Sunday Morning Coming Down painting by Janene Grende

Horses, Birds, and Wildlife — the Exuberant Art of Janene Grende

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Sunday Morning Coming Down painting by Janene Grende

Sunday Morning Coming Down by Wenaha Gallery Artwalk Featured artist Janene Grende

The Lemonade Stand: many successful entrepreneurs remember starting their career with paper cups, a rickety table, and a pitcher of summer brew. Wildlife artist Janene Grende, however, approached things differently:

“My sister Carol and I both drew and painted from childhood,” the Sandpoint, ID painter remembers. “We had a little painting stand out by the road like other kids would have a lemonade stand. Our first sale was 25 cents.

“Carol went running to the house yelling at mom, ‘We have a cuspidor! We have our first cuspidor!'”

Grizzle by Janane Grende, Wenaha Gallery Art Walk featured artist.

Grizzle by Janane Grende, Wenaha Gallery Art Walk featured artist.

Since that momentous day, there have been many cuspidors, and clients, for both Grende sisters, with the excited Carol advancing to a career in bronze sculpture (her full-size statue of Sacagawea is a public art piece in Dayton, WA), while Janene directed her attention toward two-dimensional painting in oils, acrylics, gouache (rhymes with wash), and silk dye on silk substrate.

A prolific artist, Janene has licensed her work to Leanin’ Tree cards; designed plates, ornaments, and sculptured items for the Bradford Exchange; and provided original paintings, limited edition prints, and gift items to Wild Wings, a leading publisher and retailer of wildlife art that distributes its products to more than 150 galleries and gift shops nationwide.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Grende has made a name for herself in the wildlife and western art world, completing several paintings for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, where she has twice been chosen the Artist of the Quarter; the National Wildlife Federation; and the United States Humane Society.

Selected as the Ducks Unlimited artist of the year for Idaho, Grende was the first woman to win this honor, and the first person to win it twice.

Her horse-inspired paintings have been featured at the American Academy of Equine Art, and among her many national awards is the Best of Show at the “In the Company of Cowgirls” art show at the Pendleton Cattle Barons Weekend.

Of the many awards under Grende’s belt buckle, however, her most prized accomplishment is the Susan Kathleen Black Foundation Award of Excellence, given once a year to the most well-rounded  artist for the accomplished artwork and teaching skills.

Two Girls on Horseback by Janene Grende, Wenaha Gallery Art Walk featured artist.

Two Girls on Horseback by Janene Grende, Wenaha Gallery Art Walk featured artist.

“I have paintings all over the world, in many different mediums,” Grende says. “One of my favorite commissions was a silk dye of two young girls who were avid English riders in New York State.

“They dreamed, however, of riding out west as cowgirls. Their dad sent me a variety of photos and I made them into cowgirls with wild rags, chaps, hats and spurs.

“Ridin’ right at ya whoopin’ and hollerin’ . . . with some great mountains behind.”

Another treasured memory involves a purchaser from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, who moved to Iran.

“He was in the evacuations when the U.S. needed to get out of Iran in a hurry,” Grende explains.

“He was wounded in the leg from a mortar round and airlifted out in a helicopter while holding my painting on his chest.”

Horses painting by Janene Grende

Horses in Hill Pasture by Janene Grende, Wenaha Gallery Art Walk featured artist.

An artist can’t ask for much better endorsement than that.

Grende paints and teaches from two studios in her Sandpoint, Idaho location, and while time to paint is never unlimited, ideas for what to paint next are boundless.

“I never have any trouble thinking about what I will create next — I have lists of ideas and more ideas come every day,” Grende says of the creative process.

“My favorite subjects are horses, birds, wildlife and scenery, in that order.

“I mean, have you ever seen anything as beautiful as a horse prancing about? Or an eagle stretching its wings as it glides off a branch into the sky? Or how about a huge bull elk strutting along in all his glory.

“A cascading waterfall, fireflies at dusk, autumn trees reflected in a mirror-still lake, spring flowers and that first hummingbird.

“How would anyone run out of ideas to paint?”

Janene Grende is the featured  Art Event Pacific Northwest artist at Wenaha Gallery (219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA) from October 4-31. On the opening day of her show, Saturday, October 4, Grende joins Lewiston artist Craig Whitcomb at a special Art Walk reception in the gallery, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., part of the Dayton on Tour celebration.

