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rodeo bull western art animal cattle cow tanna scott

Horse and Cattle — The Oil Paintings of Tanna Scott

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Rodeo Bull, original Western Art oil painting by Kennewick painter, Tanna Scott

More than once, when artist Tanna Scott has shown her horse and cow paintings at an art festival or show, someone begins to cry.

The first time this happened, the Kennewick Western Artist was befuddled and perplexed. But she’s gotten used to it, and nowadays, when a viewer stands in front of one of her works and weeps, she knows why.

“I paint with lots of emotion,” Scott explains. “I care about each painting.

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You can almost see the dust fly as two horses rear up in Tanna Scott’s original oil painting Two Horses.

“Usually, the painting has a story or the buyer comes to me with a story. Some stories are very emotional: the buyer associates the painting with a loved animal.”

A Horse That Was a Friend

One time, an impassioned viewer approached a horse painting and began to tear up. Scott walked over to talk to her, and together the two looked at the horse. The woman then told Scott about a most beloved horse that had just passed away. It looked exactly like Scott’s painting.

Another time, a man gravitated toward a painting of a roan horse. He told Scott that the horse in the painting was his dad’s horse.

“I replied the painting must look like his dad’s horse,” Scott says.  “He said, ‘That horse IS my dad’s horse!’

“He told me that he had to purchase that painting for his dad, who was very sick with cancer. His horse stands on the top of a hill each morning and looks down on the ranch.

“By that time, we were all in tears. I was so happy he was able to take the painting home to his dad.

“That painting has a home.”

While no one wants to provoke someone to cry or be sad, Scott recognizes the power of animals in people’s lives. Raised as an only child on ranches in Texas and California, Scott bonded early to horse and cattle. As a young child, she sat on the fence and drew what she saw. Later, when her dad took her to rodeos, she fell in love with the dirt and action, the grit and courage of the rodeo world, and continued to draw and paint. Every artwork, somehow, incorporates and integrates the world of the Cowboy:

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Stately and majestic, a longhorn cow stands bold and proud. Longhorn, original oil painting by Tanna Scott.

“With my oil paintings, I support the Cowboy way of life — Past, Present, and Future.”

Teaching Art

For 25 years, Scott worked as a librarian and teacher at Eastgate Elementary in Kennewick, where she integrated art into her social studies curriculum. On the side, she taught art to students after school. Since retirement in 2017, Scott has added adult teaching to her schedule through the Kennewick Community Education program.

Scott has shown her work in various venues throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the Western Art Association show (Ellensburg, WA); the Bonanza Art Antiques and Gourmet Expo (Pendleton, OR); and the Pendleton Cattle Barons Celebration Weekend.

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Purple Horse, original oil painting by Tanna Scott

She is a member of Cyber Art 509, a cooperative of artists from the 509 area code who exhibit their work in businesses throughout the area.

Describing her home as her studio, Scott paints on a table in her kitchen, and fills the walls with works that are drying. Sometimes, she runs out of wall space and leans a work on a chair, but that shouldn’t stop people from visiting.

“Just move the painting out of the chair and sit down.”

Emotion Connects the Viewer with the Horse or Cattle

It’s all part of life: animals, action, relationships, memories, and like life, there are happy moments and sad moments. But what matters, Scott believes, is emotion: it is the glue that connects the viewer with the artwork.

“When a buyer identifies with a painting — when it resembles their animal or reminds them of a wonderful memory of an animal — it means so much more to them. And to me.

“I paint with feeling and want the animals to have character.”

Wenaha GalleryTanna Scott is the featured Art Event at Wenaha Gallery from September 22 through October 19, 2020.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Friday, and by appointment. Visit the Wenaha Gallery website online at www.wenaha.com.

 

pottery mugs production glazes pat fleming kennewick

Pottery Thoughts — Pat Fleming Creates as He Meditates

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pottery mugs production glazes pat fleming kennewick

An array of pottery mugs, featuring a variety of shapes, sizes, and glazes, by Kennewick potter Pat Fleming

He teaches, paints, digs clay in out of the way places. And, over an art career that spans 54 years and counting, Pat Fleming has thrown a lot — LOTS — of pots.

“Back in the day,” the Kennewick potter remembers, “the local art community held several annual art exhibits and demonstrations at the local mall.

“While demonstrating at the mall during one of those regional art exhibits, we were approached by a buyer from The Bon about producing pottery for their store. I accepted.”

pottery wheel bowl production pat fleming

Each pottery piece, whether made as production pottery or a one-time-only piece, requires the time, attention, and skill of the potter

And therein Fleming, who at the same time was teaching art in the Kennewick school system, entered into the world of pottery production work. His pottery at The Bon attracted notice from Cole’s Plant Soils, Inc., which distributed his wares throughout the Western U.S. He also collaborated with local restaurants to provide coffee mugs, candle holders, serving items, planters, and ash trays. (“Remember them?” Fleming asks).

Along with that, he adds, his work has been distributed in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, and Spain.

Nowadays, Fleming has scaled down on production work, but maintains two commercial customers for whom he makes stoneware. He also takes commissions from individuals. Intriguingly, he finds the process of production pottery to be not frenetic, but calming.

Meditative and Calming

“Doing production work is meditative,” Fleming explains.

“One cannot concentrate on the process of throwing a pot with a thoughtful shape without concentrating.

“Doing that makes all the worries and concerns of the day disappear. It would appear to the uninitiated as drudgery, but is actually the opposite.

“It is the nature of craftsmanship to require concentration to the point of excluding everything else.”

