alisa’s artwork can be seen at alisalooney.com and at hoodavenueart.faso.com/collections/157977.