Anniversaries

A year ago, I celebrated being invited to join Tumalo Art Company. On April 1, the gallery celebrated its 20th anniversary with a festive reunion of artist members past and present, music, refreshments, wine and bubbly, and a special art scavenger hunt/raffle. Please stop by to see this show featuring about forty artists and look for my painting, Red Sky at Night.

Red Sky at Night Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 24x18 inches (more info.)

Opportunities

Thanks to my association with TAC, I'm thrilled to share that two of my paintings were recently part of a large local corporate acquisition. Western Title & Escrow purchased several originals from our gallery, including my In the Red Rock ShadowsandUp the Falling Water,as well as ordering reproductions for other spaces. Look for them in the beautifully renovated offices in the former Bulletin building on Chandler.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Inspirations

Be sure to explore the entire gallery when you stop by to see the anniversary show. Here are a couple more new paintings I'll have on view this month. With everything happening in the world, I have been casting about for subjects that feel appropriate. In Searching,I tried to capture that feeling of being in a dark place and trying to find hope. Alternatively, I am (almost) always restored by spending some time in a beautiful place, or thinking back on a moment of peace, as inDrifting.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Thank you

I appreciate your interest in my work. Please reach out with your impressions. If you'd like to see more, please stop by the gallery or follow me on Instagram at the link below.

Happy Spring! Anne

Up the Falling Water or, Where the Rocks Flow and the Waters Dance

What follows is my artist statement, some discussion of my process, and a brief bio. Stop by Tumalo Art Co. during September to see the full show, or specifically on Friday, September 3, for a meet the artist reception between 3 and 7 pm. Click here to see the whole exhibition remotely. Please let me know what you think of this new body of work (a few of these pieces were completed a couple years ago but most are from recent months).

Creekside Triptych #1 – North Fork Tumalo Creek, Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18 inches

September 2021 exhibition at Tumalo Art Company

Find a quiet trail that follows a creek up a steep or gentle grade, through a rocky canyon or a lush forest. The cascades might be tumultuous and heart-pounding, or gentle and mesmerizing. Always beckoning, these places become a refuge, inviting contemplation and sparking inspiration. 

Central Oregon is a landscape shaped by rocks and water. Over millions of years, the creeks and rivers carved and reshaped the bones of our landscape, laid out over millennia by eruption after eruption of our volcanic neighbors. The push and pull, the earthquakes and storms, the rocks and water, seem the true architects of this land. Then in the blink of a geologic eye, we have changed so much and threaten so much with our progress. 

Through color, mark-making, fluidity, and unexpected viewpoints, Anne Gibson conveys the force and tranquility of these mesmerizing flows. She invites you to linger, feel the power of place, and to contemplate its value in our complex world.

The artist will donate ten percent of all sales from “Up the Falling Water” to local environmental groups working to preserve and protect this place for future generations. 

Process

Inspired by places that she frequents often and knows well, Anne studies her own photos from hikes and paddle trips, planning composition and color palette, sometimes splicing several shots to create a panorama, horizontally or vertically. These panoramas might become a single work, but more often they are conveyed by two or three sequential canvases. Anne blocks in the darks and lights of her composition with broad gestural strokes, using large spatulas, scraps of matte board, or palette knives. Once she has placed the basic strokes, she tucks away the photos so that she can focus on memories and feelings. She builds up the range of colors and textures with layer upon layer of translucent pigments. Tones and values vary depending on the order she lays them down, the number of layers, and whether she adds them over wet or dry surfaces. She forms line and texture by scraping to reveal the colors beneath. 

Ultimately she strives to express how a place or the memory of it makes her feel and to bring the viewer there. As one geologist and collector said, “If I want to remember what it looked like, I’ll take a photo. Anne’s paintings show what the rocks feel like.”

Biography

Art and art making were always central to Anne’s life, but she realized her dream of being an artist circuitously. Told she must get a well-rounded degree (rather than attend art school), she earned a BA in art history at Tufts University, adding as many studio arts classes to her schedule as she could manage. Anne began her professional career at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, where she soon became director of publications and marketing. Those seven years enriched both her academic knowledge of art history and her aesthetic appreciation of WAM’s rich collection. As senior designer at Gilbert Design in Providence, RI, she produced museum and gallery exhibition catalogs and college view books. During those years, Anne supplemented her design career with classes in drawing, typography, and printmaking at the School of Visual Arts, NY; the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Rhode Island School of Design. 