From soup bowls to serving bowls, from mugs for hot drinks to vessels for wine, potter Pat Fleming is constantly experimenting with techniques and form.

For years, Fleming has been digging clay for his pottery from local areas, starting at the Ringold area at the Columbia River. He later moved to spots around Othello, Prosser, and the Walla Walla River Basin.

Fleming uses the dug clay it by itself as earthenware, or incorporates with fire clays purchased from local building suppliers. He also blends it, along with local soil and wood ash, into signature glazes. These range in color from ochre to brown, black to iron red.

Wood Ash Makes Innovative Pottery Glazes

“The coloring of most of my glazes comes from the iron in the soil, clay, or wood ash,” Fleming says. “I rarely use chemical colorants, and have limited their use to cobalt for blue and copper for green.” One of his more innovative resources for ash, aside from that collected from the Mount St. Helens 1980 eruption, is from Fleming’s barbecue pit.

“When firing a wood kiln, the wood ash flows through the ware chamber and settles on the pots to form its own natural although spotty glaze.”

Like many artists who become experts at what they do, Fleming loves to teach what he knows, and what he knows about a 12,000-year-old craft is significant. In 1971, he began his teaching career at Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, and though after 33 years he theoretically retired from teaching, he never really did, and has been called back numerous times. He also instructs through numerous community venues.

Teaching Is His Passion

“Even though I really enjoy making functional and non-functional ceramic objects, teaching is my real passion,” Fleming says.

“One of the most rewarding positions was at Coyote Ridge Correction Center for Walla Walla Community College. The convicted felons were the most willing and motivated students ever.

“After Covid19 goes away, I will return to Kennewick Community School where I teach drawing and painting.”

Because a teacher, like an artist, never stops. Why should they? They’re creating, learning, innovating, giving, with the result that their job isn’t really a job at all.

“As I look back on my 54 years of art in one way or the other being my livelihood, I wonder how I could have been so lucky,” Fleming muses.

“I wish I could do it all over again.”

Wenaha GalleryPat Fleming is the featured Art Event at Wenaha Gallery from September 8 through October 2, 2020.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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.

 

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Clouds Fascinate — The Photography of Nancy Richter

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Bateman Island Fall, a photographic landscape of water, trees and sky by Nancy Richter of Kennewick

Clouds fascinate her

She is a grandmother now. But Nancy Richter has never lost a child’s fascination for a sky full of clouds.

As a kid, she did what lots of kids — even in today’s techno-world of substitutionary reality — still do: she lay in the grass and watched the world above.

“I grew up in Montana — Big Sky Country,” the Kennewick photographer says.

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Fog and mist are simply clouds that decide to come a little closer to earth . . . Foggy Drive, photograph by Nancy Richter

“I never tired of the surprising shapes and colors of clouds. Their randomness, unpredictability, and beauty are fascinating to me.”

It is no wonder then that from the time Richter received her first camera — a Brownie Instamatic for Christmas when she was ten — she has focused on capturing the form, the mystique, the emotion, and the feeling of clouds. As technology advanced and Richter exchanged her Brownie for a Minolta SLR, then a digital camera, she kept chasing the timeless yet ever-changing vista of clouds. And though she photographs much more than the sky overhead — landscape, macro, flowers, rusty abstract surfaces, portraits, events — she retains a lifetime goal of finding the perfect combination of landscape and clouds.

Moody, Brooding Clouds

In 2011, she met photographer John Clement, of whom she had been a fan for years. The two arranged a photography day trip to the Blue Mountains in Southeast Washington. And from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m. they went to one wonderful spot after another.

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In Nailed It, a country landscape and brooding, moody clouds form one of Nancy Richter’s favorite photographic combinations.

After this most amazing day, one Richter affectionately dubs “John Clement Day,” she discovered that she had taken yet another step on her photographic journey.

“I find my own way to the loveliness that’s out there, following dusty farm roads, stopping along the banks of lakes and rivers, and making my way up to the top of hills covered with wildflowers,” Richter says.

She likes her photos to be unconventional, a bit off balanced and moody, she adds. Art is best, she considers, when its subject or material is unexpected, inviting the viewer to stop beyond a first glance, teasing him or her to discover new elements and depth.

“That’s what I want to convey: something a bit off the beaten path, something that holds the observer’s interest.”

Clouds Combined with Landscapes

Within a short radius of her Kennewick studio, unusual and intriguing landscapes abound. Less than 15 minutes from her home are spots in the Horse Heaven Hills that open out into vistas of Rattlesnake Mountain and other significant ridges of the Tri-Cities area.  There’s the Palouse (“That place is divine. Nowhere exactly like it on earth”). And there are the Blue Mountains, a combination of bare grass hills with forest in the ravines, farmland interwoven between.

The roads to these places can be a little dicey, though, but than again, that adds to the adventure of it all.

“One time I got stuck in the mud up to half my tire,” Richter remembers.

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A flower peeks from its foliage in Pink, photography by Nancy Richter of Kennewick

“A man and his 5-year-old daughter just happened to be out in the middle of nowhere with a jeep and pulled me out with a strap.

“When I first told them of my dilemma, the daughter’s comment was, ‘My dad can do anything!'”

Such is the mindset of a child, a mindset that Richter maintains with that persistent, lifelong, deep-rooted fascination with clouds. And to this day, in the process of looking up, she often finds that the ground beneath her feet is steadier, firmer, more secure.

“Sometimes when I am dealing with unpleasant emotion, the sky provides pleasant distraction,” Richter muses.

“It gets me outside and moving and enjoying. It helps ground me.

