Capturing The Northwest
The swirls of green around outcroppings in Ron McGaughey’s “Erratics of McNeil Canyon” have the feel of a Van Gogh painting, or perhaps a Monet.
Whatever the source of imagery one brings to it, the scene is uniquely Inland Northwest.
McGaughey, who won a prestigious $5,000 Artist Trust grant last year, will have his first solo exhibit — titled “Glacial Margin” — in the Lorinda Knight Gallery in downtown Spokane Friday through March 27.
Much of the artist’s subjects are the landscapes of north-central Washington and the Columbia River.
“McGaughey captures the facets of the area’s rock outcroppings in clear light and plays them off their surroundings,” said Lorinda Knight, gallery owner.
“He discovers an astonishing range of colors in the canyons, fields and rivers where he sets up his easel,” Knight said. “They tumble across the surface of his paintings with deft brush strokes.”
McGaughey has begun to include man-made objects in his paintings, like water towers, combines, boats and traffic lights.
“While these manifestations of contemporary life may not have the durability of geologic formations, they are as much a part of our visual world as the earth, rivers and sky,” Knight said.
An artist’s reception will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the gallery, 523 W. Sprague. Gallery hours are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
In other Spokane galleries
Large-scale contemporary sculptures are on display at the Spokane Transit Authority Plaza, 701 W. Riverside. Participating Spokane artists are Andrew Krehbiel, Dan McCann, Roger Ralston, Dick Schindler and Rick Stuart.
The works, which employ a wide range of materials, seem to contrast sharply with the building, according to Ralph Busch, spokesman for the Spokane Arts Commission. “They evoke an almost pristine museum-like quality to the busy terminal.”
The sculptures attract a mix of viewers, from the pedestrian traffic of regular clientele and those who specifically seek out the art, Busch said.
The exhibit, a project of Spokane’s Arts Department in collaboration with STA, will be on view through March 31.
“A Western Landscape: Photographs of John Lewis” is on exhibit in City Hall’s Chase Gallery in downtown Spokane.
The new body of his recent works relate “to the construction and deconstruction of the West and Lewis’ personal vision of the West,” Karen Mobley, arts director for the City of Spokane, said in a press release.
“My intention is not documentary in the present popular sense, nor a photographic survey,” Lewis has said, “but to look at the dichotomies between nature and man, the past and present, thought and reality.”
The photographer/artist “presents not only the expected scenic landscape, but the unexpected man-made and manipulated landscape in these photographs,” Mobley said.
“The Blind Fisher and Related Works” by Mel McCuddin will be on exhibit Friday through April 1 at Hot Flash of America, 509 W. Sprague.
A reception for the artist will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday.
Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“Visual Haiku, Scenes from Japanese Gardens of the Pacific Northwest” by Hermon Joyner is on exhibit at the Koehler Gallery of Art on the Whitworth College campus, 212 W. Hawthorne.
The show, which opened today, runs through April 22. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
In area galleries
The works of Barbara Aleene Edwards of Tallahassee, Fla., are featured in a one-person exhibit at Eastern Washington University’s Gallery of Photography on the Cheney campus.
Her pictures reflect an interest in landscapes and architectural details.
Edwards said she had a “vague wish to make a collective portrait of a quintessential Southern town.”
“Concentrating on fading elegance (of buildings in Monticello, Fla.,), I tried to make pictures that speak to a personal longing for a place in time that I never really experienced or that I’m beginning to suspect never existed at all except in my imagination.”
The show runs through March 26. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“Art as Environ: The Contemporary Installation,” an exhibit featuring six installation works by artists from Washington, Idaho and California, will be on display at Washington State University’s Museum of Art through March 28. Artists include Ross Coates and Marilyn Lysohir-Coates of Moscow.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours until 10 p.m. on Tuesday; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The museum will be open by appointment during spring break, March 15-19, by calling (509) 335-1910.