Artists Karen Bandy, Vivian Olsen, Barbara Slater

Sunriver Resort Lodge Betty Gray Gallery celebrates the New Year with artists Karen Bandy, Vivian Olsen and Barbara Slater. The exhibit continues the gallery winter quarter continuing through February 24.

In the upper gallery, Olsen exhibits her watercolor and oil paintings of wildlife including barnyard sheep with tender, young lambs, Central Oregon quail coveys leading their quail chicks, as well as other wild fowl, wolves and bison. All appear life-like amidst native habitats.

Olsen notes a life-long affection for animals evidenced in her paintings, “I paint what I love – nature, especially birds and animals of the high desert. I portray each creature as unique, taking pains to capture their individual personalities and postures; no two ever look alike, even quail.”

From her early youth growing up in the country near Monterey Bay, she envisioned herself as an artist and, in beginning college years, majored in art. Some twenty years later, the artist completed college with a BFA and later a MS degree in Biology. While at the University of Idaho, she studied for three years with a master watercolor professor. During this period, Olsen not only became a skilled watercolor artist, but also set her goal of a career wildlife artist. Clearly attained, her realistic paintings of animals receive wide recognition.

While raising her three daughters, the artist worked as a free-lance illustrator for the Fish and Wildlife Department in South Dakota and Idaho as well as the Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Idaho. Through these myriad experiences, she learned the specific mannerisms of wildlife and the singular identity of each creature.

Later with her children in jobs and college, she became an art educator, teaching art at Socorro High School in New Mexico, her home with her husband for 26 years. During this teaching career, she painted and displayed her art in galleries in New Mexico and Colorado as well as state and national juried exhibits.

Now retired, Olsen paints full time in her studio in Eagle Crest and exhibits throughout the Northwest. She also serves as president of the High Desert Art League and is a member and past president of the Plein Air Painters of Oregon.

Also in the upper gallery, Slater presents realistic oil paintings of cows with soulful gazes, cavorting and curious goats, bears humorous and majestic and a noble wolf as well as other animals. Slater notes that her desire to continually stretch her technique arises from a singular goal – her growth as an artist.
On the lower level is artist Karen Bandy. She studied art at the University of Oregon and upon her move to Bend in 1987, the unique beauty of her surroundings nurtured her desire to paint. She exhibits expressionistic cottontails painted in soft pastel hues and striking magpies amidst vivid desert flowers.

Sunriver Resort welcomes the public to the exhibition open all hours. Billye Turner, art consultant and gallery curator, provides additional exhibition information at 503-780-2828 or billyeturner@bendnet.com.