“Funny, that the sky would help me touch the earth.”

Clouds, Light, Quality, and Emotion

Richter shows and sells her work throughout the Tri-Cities area, and participates in the Thursday Art Walk in Kennewick. She has exhibited at the Richland library, You and I Framing in Kennewick, the Crossroads and Carnegie Art Center in Baker City, OR, and the Larson Gallery in Yakima. At the latter, she received the Women in Photography Award, as a well as a Purchase Award.

Richter doesn’t remember whatever happened to her old Brownie — she could have sold it at a yard sale; it may be in one of those memorabilia boxes we all cart around. But what it started will never be lost, as she discovers, and captures, a world of possibility, imagination, and enchantment. These elements transcend time and technology.

“When I take photos I feel an attraction to the scene. I’m feeling excited or having fun or am just delighted with the amazing light in that moment.

“I want people to enjoy what they see, to feel pleasure in the colors, to experience the light and the quality.”

Wenaha GalleryNancy Richter is the Featured Art Event from Monday, November 18, through Saturday, December 14 at Wenaha Gallery. She will be at the gallery for the Christmas Kickoff Art Show Friday, November 29, from 2 to 6 p.m. Richter will be joined by Colfax rope basket creator Nancy Waldron and jewelry artist Andrea Lyman.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment.

 

 

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Camera Magic — The Photography of John Clement

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Sentinel gap camera photo landscape eastern-washington columbia river john clement

Sentinel Gap, capturing the Eastern Washington landscape on camera by John Clement, Kennewick photographer

Everyone has a camera these days.

Whether it’s at an office party or the family Thanksgiving dinner, many people have been buttonholed by an enthusiastic traveler’s  sharing a (seemingly endless) collection of photos. It doesn’t take long to realize that enthusiasm does not always equate with expertise, and while anyone can press a button, far fewer people know how to capture a moment, a memory, and an emotion.

“The challenge of being a photographer is capturing the images that I have created in my mind’s eye — capturing an emotion that connects someone with that image and draws them into it,” says Kennewick photographer John Clement, who has had a camera in his hand for more than 49 years now and counting.

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The Eiffel Tower, by John Clement, photographer and camera artist from Kennewick, WA

“Finding those type of images takes lots of planning, prayer, and knowing your landscape locations. It’s understanding how and when the weather, the light, and the subject all work together for that moment in time, never to be repeated. There is so much to this side of the story . . . ”

He Borrowed His First Camera

Clement’s story started in 1970 at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where he double majored in geology and geography. Needing an elective class to fill a gap in his schedule, he chose photography — although to get through the class he had to borrow a camera because he didn’t own one.

“But I was hooked,” he said. He spent five years with a church pictorial directory company in St Louis, and another five with Battelle in Tri-Cities doing lab and photography assignments. On the side, he shot landscapes and marketed his work, and in 1980, left Battelle to venture out on his own.

“I’ve been really blessed in this business by faithful clients and opportunities to try new ventures in photography,” Clement explains. “I’ve been involved in book publishing, calendars, multimedia production, and scouting movie locations for clients in California.

“I have clients all around the world, and have prints in more than 80 countries.”

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Morning, capturing on camera that moment in the morning, by photographer John Clement of Kennewick, WA

Clement’s photos have garnered more than 65 regional, national, and international awards, including first place at the National Park Service’s National Natural Landmark Photo Competition. He has been published in Country Music and Northwest Travel Magazines, and one of his prints hangs in the permanent collection of the International Hall of Fame of Photography in Missouri. He installed 17 of his works as murals at the Century Link Field in Seattle, home of the Seahawks and the Sounders, and an additional 17 as 4×8 glass panels at the recently remodeled Pasco Airport. Last year he completed a major project at the Othello Medical Clinic where nearly 200 images — ranging in size from 24 inches to 35 feet — decorate the facilities.

Traveling with Family and Camera

For 20 years, Clement operated a gallery at the Columbia Center Mall in Kennewick, but closed it in 2005 so that he could devote more time to traveling with his wife, Sharon, and capturing landscapes on camera from different locations. The past several years, he has traveled regularly to the Midwest with his daughter, Colleen, for storm chasing. (“My interest is in the big skies and the landscape.”) Other travels have taken him to Russia, China, continental Europe and the British Isles, “with more to come, Lord willing.”

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Vineyards, by camera and photography artist John Clement of Kennewick, WA

“I have thousands of stories — some funny, some serious, and some scary,” Clement says. “When you do what I do, you can get into some interesting situations, places, and crazy scary weather.” One major memory is the time he lugged his 42 pounds of camera equipment onto a four-foot wide, mid-range ledge at Palouse Falls. Without warning, a baseball-sized rock hurtled from above, barely missing him.

“Quit throwing rocks! There are people below you!” Clement shouted to the voices overhead. The next voice he heard was that of an upset mother yelling, “I told you not to throw rocks, didn’t I?” There was a slap, a wail, and then silence. But at least there were no more rocks. Clement stayed on the ledge, unmolested from above, for four hours, waiting until the light and the sky were just the way he wanted.

Camera and the Artist’s Eye

“This world is a wonderful place of color, textures, lines, and patterns,” Clement says. “When some or all of these elements come together in the right light, they can stir the emotions to stop and think.”

It’s his job, he says, to capture that moment on camera, and translate it visually into an image that speaks to the heart as well as the eye.

“I believe God has given each one of us a gift to share with others,” Clement says.

“My gift is seeing his wonderful creation in a unique way that communicates His love for all of us — through what He has created for us to see.”