After growing up and working among the cultural riches of New York and New England,  Anne moved to Bend in the mid-90s. The hiking trails, rivers, canyons, and lakes became her museum, cathedral, inspiration, and home. While working as a freelance graphic designer in Bend, she raised two children and explored pastel, printmaking, and painting at the Bend Art Center (Atelier 6000) and COCC. Her work has appeared in group and solo shows in both Bend and Portland. In April 2021, she joined Tumalo Art Company as a member of the collective.

Sacred Places

Last winter after taking down a solo show at First Cup Coffee Shop in Portland, icy, snowy weather in the pass fortuitously sent us home via Maupin where the roads were wet but not slippery. We stopped to take in this gorgeous spot at Sherar’s Bridge. The falls crash through a narrow chute lined by canyon walls, a fish ladder, and salmon fishing platforms used seasonally by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. We felt grateful to be allowed to experience the force of this sacred place. I painted the four small paintings above soon after that trip. They are all available through my #wheremyheARTis offer. For these paintings above, I will offer up to a 40% discount if you show me a screen shot of a comparable donation to the Chúush Fund – Water for Warm Springs, or if you pay full price, I pledge to donate 40% of proceeds to the Chúush Fund.

Intrigued by the colors and patterns and forms in the landscape after painting those four small canvases, I decided to explore them more fully in this much larger piece. Unifying all these elements on this scale was somewhat daunting and after working on it during the spring, I set it aside. Returning to it fresh this fall, it came together quite quickly – becoming less about representation and more about remembering the raw power of the place. Sacred Places is currently on view at Franklin Crossing in downtown Bend, in curator Billye Turner’s final exhibition in that venue.

Sacred Places, acrylic on canvas, 36x28 inches, $1,250. On view at Franklin Crossing in Bend, OR. Inquiries: Billye Turner

Water is Life — The Chúush Fund

I often mention gratitude for the land, for this place we call home, and how it inspires my work. Today, on Native American Remembrance Day, I am thinking about the first people who called this place home. Here in Central Oregon most of us live on the lands of the Warm Spring bands of what is now the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (which also includes the Paiute and Wasco). The people of Warm Springs are facing an ongoing water crisis triggered by a water main break in early 2019. MRG Foundation launched a fundraiser that August and recently joined with several other foundations to support this initiative. To date about one quarter of the $2 million dollars needed has been raised. You can read more about the crisis, the fund, the consortium of supporters, and then donate here:

https://www.mrgfoundation.org/the-chuush-fund-water-for-warm-springs/

The Chúush Fund is one that I have supported and hope to encourage others to support through my #wheremyheARTis pledge: just send me a screen shot of your donation receipt and I’ll discount any painting purchased directly through my website for an equivalent amount (up to 40% off of the listed price). If you purchase from me at full price, I’ll donate 40%. Visit my portfolio page for prices and availability and contact me here to purchase.

Winter arrives early here in Bend. Snow showers, rain, and wind are interspersed with brilliant warm sun here in town. The Cascade lakes highway is closed by snow. When it’s time to walk off that feast, the Deschutes River trail beckons. Winter flows expose beaches and rock ledges like this one at Dillon Falls. It’s exhilarating to stand on the very spot where water courses in summer and peer into the canyon rimmed by frosted spray. 

Ancient Juniper on the Deschutes

Along the trail to Steelhead Falls near Crooked River Ranch you’ll find this majestic example of our High Desert ancient junipers perched on the edge of the canyon. Many of the “ancients” in the nearby Oregon Badlands date between 400 and 1,100 years old — I’d wager this one falls in that range as well. The ability of these trees to seemingly grow right out of the rocks, their shear determination to survive, awes me every time.

As we enter this season of giving back, I wanted to mention that my #wheremyheARTis pledge still stands: Like all of you, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching and thinking and feeling and grieving in response to what’s happening in the world, in our country, and in our community today. And I’ve been wondering how I (as we continue to social distance, mask, and minimize contact with folks outside our immediate “bubble” to protect at-risk family members) can make a difference. I’ve decided to offer all the paintings on my website (purchased directly from me) at 40% off if the collector has donated an equivalent dollar amount to one of the local programs/agencies listed. Alternatively, if a collector purchases at full-price, I pledge to donate 40% of proceeds. See my first blog post from July 9 for the whys and hows. Thanks.