The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters Arts Association’s Fourth Friday Artwalk on Sept. 24 kicks off a whole weekend of Art in Sisters Country. After browsing through galleries on Friday, art lovers can hit the road on Saturday and Sunday to meet artists in their home studios, during the Fifth Annual Artist Studio Tour. Twenty-five studios will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with 35 artists who display and meet visitors face-to-face (albeit with masks on!).

Three galleries swing into the Artist Studio Tour early, starting on Friday. Kelly Rae Roberts will be featured at Marigold & True. Her philosophy is that “when we let art out, we let love in.”

Three Studio Tour artists will be featured at Sisters Gallery & Frame. Kay Baker’s plein air oil paintings feature scenes of Oregon. Jennifer Hartwig, aka “The Scratchboard Lady,” specializes in creatures with fur and feathers. Mike Stasko draws Oregon landscapes in Prismacolor pencil.

Bryan Lee Brown at Metals Jewelry Studio designs and creates jewelry and fine art metal pieces. “I could copy things and mass produce, but that would take the fun out of it, and fun is good!” he says.

Journeys Art Quilters’ new exhibit, “Unhinged,” is opening at Twigs Gallery inside Stitchin’ Post. “Unhinged” can mean unbalanced, or unstable, but also free and unleashed. Journeys’ work opens with a reception from 4 to 6:30 p.m. The show continues through October 21.

Regrettably, this will be the final artwalk for two popular galleries. Gary and Karen Cooley share “bittersweet news with all our great friends here in Sisters. We’re closing The Collection Gallery and retiring. We welcome you to drop in and see some new work and special prices through the end of September.”

Ken Scott’s Imagination Gallery is closing as well, but not before a show of John Scheideman’s exceptional wood-turned vessels. Scheideman comes from a long line of woodworkers and was an industrial arts teacher in the Madras schools for 35 years. Meet Scheideman and learn the how and why of his inspiring creations.

Hood Avenue Art’s featured artists are printmaker Gin Laughery and fiber artist Sharyl Parker McCulloch. Laughery’s printmaking passion is inspired by nature and suggests a place or a mood, sometimes abstract and sometimes representational. McCulloch, a longtime knitter and knitting instructor, taught herself how to weave and how to design fiber art-wear. She works primarily with premium alpaca and merino wools, silks, linens, cottons, and plant-based yarns.

Featured this month at Clearwater Gallery is father and son duo Jerry and Dennis Dame. Jerry’s landscapes draw the viewer into serene, quiet experiences of fly fishing on an Oregon river or hiking through a forest trail. Dennis focuses on locations and fleeting moments of time that otherwise might have been overlooked. Both of these oil painters will be in the gallery between 4 and 6 p.m. when Clearwater will offer light appetizers and wine.

Wildflower Studio has paintings by local painters Bill Hamilton and Chris Nelson. Bill is an acrylic painter who enjoys depicting sweeping panoramic views. Chris will be showing new oil paintings, both landscapes and birds.

Raven Makes Gallery features “Art of the Far North,” the highly collectable Cape Dorset original drawings and select prints, and Inupiat and Yup’ik masks and carvings. The limited edition prints of Cape Dorset’s Kinngait art cooperative reflect historical traditions, deep connections to landscape, and artistic vision of Indigenous Inuit artists of the Arctic Far North. Kinngait has been hailed as the most artistic community in Canada, with some 22 percent of the labor force employed in the arts. This show will run through the Sisters Folk Festival weekend, until October 4.

Bill Hamilton featured at Wildflower Studio.photo provided

“Three Sisters ”

The Campbell Gallery at Sisters Art Works features fabric art by Ericka Eckert. Eckert fuses her knowledge of painting, fabric, and silk-screening to expertly create wall hangings and paintings. Her latest work merges her rigorous classic art training with her desire to create lightness and whimsy. Her ability to capture nature, emotions, and imagination is accessible, fun, and enlightening.

Other locations on the Artwalk are Beacham’s Clock Company and Dyrk Godby Gallery.

Register to win one of two $50 gift certificates donated by Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty. The $50 gift certificates may be redeemed at any of the participating galleries.

Then, during the Studio Tour, your sign-in will register you for one of two $100 gift certificates good for purchase from any Studio Tour artist. Winners will be drawn after the Studio Tour.

Pick up a Gallery Map and a Studio Tour Guide in any gallery location, or at www.sistersarts.org/events.