Wenaha GalleryJohn Clement is the Featured Art Event from Monday, April 8through Saturday, May 4at Wenaha Gallery. He will be at the gallery Saturday, April 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for a special Spring Art Show, where he will be joined by Milton-Freewater steel sculptor Anne Behlau and Dayton jewelry and nostalgia journal artist Dawn Moriarty.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 or e-mail art@wenaha.com. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday through Saturday, and by appointment.

Teanaway River oil painting landscape laura gable

Plein Air Magic — The Oil Paintings of Laura Gable

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Teanaway River plein air magical oil painting landscape laura gable

Teanaway River, original plein air oil painting with a magical air, by Kennewick artist Laura Gable

It’s easy to forget that, when we put something in the back seat of the car, it doesn’t go away.  Artist Laura Gable, however, never forgot what she set in the back seat, and when the time came to retrieve it, she readily and happily did so.

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Furrowed Fields plein air landscape oil painting, with a sense of magic, by Kennewick artist Laura Gable

“In college, I loved all my art classes,” the Kennewick oil painter says, “but they started to take a back seat when my family advised I follow more practical pursuits rather than art (which ‘didn’t make any money’).” So she switched her double major from Art and Accounting to Accounting and Data Processing, and entered a career as an accountant and auditor.

“The funny thing about it,” Gable adds, “is that when these business roles needed anything artistic done (posters, invitations), they came to me and I’d create them by hand.”

So, even though art was sort of in the back seat, it functioned in the capacity of back seat driver, ensuring that Gable always heard — and heeded — its voice. When a job layoff prompted Gable to retrain as a graphic designer, the art in the back seat settled into the passenger seat, and not many years later, took over the driver’s position as Gable turned to painting full time.

Plein Air Painting out of the Studio: It’s Magic, and Magical

Gable now works out of a studio in historic downtown Kennewick, maintaining hours “by appointment” because, on any given day, she is more likely in the field somewhere, painting en plein air, a French term which describes painting outside, as opposed to in the studio.

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Lone Pine plein air landscape oil painting, featuring a prominent tree and a magical atmosphere, by Kennewick artist Laura Gable

“I started doing it before all the Plein Air conventions and hub-bub started, and before everyone was doing it and it became the new buzzword, the new ‘golf,'” Gable says. “I thought I knew how to paint until I went outside, and it was like I had to start all over again.

“Painting outside is a constant learning experience, and nature is a consummate teacher.”

There is the weather — which isn’t always, and frequently isn’t — balmy; there are insects and crawling things and larger creatures and other living and unpredictable elements of nature; and there’s the light, which doesn’t stay conveniently in one place for hours on end. Plein air painting, Gable explains, requires that the artist stop and truly see, processing the colors before her eyes, and letting the brush speak with a few expressive strokes as opposed to many smaller, painstakingly detailed ones.

Expressive and Impressionistic, Magical Plein Air

“I want the work to be expressive and thus impressionistic without defining every blade of grass or every ripple. The eye does a remarkable job of filling in what I leave out if I just give the viewer enough information — in fact, I find it more intriguing when an artist leaves out details and can define something with a few strokes of the brush.

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Tranquil Waters, original plein air oil painting with a magical feeling by Kennewick artist Laura Gable

“It’s magic!”

As a longtime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Gable is intimately acquainted with unmagical grey winter days, which she finds aren’t as difficult to handle when she gets outside to paint. Once there, her increasingly trained eye sees beyond the grey to the subtle colors that are everywhere: lavenders within the clouds; bronzes and golds tucked among the sage of desert grasses; teals and aquas hanging around the steely blues of river water.

Also quite colorful is Gable’s painting clothing, most notably a parka she found on the clearance rack that, with every winter season, increasingly shows the colors of her craft.

Painting Nationally

A member of several prestigious, national artist organizations — including the Oil Painters of America, American Impressionist Society, and Outdoor Painters Society — Gable shows and sells her work nationwide. Her awards roster includes Gold, Second, Director’s, Merit, Memorial, and Honorable Mentions, and her most recent accolade was garnered at a month-long plein air show at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale.

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Meadows and Cottonwoods plein air landscape, magical painting of trees in the field, by Kennewick artist Laura Gable

Her honorable-mention winning piece, Forest Whispers, was painted near Cascade Locks in the midst of smoke drifting down from the British Columbia fires, blanketing the atmosphere with haze. Coupled with the intense heat of a 100-plus summer day, it made for challenging, but ethereal, conditions as constantly shifting light revealed subtle nuances of alluring, dappled patterns.

“It was another magical moment spent painting,” Gable recalls.

Magical Beauty

That’s what painting is, Gable believes — both magic and magical — dependent upon the skill and soul of the artist to create work that is beautiful and has truth in it. She strives for a delicate balance of technical proficiency with informal spontaneity, the resulting work aiming to draw an emotional response from the viewer.

“I don’t have a political platform — I just want to represent the beauty that surrounds us.

“God is the ultimate creator: I show my impression of what has already been created.”

Wenaha Gallery

Laura Gable is the featured Pacific Northwest artist at Wenaha Gallery from Monday, November 20 through Saturday, December 16, 2017.   Gable will be at the gallery in person Saturday, November 24 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., for a special show also featuring The Talented Trio, a family of artists from Kennewick.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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.

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Painting In the Zone — Nature and Wildlife by Pamela Claflin

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Lone Poplar, original oil painting of nature and meadow, by Pamela Claflin

Pamela Claflin loves to paint with friends, even though once she gets the brushes out, she stops talking to them.

