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Past Exhibit Highlights |
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Jean Christofori Howton April 4 - April 25, 2008
The 45th parallel runs through the country of France and the state of Oregon, and both are home to Jean Christofori Howton, a painter whose exhibit opens in the East Oregonian Gallery at the Pendleton Center for the Arts on Friday, April 4th.
Howton was raised in Walla Walla and has been making art since she was a kid. Her mother and sisters have been involved in the arts and while some college study provided her with information on the basic structure and materials of painting, she is mainly self-taught. |
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She was able to write well long before she could read and understand what she was writing. She studied drawing and watercolor while attending elementary and middle school. As the family moved frequently with her father’s military career, she became distracted from drawing and watercolor for many years. “After becoming settled into my work in the USA I was able to find a little time to reflect on the dreams I have about my life. I decided, even though I work many hours at a restaurant, I could use some of my free time to live out one of my dreams and become an artist”, said Lee. She bought and read many books about painting with watercolors and started painting. She displayed her paintings in the restaurant and many customers bought them and encouraged her to continue with her dream. She has broadened the scope of her work to include oil paintings and continues to develop her techniques. Many of Lees paintings have been accepted in juried art exhibits in Oregon and Washington and she received the Peoples Choice Award at the annual Hermiston Desert Arts Reception in 2006. “I am very appreciative of my customers, They have purchased my paintings and have taken them all over the USA and some outside the USA. These customers are bringing my dream to life,” said Lee. |
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Apple Lee
April 4 - April 25, 2008 |
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Her bi-continental lifestyle allows Howton to take advantage of a wide range of exhibition opportunities and the European market has responded very positively to her work. Her travels include a year living near Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident. That highly emotional experience culminated in an exhibit of paintings that were shown in Kiev. More recently her work was exhibited at the Nicolas Poussen Museum in France.
In the United States she was originally well-known for her representational works of animals and still-life scenes, but about twelve years ago a shift occurred. |
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Howton was raised in Walla Walla and has been making art since she was a kid. Her mother and sisters have been involved in the arts and while some college study provided her with information on the basic structure and materials of painting, she is mainly self-taught.
She travels regularly between her home outside Hermiston and a second home near Normandy, France which she compares to Portland or Seattle.
“If you put some chateaus and some cows in near Portland, it would look pretty much like Normandy”, she says.
She and her partner Pierre are moving their French household to the south of France this year, a place she equates visually with Southern Oregon. |
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“Representational painting was becoming less and less engaging. I had thought originally that it was more of a challenge, but when I started working on abstracts again I came to realize that the true challenge is to abandon any idea of a plan and just let the painting take over.”
Her abstract works are large expressions of rich color that have been compared to the vibrant nature of jazz.
“Ironically, being immersed in the mindset of making abstract paintings has made revisiting the representational works more fun.”
In 2005 her work caught the eye of Rick Small and Darcy Fugman-Small, owners of Woodward Canyon Winery. Since 1992 the winery has created a label as part of their special Artist Series to showcase Washington State Cabernet. Howton’s painting “Stop the Blues” was used for the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon that will be unveiled May 2 – 4th during the Walla Walla Valley Spring Release Weekend. Howton will be at the winery to sign bottles and prints. Woodward Canyon Winery is located in Lowden, about 13 miles west of Walla Walla, Washington and the tasting room is a restored 1870's farmhouse.
Attendees of the Opening Reception at the Arts Center will enjoy a preview tasting of the wine bearing Howton’s label, thanks to Woodward Canyon Winery.
The exhibit is made possible through the generous support of Coldwell Banker Whitney & Associates. |
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This month the Lorenzen Boardroom Gallery at the Pendleton Center for the Arts is hosting an exhibit by Hermiston artist Apple Lee. The exhibit runs from April 4 – 25.
Lee was born in Nan Ning, China and always had a dream of becoming an artist. As a very young girl she used to watch her father do Chinese calligraphy and she practiced copying his work on the tile floor of her house. |
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2008 Open Regional Photography Exhibit May 2 - May 30, 2008
The 2008 Open Regional Photography Exhibit invites artist from Eastern Oregon and SE Washington to share the rich diversity of their work with the community. Professionals and amateurs alike come together to celebrate the act of creation. We hope you'll join us. Admission to the exhibit is always FREE, thanks to the Kinsman Foundation. |
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Each year since 1982 the Arts Council of Pendleton has invited both amateur and professional artists to bring in their artwork to share with the community. The annual event, features painting, drawing and sculpture during odd years and photography on the even years.
This exhibit is made possible through the generous support of Banner Bank, with additional support from Jacqueline Brown and Jill & Mike Thorne |
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Our hearty congratulations to:
Larry Wright of Prosser BEST OF SHOW
Robert Bynum of Pendleton FIRST PLACE
Mike Brandhagan of Pendleton SECOND PLACE |
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Mary K. Corp May 2 - May 30, 2008
Mary K. Corp has always had a creative style that transcended the norm. “In grade school I was always in trouble because I refused to color within the lines,” she says.
This month, the Hermiston artist is featured in the Lorenzen Board Room Gallery at the Pendleton Center for the Arts.
Corp took art classes in junior high and high school back in the 1970’s, when the predominant style was free, loose and very abstract. She studied art at Western Washington University in Bellingham, a liberal arts college in northern Washington State, and continued to paint in her free time, guided by the style of the day.
Her next phase of painting is what Corp refers to as her ‘closet period’, “I made paintings and stuck them in the closet,” she says.
A breakthrough came when she took a class from noted Northwest artist Don Gray through the Arts Council of Pendleton in the mid-1980’s, which sparked her interest in transparent watercolors. |
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“Don was into representational work at that time and he challenged me to paint what I saw. He was the first teacher I had that wasn’t all about abstract and modern painting”.
Corp has been painting in a representational style ever since, and through her job as the USO Extension Service Cereal Crops Agent for Umatilla County, she has lots of interaction with plants that inspire her work. She chooses subjects that she interacts with daily – highlighted by shadows, lighting, and colors, and thoughtfully composed. She’s recently been working with people as subjects, as highlighted in her playful depiction of “mutton busting”.
Last year she started photographing regional crops as each one came into season then making paintings using the photos as inspiration.
“There’s a lot of diversity in the agriculture of this region”, says Corp, who lives in Hermiston. “Asparagus, apricots…the list goes on.”
When asked about her studio, Corp cites her kitchen table as her primary work space, where she can often be seen working with three brushes at once – one in each hand and one in her mouth.
“If you put paintings away, you never get to paint,” says Corp. “When the paintings are out, I’m always thinking about them or looking at them, which is a big part of painting.”
The downside of working on the kitchen table? “It’s hard to have people over for dinner,” she laughs.
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