Let the Love Flow at Artists' Gallery Sunriver - Cascade Arts & Entertainment

Stop by the gallery on March 8 and meet featured artists featured artists are Bonnie Junell, Karla Proud, Midge Thomas and Patrick Windsor.

If is time to really make a “love” investment – that means you should stop by the Artists’ Gallery and fall in love with the perfect art piece. Take it home and share your new love with all of your friends. If you would like some advice about the perfect piece, the best time to visit is on the second Saturday of each month when all of the artists are enjoying refreshments at the gallery. A nice glass of wine, a bit of cheese, some good company and let the love flow.

The first of the gallery’s featured artists for this month is oil painter Bonnie Junell who paints a diverse array of subject matter, using both brush and knife work to create depth and movement in her paintings. She describes her style as realistic impressionism with both color and emotion driving her compositions. Her most recent landscape floral paintings are focusing even more on knife work to build up the paint and create a painting that captures the viewer’s eye. This focus is even playing out in the artist’s upcoming Spring Sip & Paint classes held once a month at the SHARC. Students will be delighted to be painting a series of poppies, daisies and sunflowers.

Color at the gallery is further celebrated by jewelry artist Karla Proud whose love for gemstones and minerals is so great that she literally left paradise (Hawaii) to move to Bend because of Oregon’s incredibly rich diversity in gemstones. True paradise for this artist is to drive 150 miles south of Bend to personally mine for Juniper Fire Ridge Opals. The opal is named fire opal: because of its fiery range of colors- from yellow to orange to reds. Proud recently set these brilliant gems in blackened sterling silver for contrast, combing them with rhodium plated chains. Jewelry collectors will love the intensity of the colors.

Metal artist Midge Thomas has some art pieces on display that truly are amazing. By using multiple techniques for cutting and layering individual metal parts of the overall piece, Thomas is able to provide wonderful depth and texture. One piece, Cycling the Deschutes, reflects the joy of cycling and the beauty of Central Oregon. The variety of colors that Thomas is able to create with a blow torch is astounding. The artist does some of her greatest work on a commission basis. Her clients describe what they would like in a piece or what they would imagine in a piece. Then, delightfully, Thomas creates exactly what they wanted and more.

Photographer Patrick Windsor, long a gallery favorite, continues to please the crowds with his “fish-n-photos. Whether the viewer is admiring his piece Fly Fishing Moss Hole on the Deschutes River or Brown Trout in your Face the feeling of the artist’s joy and love for his profession is obvious.