Upon entering “the zone,” Claflin focuses on the task at hand and the scene in front of her, to the point that she — very very literally — notices nothing else.

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Along the Snake River, original oil painting of nature and stream by Pamela Claflin

“One time, while painting in the Ochocos, I set up my metal easel and tripod on a bed of rocks in the middle of the creek,” Claflin remembers. “I painted for a couple of hours, and when I showed up for lunch my friends asked me, ‘What did the three cowboys say to you when you were  painting?’

“I said, ‘WHAT three cowboys?’

“They said, ‘The three fellas who waded out into the creek and stood a few feet behind you to watch you paint.’

“I was flabbergasted. I didn’t even know they were there.”

That’s being “in the zone,” and it’s also the principal reason why Claflin never goes painting by herself. Claflin, an oil painter of wildlife and the outdoors who incorporates plein air (outdoor painting), studio work, and reference photography, considers her weekly outdoor sessions with friends a form of ongoing schooling, added to a yearly weeklong workshop she takes from nationally known artists.

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Dusk on the Saddlebacks, original oil painting of nature and trees by Pamela Claflin

She began her art journey under the tutelage of Del Gish, an impressionist who studied under Russian Master Painter Sergei Bongart, and she took seriously Gish’s admonition to paint from one’s heart.

“I believe that to this day,” Claflin says, adding that, during the time she owned the Mockingbird Gallery in Bend, OR, from 1989 to 2007, she sought out other artists who ascribed to this maxim as well.

Now, the Kennewick artist — who sold the gallery for the sole reason of embarking upon full-time painting — enters her work in museum and gallery shows throughout the nation, one of the most recent being the American Impressionist Society Show in Kirkland, WA, where she received Second Place for the Members’ Outdoor Paint Event.

Known among her friends as the “wildlife spotter,” Claflin believes that maintaining an observant eye is the key to finding subject matter to paint, and while she may be oblivious to her surroundings when she’s in the zone, when she’s on a hike, seeking reference material for future paintings, she’s 100 percent attuned to her surroundings.

Wild stallion horse original oil painting by Pamela Claflin

One Long, Last Look at His Father’s Herd, original oil painting of nature and young stallion horse, by Pamela Claflin

“Nature has its colors . . . wildlife has its colors. When I am out in nature and see a color that doesn’t blend, my head perks up and I look to see what it is.

“A stump that is too dark turns out to be a black bear drinking at a creek.

“A blonde ‘rock’ turns out to be a lone pronghorn.

“A dead tree branch turns out to be antlers of a very old elk who ends up eating the last apple in my backpack.”

Once, while traveling to Taos, NM, Claflin spotted a herd of wild horses, noticing a young stallion being pushed from the herd by an older stallion of the same color, which Claflin deduced to be the young one’s father. After being repeatedly driven away, the young horse stopped, squared up his body as if to take a deep breath, and stared at the herd.

“I photographed him at the moment and did a painting of him entitled, ‘One Long, Last Look at His Father’s Herd,'” Claflin says.

“I believe that if one is to paint life images of nature, one must spend time outside observing and painting.”

Because the outdoors is unpredictable, Claflin believes in being prepared as well, making sure that her car is within easy reach of the chosen painting site. That way, when marble-sized hail falls, or the wind incessantly blows down the easel and declares itself the winner, or yellow jackets take offense at a perceived intruder, it’s easy to pack up and move.

On studio days, it’s warm, dry, and insect-free.

Claflin’s work is in collections throughout the U.S., Canada, and England, and she herself maintains a collection of other artists’ work as well. One these pieces, her first sculpture purchase made in 1987, is by Klamath artist Jim Jackson, and is entitled “Seeking a Vision.” It is, she asserts, aptly named.

“It is a clay, robed figure with his head tilted towards the sky with his eyes, closed,” Claflin explains.

“I have kept that sculpture in my paint room ever since, and it constantly serves as an inspiration for me.”

Wenaha GalleryPamela Claflin is the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artist from Monday, March 13, through Saturday, April 8. There is a special Art Show honoring Claflin Saturday, April 1, 2017, with the artist being on hand to meet and greet from 1 to 4 p.m. Also occurring at the same time is a Tribute Art Show of work by the late James Christensen.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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 is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized 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 the gallery today!

 

 

 

 

Bronze, silver, ruby, and moonstone necklace by Rachelle Moore, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Bright, Shiny Jewelry — The Corvidae-Inspired Art of Rachelle Moore

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Bronze, silver, ruby, and moonstone necklace by Rachelle Moore, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Bronze, silver, ruby, and moonstone necklace, jewelry by Rachelle Moore, guest artist at Wenaha Gallery

Crows, ravens, jackdaws, magpies — while members of the Corvidae family are notorious for raucous dissonance, they also possess a captivating charm that invites jewelry maker Rachelle Moore to their fan club:

They like shiny things.

Bracelet incorporating bronze and hessonite nuggets by Rachelle Moore

Bracelet incorporating bronze and hessonite nuggets, jewelry by Rachelle Moore

“I love shiny things!” the Kennewick artist exclaims, explaining why she named her business Corvidae Fine Art, reflecting a lifelong enthrallment of birds with their refinement and intelligence. “Sparkles and elegant jewelry and gem and mineral specimens of hematite, selenite, and quartz are always trying to take over the surfaces of my work space.

“I can lose countless hours to the joy of crafting in silver or bronze metal, making mini enduring wearable sculptures to combine with sparkling gemstones. I like to imagine these will exist and be enjoyed for many years,” Moore says.