Wenaha GalleryContact the gallery by phone at 800.755.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery,  located in historic downtown Dayton, Washington,  is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit at 219 East Main, Dayton; phone 509.382.2124; e-mail art@wenaha.com.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.

 

A Connoisseur of Trees and Wood — the Hand-Carved Sculpture of Jordan Henderson

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Carved goat in cherry wood by Wenaha Gallery artist Jordan Henderson

Goat in Cherry Wood by Wenaha Artist Jordan Henderson.

Sustainability: it’s contemporary, fashionable, sensible, and beautiful, and for woodcarver Jordan Henderson of JDC Woodcarving, there is an art to doing it right.

“I source all of my wood locally,” the Dayton, WA artist explains, “People contact me regularly to let me know that a tree has blown down, and am I interested in the wood? Sometimes they drive up — in the night — and leave the wood by the studio. It’s an unusual, but pleasant, surprise in the morning, and most of the mystery is figuring out who brought the wood.

Carved wood sculpture portrait in cottonwood by wenaha gallery artist Jordan Henderson

Portrait in Cottonwood, by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jordan Henderson.

“I have acquired some really unusual pieces for sculpture this way — my favorite is locust, but I’ve worked with lilac, cherry, walnut, oak, white pine. We are fortunate to live in an area with a lot of trees.”

From a block of wood, Jordan uses hand and power tools to tease out the animal, or the plant, or Viking warrior, that is hidden there, waiting for him to create it into existence. The son of Dayton painter Steve Henderson, Jordan learned to draw as a child, and he uses this skill extensively in making preliminary sketches for each piece.

“I study the subject from all sides and perspectives before actually starting to carve,” Henderson explains. “This allows me to make bold, clear shapes and cuts, which I believe are absolutely essential, because hesitant shapes and cuts in carving look terrible.

“Wood is a very unforgiving medium,” he continues. “If you make a serious mistake your carving is ruined. The time spent on preliminaries is well worth it if it means that you don’t have to  throw out a carving that is three-quarters done.”

That time spent on preliminaries shows: Henderson’s carvings are free flowing yet accurate in detail, occasionally whimsical yet respectful of their subject: the trees curve as if dancing,  the chicken exudes nobility somehow, the bust of an Arikira Indian — based on a photo by Edward Curtis — stares forward with dignity and pride. Each piece expresses the individuality of the subject.

Carved wood sculpture rockfish by wenaha gallery artist Jordan Henderson

Rockfish, by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jordan Henderson.

Because of the dust inherent to carving from wood, Henderson prefers to work outside, which is pleasant in the summer months, he observes. However, due to his seasonal day job — growing and marketing organic produce for his business, Deer Pond Gardens — Henderson spends the warmer months with a shovel in his hand, as opposed to a chisel. Quite fortunately, since he is a man who wears shorts in January, he has no problem working outside when the temperature is more . . . brisk, shall we say.

carved wooden sculpture the gardener by wenaha gallery artist Jordan Henderson

The Gardener, by Wenaha Gallery Artist Jordan Henderson.

“It’s still pleasant,” Henderson comments in his direct, yet soft spoken way. “And though in the summer — when it would be even more pleasant to be carving outside — I’m not able to devote as much time to it, I get many ideas for the winter.

“And in the winter, it’s very enjoyable, sitting by a woodstove, to do the preliminary sketches for sculptures by the fire. Or poring through seed catalogs. The two facets — gardening and carving — work well together.”

It’s back to that sustainability again — using wood that many people  would burn, to celebrate the world of wildlife, domestic animals, trees, fish, and — quite appropriately —  a gardener, leaning on a shovel.

“My goal is to create a clear and aesthetically pleasing rendition of the subject, with the aim to cause viewers to also see the beauty of these subjects,” Henderson says.

“The real benefit of wood is its inherent beauty: a woodcarving is not just a way of creating a form, it is also a way to show off the beauty of the wood it is carved from. That’s why it’s so important to have many different types of wood from which to choose, and thanks to the people who keep me in mind when they’re cutting wood, I’ve got that.”

Jordan Henderson  is the featured Art Event Pacific Northwest Artist at Wenaha Gallery, July 3 through July 26, 2014. Come see the exhibit at the gallery’s downtown Dayton, WA location, 219 East Main Street.  Wenaha Gallery

Contact the gallery by phone at 800.755.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery,  located in historic downtown Dayton, Washington,  is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit at 219 East Main, Dayton; phone 509.382.2124; e-mail art@wenaha.com.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.

