Come wind down from summer activities with the artists of the Sunriver Artists’ Gallery. The Second Saturday Artists ‘Reception, September 14, is a wonderful way to meet the artists and view the latest additions to the Gallery’s collection. Enjoy a glass of wine or beer and a tasty snack, have a few laughs and get ready for a beautiful fall season.
Julie McClay’s watercolor paintings are long admired at the gallery. She produces delightful pieces, and aside from selling original artwork, Julie provides giclee copies of her images on non-paper media such as cutting boards and drink coasters. Now McClay has elevated her love for water to a whole new level by harnessing water’s endless momentum and translucent vibrancy with her creative water features. Using metal (copper is the artist’s favorite so far), McClay makes it possible to feel, hear and visually see water. Her spectacular creations combine copper stems, leaves and branches with natural elements such as stones, driftwood and plants collected by the artist. Each work of art will bring peace and tranquility to your home.
Potter Peter Roussel’s use of alternative firing techniques on the beautiful pots and platters that he throws always result in endless and beautiful surface finishes. Alternative firing techniques are sometimes referred to as horsehair, sagger fired, slip resists, smoked finished, fumed and pit fired pottery. When asked about the details of horsehair pottery, Roussel tells a great story about how hard it is to get the horse to back up to the pot and wag it’s tail. Joking aside, it is actually horsehair that when placed on the pot, immediately burns and carbonizes on the surface of the pot, creating an intricate design. (The hair is donated by the horse prior to the firing process.) Roussel then uses chemicals like ferric chloride to create the intense hues of red and orange of many of his pieces. Other pieces are a beautiful turquoise. Roussel purposely throws all of his platters and pots “heavy.” This means that each pot is substantially weighted and makes a wonderful base for any arrangement that is used to enhance the piece’s beauty.
Oil and acrylic painter Bonnie Junnel is a local favorite. Her subject repertoire is vast, but of late, the artist has been indulging her love of sunlight dancing on and through water. Current paintings include water with reeds, koi fish or waterlilies. Her painting Follow the Leader depicts golden koi fish lazily swimming under the lily pads. The gold of the koi is a wonderful complement to the cerulean blue water. The light twinkles on the water surface.
Junnel recently provided artwork for a newly published cookbook about Italian cooking. Her painting, A Taste of Italy, is one of a series of 12 paintings for that project.
Painter Dottie Moniz utilizes multiple processes when creating her artwork. Often, she will display a wonderful control of watercolor technique. Other times, she uses paper collage or fabric to convey her beautiful images. Sometimes, she will use all three techniques on the same painting. Moniz is a pro at capturing the texture, colors and lines hidden in nature’s palette. She provides a combination of abstraction and realism that gives her artwork an edge. Her depictions of local landmarks make wonderful groupings for her dedicated collectors.
Her painting Moon Over Bachelor was inspired by an evening drive when the moon was full and shining on Mt. Bachelor. It captures the moon’s shadows of blues and greens as they play on the snow. This fabric piece is actually stitched together. Symphony in Blue is a paper collage piece that continues Moniz’s love of blue. The wash of blue in the background highlights the warm yellow poppies in the foreground. As a special touch, Moniz has added piano music from her Grandmother’s collection of sheet music along with dictionary text from an old dictionary.
541-593-2127 or 541-593-8274, www.artistsgallerysunriver.com.
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