Offbeat Approach Artists On Display Share More Than Stage

You’ve heard that big things come in small packages. That’s how it is at the Lorinda Knight Gallery this month.

The exhibits of Andrew Bohl, Robin Dare and Sidney Dodge may be small in size, but they create a large impact, said gallery owner Lorinda Knight.

The three artists, who share the gallery space from Friday through July 2, approach the human experience from a slightly offbeat angle.

Bohl’s wood carvings seem to have an anatomical relation to human forms, but with odd appendages, Knight said.

“Sometimes these small figures are freestanding sculpture on a pedestal, and sometimes they are mounted as a three-dimensional element in watercolor panel painting,” Knight said.

Bohl, a Spokane artist, takes inspiration from uniquely Inland Northwest places and events, including Grand Coulee Dam, a bird farm at Rosalia, Chief Joseph and the pre-history cataclysmic Lake Missoula flood.

Dare “comes up with the most wonderful delusions,” Knight said. His work is so convincing that the viewer accepts unlikely scenes as true and believable. Steam iron “shoes” leave scorched iron-shaped footprints and emit bursts of Chinese cloud formations.

The Spokane artist’s “curious approach to common objects and appliances speaks to the hidden eccentric in everyone,” Knight said.

Dodge, a Bellingham artist, creates a carefully delineated world of shapes and forms and relations in her abstract, colorful oil pastel drawings.

“The images seem to be derived from what is known and yet cannot be identified and named,” Knight said. Each art piece, although small in size, creates its own imaginary world.

A reception for the artists will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the gallery, 523 W. Sprague. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

In other Spokane galleries

Jeff Gibson-Smith, Steve Sattler and David Wagner, Spokane-area artists, will exhibit drawings and paintings described as compulsively detailed through June at the Chase Gallery in City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.

Gibson-Smith, a resident of Four Lakes who teaches at the Spokane Art School, draws abstractions that resemble the surfaces of water, texture of bark or other organic surface textures.

Sattler, who has worked in all phases of graphic design and as a free-lance artist, will display his “endless drawings” and paintings. He’s been said to explore the idea of infinity and seems to never stop drawing.

Sattler draws his inspiration from Hillyard, the neighborhood where he lives.

The work of Wagner, who wears jeweler’s glasses to draw with graphite, begs the question, “How long did you say it took to do that?”

Wagner, a self-taught artist, was a Zen Buddhist monk for 20 years, during which time he learned to draw as a practice of meditation.

A reception for the artists will be held Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery, which is open for visitors whenever City Hall is open.

Ric Gendron, an award-winning artist, has a new show, “Coyotes,” which will be exhibited through June at Hot Flash of America.

An artist’s reception will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday at the gallery, 509 W. Riverside. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

In Sandpoint

The paintings of Dorothy Modafferi will be exhibited during June at Art Works Gallery, 309 N. First in Sandpoint.

Modafferi, who recently moved to Hope, Idaho, from California, creates “experimental paints” in watercolor, acrylics, oils and mixed media.

“I consider my work to be impressionistic realism with an emphasis on color,” the artist has said.

An artist reception will be from 5 to 7 tonight during Sandpoint’s “First Thursday,” in which the city’s galleries host open houses until 7 p.m.

Those galleries include:

Upstairs at Fine Art Tile Gallery & Studio, 305-1/2 First, will feature artist-owner Gail Lyster and her daughter Kate displaying their original designs on colorful hand-painted tiles.

At Lyman Gallery, 301 N. First, Andrea Lyman will sign the late Steven Lyman’s Livre Delux collection, a newly issued retrospective of 15 previously published folio prints, five limited-edition photographs, 80 pages of Yosemite journal entries and a video.

Flaherty’s Framing and Art Gallery, 214 N. First, will feature displays of Bovano, powered glass that’s hand-applied to copper and fired in a kiln. The unusual and striking pieces include birds, animals and flowers.

Treasure Hunters, 212 N. First, Suite 101, will have imported artwork, varying from rustic Mexican furniture to South African baskets to recycled Mexican glass.

Misty Mountain Furniture, 502 Cedar, will display unique, rustic furniture as well as “antler” art by local artists, which include carvings, chandeliers, lamps and baskets.

At Priest Lake

“Another Season,” selected works of Coeur d’Alene artist Mary Maxam, opens the summer season at Entree Gallery in Nordman, Idaho, near Priest Lake.

Maxam is a signature member of the Northwest Water Color Society and received the Grumbacher Medal in 1997.

Entree Gallery, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, is two miles east of Nordman on Reeder Bay Road, “a pleasant walk from Elkins Resort,” say owners Jim and Pam Martin.