Because like many humans on the planet, Moore does not find herself with actual countless hours, she efficiently juggles the ones she has, incorporating a full-time job as a nurse and subsequent 90-minute commute back to her rural studio space/apartment on Weston Mountain with her art business.

Grey Faceted Hawks Eye Drops earrings by Rachelle Moore

Grey Faceted Hawks Eye Drops earrings, jewelry by Rachelle Moore

Creativity with both time and physical materials is a skill she learned young, from a child homeschooled in the mountains with her siblings, and refined in her late teens, when she started crafting earrings, beaded hair pins, and accessories to help pay for college.

“This was so successful and enjoyable that I started my own small business in 2007 selling my jewelry,” Moore says.

“I have been artistic for as long as I can remember.

“I suppose what started it was wanting to capture and save some of the beauty around me.”

Feeding her appreciation of beauty was a voracious appetite for reading, and Moore spent (and still spends) hours consuming “marvelous stories” such as Treasure Island, The Count of Monte Cristo, and the Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and Narnia Chronicles series.

Fine silver vine chandelier earring with phrenite bunches by Rachelle Moore

Fine silver vine chandelier earring with phrenite bunches, jewelry by Rachelle Moore

“These books among others helped inspire my love of adventure, travel, and trying to capture those fantastic images in my imagination to share in one form or another,” Moore says.

“Many of the pieces I have made, I picture in my head as part of a bigger, fantastic world.”

Moore sells her work on her etsy shop, under the name CorvidaeFineArt, and has participated in ArtSquared, ArtWalla’s annual fundraiser benefiting area arts education, and the Walla Popup Juried Art Show, as well as kept a booth at the Walla Walla Farmer’s Market. She also creates customized commissioned pieces, which she describes as her most rewarding, yet stressful projects.

“I remember a custom commission I did of a bronze sculptured and carved dragon necklace with many rubies and sapphires. I wound myself up wondering if the customer would like the character of the dragon as I created the layers and the dragon came to life.

Rectangular pounded pendant necklace with sapphire roundels, jewelry by Rachelle Moore

Rectangular pounded pendant necklace with sapphire roundels, jewelry by Rachelle Moore

“In the end, my customer loved the piece, and I have seen her wearing it so many times. It makes me happy to know she enjoys wearing it.”

Moore makes a point of not replicating or repeating her designs, because she values the individuality and uniqueness of something that is handmade. And while this is time consuming, the end result is something both she, and the wearer, feel incredibly good about.

“If someone owns a piece of my jewelry, it will be something special and a little different than what anyone else has.”

Working with precious metals and components that require torch firing or time in a kiln at 1200-1600 degrees is a lesson of rolling with the unexpected. Holding her breath upon opening the cooled kiln, Moore never knows if a piece will emerge as planned, not quite as planned — “There’s always a risk of random inclusions . . . having caused a small explosion or microscopic cracks” — or better than planned, the artist’s equivalent to Christmas morning, any time of year.

This is a fitting analogy, because to Moore, art is a gift that is part of her life, no matter where she lives, and no matter what else she does. It neatly compliments her career as a registered nurse, in which each patient requires a balance of time, energy and dedication.

“At the end of each work day I take home a sense of connection and peace in knowing I worked hard to make a positive difference in another human’s life while they were in a challenging part of their life.

“Having art to make on my days off is a welcome change of pace and a different kind of challenge.”

Wenaha GalleryRachelle Moore is the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artist from Monday, February 27, through Saturday, March 25.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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 is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized 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 the gallery today!

 

 

Desert Grass, public art piece in Richland, WA, by Joseph Rastovich

Public and Private Art — The Metal Sculpture of Joseph Rastovich

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Desert Grass, public art piece in Richland, WA, by Joseph Rastovich

Desert Grass, public art piece in Richland, WA, by Joseph Rastovich

Falling metal, flying shrapnel, punishing heat, blinding light, loud noises — it doesn’t sound like an artist’s studio, but then again, the making of Joseph Rastovich’s art doesn’t fit into a small space. The Kennewick artist, whose primary medium is fabricated sculpture in steel, designs wall art, furniture, and lamps, in addition to significantly sized public art pieces.

Lady Tree, side table furniture, by Joseph Rastovich

Lady Tree, side table furniture, by Joseph Rastovich

He started working with metal when he was 14 years old, after inheriting classic cars from both sides of his family.

“I had to learn metal work to fix these cars, and that quickly transformed into my art career,” Rastovich says. “I had a job as a dishwasher at a jazz and wine club during that time and spent my paychecks solely on metal working tools.”

Ten years later, Rastovich’s studio, which is primarily outside his home (“luckily all my neighbors like me and accommodate my unusual profession”), boasts a plethora of the specialty tools necessary for metalwork: welders, plasma cutters, air compressors, grinders, sheet metal roller, clamps, gantry cranes, vises, sandblasters, an oxyacetylene kit, and forklift among others. These are just the tools. Finding the supplies with which to create is another matter.

“Unlike most artists, when I go to an art supply store, there effectively is nothing I can use,” Rastovich says. “Instead, I source my materials and supplies from industrial stores such as steel yards, welding supply stores, and industrial paint stores.”

Tree of Zen, wall art by Joseph Rastovich

Tree of Zen, wall art by Joseph Rastovich

The son of two artists — LuAnn Ostergaard, whose box mounted art prints are sold to private and corporate collections nationwide, and Michael Rastovich, an artist of multiple mediums whose resume includes creating a float for the Portland Rose Parade — Rastovich was “unschooled” for much of his educational career, an experience that allowed him to pursue creative endeavors with full focus.

