The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Summer is winding down, but the evenings are still warm and perfect for strolling through the galleries of Sisters. This month’s Fourth Friday Artwalk is August 23, from 4 to 7 p.m. Gather your family and friends to visit the galleries for new and unique art, discussions with artists, and light refreshments.

Hood Avenue Art will feature work by plein air oil artist Mike Wise, and potter Annie Dyer. Wise, born in Brooklyn, studied biological illustration at Iowa State University and earned a doctor of chiropractic medicine degree from Northwestern Health Science University in Minneapolis. He turned to painting when he moved to Bend. “The light — it hits you, promising stunning scenes of beauty if you stop long enough to look. Painting this environment soothes the mind and relaxes the body,” he says. Annie Dyer’s unique pottery combines high-gloss finishes with highly textured ones, each piece being both unique and functional.

The Clearwater Gallery is excited to feature award-winning oil painter David Mensing from 4 to 6 p.m. Replete with bright colors and powerful palette-knife strokes, Mensing’s style captures the beauty of the West. He interprets what he sees in nature onto canvas to create vibrant and peaceful paintings.

Gary Cooley is known for his colorful bronze sculptures, but did you know that he is also an exceptional oil painter? He will welcome visitors to his Collection Gallery to discuss both art forms while sipping lemonade and — if you’re lucky — sharing one of his famous homemade oatmeal cookies.

At Beacham’s Clock Company, talk to Ed Beacham about his unique clocks that are replicas of an 1860s original which sold for a record $277,330 in the Fontaine Auction. Each of Beacham’s clocks is an investment, because he is the only one in the country making them. The floor clocks each have a different carved head, but the clock faces are the same, incorporating time, day and date, sidereal time (solar noon), sunrise and sunset.

Opening at Stitchin’ Post Fabric Arts Gallery is “My Story, My Work” by Marie Murphy Wolfe, who combines quilting and haiku. Murphy Wolfe has enjoyed working with her hands all her life. Her process involves deciding on a subject, an exhibit title, an emotion, or an image from her travels. She then writes a simple haiku, which she includes with the art quilt.

Mel Archer will be demonstrating the components of his glass-on-glass impressionist landscapes at Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop. Archer creates his own shades of colored glass, in the forms of frit, rods, or panels, by blending and fusing standard colors. He then uses these components in creating multi-layered impressionist glass landscapes.

Wildflower Studio will be featuring original acrylic paintings by David Rock and original paintings and prints by Kathy Deggendorfer.

Original paintings by Linda Hanson are featured at Good Day Café, adjacent to Bedouin. Hanson, who lives in Sisters, studied art in San Francisco and has an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Through all her travels, Hanson’s first love is “the rough and rugged country of the West, especially the high desert of Central Oregon. Rivers, trees, big mountains and bigger skies open my heart and my imagination.”

Jill Neal invites you to “celebrate your inner woman” at Jill Neal Gallery, where new images decorate wooden boxes of caramels, new mugs, and Northwest Wild Women wine labels.

Head down to Antler Arts for a display of jasper pendants by Julie Neff of JN Jewels, and the antler art of carver Maurice Brown, formerly of Montana, recently relocated to Sisters. Brown carves and paints, and his moose-antler carvings are collected worldwide.

Check out the fire pits at Ken Scott’s Imagination Gallery, the original work at Dyrk Godby Gallery, and the unusual and unique creations at Grizzly Ridge Upcycle.