This Saturday featured artists are Doreen Foster (hand-made baskets), Lori Salisbur (sculptor and painter), Ken Mendenbach (chain saw carver) and Marjorie Cossairt (watercolors).
Don’t miss this kaleidoscope of color, texture and form during July at the Artists’ Gallery. The Gallery recognizes four talented artists who will “make the scene” at the Gallery’s July 14 Second Saturday Reception, 4-7pm. Enjoy art, beverages and light appetizers and a drawing of gourd art from local artist, Susan Harkness Williams.
Artists Gallery is thrilled to introduce two new and featured artists, Doreen Foster and Lori Salisbury and they welcome back Ken Mendenbach and Marjorie Cossairt.
Lori Salisbury- Visionary Artist, Sculptress & Painter 
Salisbury has been painting since she was a small child and began sculpting later in her life. She has lived a very nomadic and adventurous life style traveling and living in different states in the West. Her work is influenced by the Native American people, their spirituality and her love and respect for Mother Earth and her creatures.
Her work has been described as bridging the gap between reality and the spirit world, giving a glimpse of the power and beauty of a spiritual essence, pulsing behind the world that we see as real. A love of nature and the Earth inspire her, which helps to create the feeling that you get when you look deep into her paintings…they will touch your soul and stir your emotions!
Ken Mendenbach – Chain Saw Carver 
Mendenbach’s welcoming menagerie of carved bears are found outside and inside the Gallery. His benches grace porches all around Central Oregon. He has a knack for making the benches comfortable, approachable and beautiful.
Galloping Horses sits just outside the Gallery door and is “home” to large breed dog owners as they sit waiting patiently for their family members to complete their Gallery purchases. Galloping Horses is also home to seated couples eating ice cream or a twosome sharing a cinnamon roll. The chain saw carver creates other furniture as well including carved headboards, frames, chests and signs, which can be commissioned and delivered to your cabin/home if you are a Central Oregon resident.
Doreen Foster – Hand Made Baskets 
One really must marvel at the precision weaving and the resulting one-of-a-kind vessels that are embellished with stones, bone, antler and beads. Foster’s individual baskets can represent weeks of work to bring to completion.
If given the opportunity, how would one create a stately pine tree? Conversely, how does one create a pine needle basket? Foster pondered the second question whenever she came across the amazing art of pine needle basketry, thinking such a task must be nearly impossible. Then the day came when Foster had the opportunity to begin learning the ancient and dying craft. It is ‘one needle at a time’ and it requires infinite patience and a gradually learned skill.
Living in the midst of pine forests makes acquiring the pine needles an easy task, but design ideas are born in her imaginings and then move into her skilled hands. She discovered that using stones and natural beads in her exquisite designs opened a whole new and unique window on the conventional pine needle basket, creating a blend of the ancient with the contemporary. She found her own version of this, ‘little sticks-and-pretty-stones’ medium. It has become her niche and her trademark in this beautiful, green and sustainable art form.
Marjorie Cossairt – Original Framed Watercolors & Giclees 
Cossairt Collectors make the rounds through the gallery just to see what Miss Marjorie has new in store for them. This writer has observed buyers fill a house with Cossairt’s art as they enjoyed the calming peaceful energy of her originals and prints. Equally observed is her unfailing humility towards this success. She often says, “What a buyer doesn’t see is that I must go through several “failures” to bring just one beautiful painting to life.”
Her “critter connection” is clear. She captures both the essence and the form of horse, quail and deer in their natural habitat. If she is painting plein air one can not help but sense she has a bit of the Snow White effect on her subjects. Landscapes are painted with equal grace and a bit of the ethereal.
Cossairt’s piece Dandy and Dragonfly is featured this month in the Gallery. She describes the piece and her work. “The essence of my watercolor painting is a blend of spontaneity and control. Experimenting and discovering different techniques, my approach to watercolor is mostly intuitive working in a carefree manner creating shapes and textures resulting in representations of reality. ”
The Artists’ Gallery’s 30 local artists welcome the throngs of visitors from around the world that come to share the beauty that is Sunriver. Hours of operation 7 days a week are 9am to 8pm.