“Curiosity and awe is the foundation of which intelligence is built,” Rastovich says.

“I was free to study philosophy, learn quantum mechanics, create music, look at great art, witness the running of a business, build things, and commune with nature.” The result, for him, is a 21st century Renaissance Man who not only has a passion about everything, but is extremely fit.

“It is a very physical profession,” he explains, one of the reasons he calls himself a metal wrangler, complete with signature cowboy hat, that is, when the situation doesn’t require a hard one.

Vortex sculpture by Joseph Rastovich

Vortex sculpture by Joseph Rastovich

“Everything is heavy. Before I bought my forklift, half my time was spent just moving steel plate with pry bars, rollers, and blocking.” And while the forklift has made certain aspects of his job easier, it still isn’t . . . easy. Because the work takes place primarily outside, Rastovich finds himself in all types of weather, ranging from 120 degrees to 0 degrees, from full, blazing sun to pouring rain and falling snow.

Rastovich sells his smaller work through galleries as well as furniture, gift, and jewelry stores throughout the Pacific Northwest. His larger, public works are installed in parks, schools, business districts and hospitals in the Tri-Cities, Spokane, and Tualatin, OR. He also attends select art festivals, including the Sausalito Art Festival in California and the Bellevue Art Festival, both prestigiously difficult to get into.

“At art festivals, I often admire jewelers because their entire inventory fits in a suitcase,” he observes wryly. “I have had shows where I needed to bring a forklift. But alas! I enjoy the scale and gravity of my work.”

Visual art, he believes, is like a static form of music, and like music, has the ability to bring forth powerful emotions in the viewer, from tears to joy, from quiet contemplation to the impulse to dance. It is his goal that his own art, large pieces or small, bring on a sense of awe and inspiration.

“I create art to provide relief from normalcy.

“What was a bare wall of insignificance becomes a reason to stop and slow down.

“What was empty space becomes a place for inspiration.

“What was a normal average day can be transformed into a power memory, when one encounters art.”

Wenaha GalleryJoseph Rastovich is the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artist from Monday, October 10 through Saturday, November 5.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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 is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized 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, WA.

Cathedral in the Forest, fine art photography by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Patricia Fleming

“This Is What We Do” — The Photography, Painting, and Pottery of Pat and Patricia Fleming

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Cathedral in the Forest, fine art photography by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Patricia Fleming

Cathedral in the Forest, fine art photography by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Patricia Fleming

At social events, we all field the question,

“So, what is it that you do?” with an expected answer of, “I am a ____,” and subsequent filling in of the blank.

Wine Glasses, original acrylic painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pat Fleming

Wine Glasses, original acrylic painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pat Fleming

When that query is posed to Pat and  Patricia Fleming, a husband-wife artistic team from Kennewick, WA, the answer — even a vastly simplified one — requires more than one to five words.  And even afterwards, one gets the feeling that all the blanks haven’t been filled in.

“We live in a clay house that I built from 2002 to 2005,” Pat Fleming says. That’s a good start, because the potter, who is also a painter, who is also a retired art instructor regularly returning to the classroom to part-time teach, is known for digging his own clay from a spot in Othello, WA.

The corresponding pottery he creates from this activity is truly unique, if for no other reason than that many pottery artists, as well as pottery purchasers, rarely consider the possibility of such a DIY attitude. But, as Pat points out, digging one’s own clay is not a new concept:

“My pottery statement is,  ‘See what our ancestors did for over 12,000 years, and we can still do it.’ It is cost efficient, it is possible, it is the ultimate craft.

Tulips, fine art photography by Patricia Fleming

Tulips, fine art photography by Patricia Fleming

“Also, ‘See what this stuff that I dug out of the ground can do with the guidance of a knowledgeable practitioner.'”

One thing this particular knowledgeable practitioner — whose expertise extends beyond creation of individualized pieces to the production of nationally distributed wholesale restaurant dinnerware — has done is share the wisdom base of a very ancient craft. During a 33-year teaching career at Kennewick schools, Pat led groups of students on weekend field trips to collect material.

At one point, “we had so much local clay accumulated that we never had to buy any for 12 years.”

One of Pat’s favorite phrases, and indeed the one upon which he grounds his professional career, and life, is,

“This is what I do.”

Created using hand-dug clay from Southeastern Washington, customized pottery pieces by Pat Fleming are like no other. They are literally unique.

Created using hand-dug clay from Southeastern Washington, customized pottery pieces by Pat Fleming are like no other. They are literally unique.

Pottery is one element, teaching another (“I have been called out of retirement for a fourth time”); even bricklaying, originating from work as a hod carrier when he was 14, forms a part of What Pat Does. He also paints, but in archetypal Fleming fashion, in his own way.

“I mix powdered tempera with masonry acrylic additive which I buy at Lowe’s by the gallon . . . My paintings are about everything from, ‘Look at what the light did to that wine bottle,’ to ‘Ode to Retired Bankers Everywhere.'”

Well, that’s Pat, simplified. What about Patricia?

A photographer who greets each day for its potential of perspective, chroma, and form, Patricia teases out the unique attributes of landscapes and still life, transforming everyday views into, “Stop. Look at me now,” visual monographs.

“I love the light and became interested in reflections, shapes, and shadows,” Patricia says. “Everyday items take on a whole new perspective when the sun and shadows hit them — that’s when I feel a great urgency to record the scene I am seeing.”