Birds and Antlers and Frogs — Oh My! The Sculpture Art of Ralph Trethewey

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miniature pecan antlers by wenaha gallery artist Ralph Trethewey

Though these antlers are much, much smaller than the original from which they are inspired, they retain the accuracy and attention to detail of full size. Pecan Shell Moose by Ralph Trethewey.

Most people think of pecan shells as something to throw away after eating the nut within. For sculptor Ralph Trethewey, however, the material on the outside is far more valuable, and he has carved, quite literally, a career out of those pecan shells. Credited with discovering a form of sculpture unique in the world, the Walla Walla artist creates miniature masterpieces by carving, with rotary power tools and small knives, Lilliputian antlers, which he mounts to small-scale walnut plaques.

“My grandpa raised pecans in Phoenix, AZ,” Trethewey explains. “We would visit there in the winter, and one time when I picked up the shells I noticed the curvature, which is similar to the outer curvature of a mule deer’s antlers. I made a mental connection, and the next step was making the carving.

“It’s kind of nuts, isn’t it?”

Crazy or not, the resulting original and precision works are in the hands of collectors as unique and distinguished as the artworks themselves: Ripley’s Believe it or Not owns a set, as does contemporary Western artist Bev Doolittle.

“I was antler crazy at a young age,” Trethewey says. Raised in the Mojave Desert of California and near the Wasaatch Mountains of Utah, Trethewey grew up listening to the hunting stories of his father, John Trethewey, who once shot a buck with an eight-point rack on one side and twenty on the other.

“Every time I asked him where those antlers were, he simply said, ‘I just left them out in the cedars because we only needed the meat.'”

Trethewey recalls regularly embarrassing his father by asking total strangers where he could find antlers, and while he received some funny looks, he also picked up good tips, following up on them by looking in gas stations, on garages and fence posts, even straining to peek into bars to see antlers.

“It was a healthy addiction for which no support groups existed.”

Perhaps it’s a good thing no support group existed, because the result was that Trethewey directed his energy, and his passion for antlers, to art, cultivating what he considers a God-given talent for woodcarving into a career as a professional artist which he has been pursuing since 1973.

hand carved wood goldfinch sculpture by wenaha gallery artist Ralph Trethewey

Hand carved from wood and hand painted, Goldfinch by Ralph Trethewey meets the strict standards of approval by experts like the wildlife biologists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“I began carving as a boy and got affirmation for my first efforts,” Trethewey remembers. “I turned to Utah’s aspen trees and would carve deer from these which sold for $25.”

In addition to miniature antlers made from pecan shells, Trethewey carves full sized antlers in wood, which he reproduces in limited edition cast polymer. He also creates original wood carvings of birds and other wildlife, as well as limited edition bronze sculptures. The next time you’re in downtown Walla Walla, walk to the southeast corner of Main and Third Streets to enjoy The Thinker, a whimsical frog based upon the iconic work of Auguste Rodin.

The various homes for Trethewey’s works are as varied and eclectic as the works themselves, and along with municipal public art and a presence at Ripley’s, Trethewey’s creations — from his realistic carved birds to his signature “Wyoming Wonder” World Record Antler sculptures —  have been purchased by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, musician Hank Williams Jr., and former governor of Oregon Barbara Roberts.

Trethewey has received numerous First Place, Best in Show, and People’s Choice awards in various group exhibitions, and he garnered Best of Show at the 17th Annual American National Miniature Show in 1992. His Thinker sculpture received the Walla Walla Architectural Award. To this point, he has produced 47 limited edition sculptures, many of which are sold out.

“The statements I make (with my art) are basically a love of nature and an attempt to duplicate/interpret realistically its beauty,” Trethewey says.

“Life is all about learning. It postpones the onset of Alzheimer’s.

“In summary, I love what I get to do!”

Trethewey’s many and varied artworks are on display at Wenaha Gallery’s Art Event  in his honor, which runs from April 28 – May 17 at the downtown historic gallery, 219 East Main, Dayton, WA. Contact the gallery by phone at 800.755.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com.

Wenaha Gallery,  located in historic downtown Dayton, Washington,  is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional framing, and original fine art paintings and sculpture by notable Pacific Northwest artists.   Books, gifts, note cards, jigsaw puzzles, and more are also available. Visit at 219 East Main, Dayton; phone 509.382.2124; e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery Website: www.wenaha.com

Read more about Art Event, our celebration of Pacific Northwest Artists,  here.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.