Yaquina Bay Bridge, fine art photography by Patricia Fleming

Yaquina Bay Bridge, fine art photography by Patricia Fleming

No Photoshopping, other than cropping, she adds. The artist’s eye directs the final view. It is a view that insists upon being seen:

“While I have sold many photographs, the one that means the most to me was a patient at a hospital who said she strolled by my photograph called Bella Beach many times, and felt a real sense of peace when she looked at it.

“She later purchased it, and I love  the thought of her looking at it in her own home. I think of her and hope she is now healthy and happy.”

When they’re not creating their own art, the Flemings focus on the work of others, cofounding Cyber Art 509 (www.CyberArt509.com), an online group of 57 artists in the 509 phone area code. Members show their work at local restaurants, shops, wineries and offices in the form of rotating exhibits.

It’s all part of what they, the Flemings, do — potter, photographer, painter, teacher, writer, marketer, artist. As Pat says,

“I don’t golf, I don’t bowl, I don’t own a boat. I paint and make pots.”

Patricia photographs and conquers the computer and the website.

It satisfies them to say, “This is what we do.”

Wenaha GalleryPat and Patricia Fleming are the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artists from Monday, May 9 through Saturday, June 4. Pat will be showing his pottery and paintings, and Patricia will be showing her photography.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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 is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized 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, WA.

Hawaiian Chicken, original watercolor by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pam Sharp

On the Road and Selling Art — The Watercolors of Pam Sharp

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Hawaiian Chicken, original watercolor by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pam Sharp

Hawaiian Chicken, original watercolor by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pam Sharp

In the springtime, when some people’s thoughts turn lightly to rototilling the garden and outsmarting the latest frost date, wildlife painter Pam Sharp packs up and travels. Participating in art festivals and shows throughout the country, the watercolor artist reaches a national and international clientele taking advantage of sunny days (one hopes) to stroll through a temporary city of tents and awnings filled with fine art and crafts.

“Last year I did 17 art shows on the road,” Sharp says. “It takes a crew to set up and tear down a display, and I am very lucky to have my husband’s support. He provides the before and after show moving and carrying and hauling.”

In the Trees, original watercolor painting by Pam Sharp, Wenaha Gallery guest artist

In the Trees, original watercolor painting by Pam Sharp, Wenaha Gallery guest artist

Thanks to the hard work it takes to transport what is effectively a gallery’s worth of art, the Kennewick, WA, painter has collectors throughout the world, including Japan, Australia, England and Germany, as well as residents of most of the states of the Union. A primary benefit of selling directly to the public, she maintains, is the ability to meet collectors in person, with the opportunity to, over the years, get to know them better.

“This is the reason I have chosen to focus on art festivals,” Sharp explains. One of the most prestigious — and challenging to jury into –venues she attends is the Sun Valley Arts Festival (Ketchum, ID), where only 13 painters are accepted. For the last four years, Sharp has been one of those decidedly not unlucky, and highly sought after, 13.

Horses, birds, wildlife — the world of fauna is the one that most fascinates Sharp, who describes the first stage of her art career starting when she was five, insistent upon drawing horses.

“Horses have always been my first love and will always be incorporated in my art portfolio.”

Life, and a career outside of art intervened until 1998, when the now-grown five-year-old was prompted to revisit her childhood love of drawing at an art society meeting.

“Being clueless on the art business and the challenges, I dove in and have been swimming ever since,” Sharp says.

Stellar Jay, original watercolor painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist, Pam Sharp

Stellar Jay, original watercolor painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist, Pam Sharp

“I chose watercolor as an affordable medium in which to explore. Little did I know at the time, watercolor is one of the most challenging mediums to master.”

Either there’s too much water on the paper, or too little; or the paper itself is too absorbent, or not absorbent enough; or the paint dries too fast, or too slow, or it dribbles vertically when not expected to, and stays put when the artist really wants it to expressively drizzle, which may be because the brush is holding too much paint, when 30 minutes ago it refused to hold enough.

“Mastering watercolor is not for the person who needs instant gratification, but is one where perseverance and patience pays off — especially patience,” Sharp observes.

Van Goeh, original watercolor painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pam Sharp

Van Goeh, original watercolor painting by Wenaha Gallery guest artist Pam Sharp

Self-taught and constantly learning, Sharp has garnered a distinguished repertoire of awards, including Best Watercolor at the Saratoga, WY, Art Festival; Banker’s Choice at the Torrington, WY, Two-Shot Art Festival; and Best Watercolor at the High Peaks Art Festival of Nederland, CO. Within the challenging, and potentially frustrating, medium of Sharp’s choice, the final art piece may be a mixture of water-based mediums such as gouache, wax pastels, water-soluble oils, or inks, all of which add their own demands to the final piece.

In addition to producing original paintings, Sharp creates prints, cards, and T-shirts featuring her art, selling through her website, Prairie Skullpture, a place where “attitude and art are skillfully blended together in watercolor and mixed media.” She offers her printing services to other artists, as well as sponsors a mentor program to help artists, and would-be-artists, achieve their goals.

It all adds up to a full-time job, the seeds of which were planted in the dreams of a five-year-old, and bloom into fruition under the warm sun of a festival day.

Wenaha GalleryPam Sharp is the featured Pacific Northwest Art Event artist from Monday, April 11 through Saturday, May 7.

Contact the gallery, located at 219 East Main Street, Dayton, WA, by phone at 509.382.2124 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 is your destination location for Greenwich Workshop Fine Art Prints, professional customized 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, WA.

This article was written by Carolyn Henderson.

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