Welcome to The Wild Rivers Coast Art Online Gallery for artists living and working in Brookings, Oregon. Each artist's portfolio or website can be viewed by clicking on the artist's name so you can view more of the art that interests you. We hope you enjoy perusing this wonderful collection of art.
Brookings/Harbor Artists
Audi Stanton was a graphic designer for over thirty years. She now teaches classes and workshops in watercolor, oil, acrylics, and drawing in Brookings in addition to painting and showing her own beautiful work.
"Tired Feet" - Watercolor by Audi Stanton
"Morning Stroll" Oil painting by Audi Stanton
Jean Beebe has been creating porcelain art for the past twenty years. She paints porcelain plates, vases, bells, ornaments, and framed art pieces, in addition to the freeform creations she has developed. Jean has a large gallery in her home and invites you to visit. E-mail her at [email protected]. Items on Jean's website are available for purchase using PayPay or a mail-in order form.
Sandy Bonney works mostly in pastels. She has received regional, national and international awards for her work, including four in the prestigious Pastel Journal Magazine's 100 Competition and three in the Richeson 75 International Competition. Sandy's subjects include people, animals, and landscapes. You can see more of Sandy's stunning pastels on her website or at Signatures Gallery/Brian Scott Gallery at 515 Chetco Avenue in Brookings.
Elwyn and Judy Bowker are Brookings Artists with two different passions. Elwyn does Intarsia (a wood craft developed during the Renaissance and nearly forgotten) and Judy is a photographer who specializes in photo cards. Visit their website to see their portfolio of work.
Sara Dee Broderick is an artist and an art instructor. She loves watercolor and pastel for many paintings and especially for the figure, oil for seascapes, and has fun creating whimsical clay sculptures. Sara teaches drawing and painting at Southwestern Oregon Community College in Brookings and drawing and painting at College of the Redwoods in Crescent City, California and offers painting and drawing workshops at Wright's Custom Framing in Brookings.
Len Burton is widely known for his oil portraits of the St. George Reef Lighthouse and has painted 21 other lighthouses on the west coast. Since moving to Brookings in 2000 he began concentrating on scenery within a 30-mile range. He paints in a realistic style with great detail. His newest endeavor is painting on mini canvases capturing sea life and coastal scenes.
Pete Chasar paints in a style that he calls "graphic realism,” with subjects ranging from portraits of legendary figures to large, realistic landscapes and seascapes. He also creates bold geometric sculptures and abstract expressionist paintings. Pete's artwork can be seen at Brian Scott Gallery in Brookings and Gold Beach Books in Gold Beach.
Georgia Cockerham is a writer, poet and watercolorist who lives with her husband on the Oregon Coast. She has written two very different books of poetry, including Wildlife Friends Northwest Coast, a children’s book about animals Georgia watches from her home, and Why? Why? Why? which reflects deep grief and healing over a window of time following the death of Georgia’s youngest son. It is the rhythmic ebb and flow of the sea that inspires me. Writing and painting are my way of expressing the feelings, words and colors I carry within.
Michelle Curtis creates "one of a kind" pottery at her studio in Brookings. "My pieces are all inspired by the natural wonder God created all around me in the beautiful little costal town of Brookings, Oregon where I live.
The pieces of art [I create are] all made from various leaves and flowers, pressed into midfire stoneware clay, and then glazed with a special technique I developed which utilizes the color theory behind how a water color painting is developed. By using water color theory I can achieve incredible depth, variety, and brilliance of color. However, by applying my glazes like this, I am not able to exactly replicate the glazed appearance of any two pieces of pottery, which makes each piece truly "one of a kind."
I strive to make pieces of art which are high in quality, very unique and yet affordable. I have always been attracted to gallery quality art when enjoying the work of other artists, and have driven myself to only present pottery which is comparable in quality, yet still affordable for the average person.
My artwork is only available at the few, selected shows I attend each year, online, and at only a select few local outlets along the southern Oregon and northern California coast. See more of Michelle's art on her website.
Rob Decker... "I believe we as humans are here for a purpose....have a 'Song to Sing.' With canvas, pastels, and 'Nature as the Breathtaking Model,' I humbly sing my song every day. Somwhere within all of us is a wordless center...a place of great calm. Painting, for me, is a portal to that space. It is my sincere hope that some of this reflects in my paintings."
Bill Ferry Fine Art Photography: f 360, never an f stop but always an eye
Affordable Art for Anyone: Prints Start at $10 (5x7) plus S and H.
Billie Ruth Hopkins Furuichi, art activist and poet for over thirty years, is a fabric and digital artist, as well as a workshop facilitator. She brings grounded educational technology face-to-face with a visionary approach to the integration of arts education, spiritual growth, and societal change.
Anna Garrison My photography is about capturing discrete moments in space and time. I'm drawn to water, motion, reflections, patterns, rock formations, sunsets, small details, and the interaction of light and shadows. I create images with unique perspectives that invite viewers to be in that moment; for example, I often include a detailed foreground to frame the background. I might hike several miles with my gear for the perfect sunset shot, then hike back in the dark. After my adventures I'm usually cold, wet, dirty, and tired!
Dan Gray The wood turns on the lathe, much too fast to see anything save a hint of the shape, hiding inside. It’s a delicate dance, placing a piece of sharpened and hardened steel against that spinning form. The hum of the motor, the light catching the rising dust motes, and the background music, all fade as the wood begins to chip away. The form, at first rough, and then smoother, and smoother, the chips turning at last into long, friction warmed streamers. They cover my hand with that warmth. Piling up and up, cascading over onto the lathe, and then down to the floor.
Zen.
This, is what motivates me. From that first simple bowl I turned on a lathe, I knew this was what I was meant to do. And going forward from a simple block of wood that formed that bowl, to more complex forms. Learning new methods that involved seeing the form long before it was attached to the lathe. Cutting the wood into many small precise pieces, only to glue them together again. To form rings, and then to sand them smooth. To glue those rings together to form the desired shape. To turn that shape against the steel, and then to cut it again and again. To add here, and take away from there. To place the many disparate pieces together, until at last that form, first seen in my mind’s eye, becomes real.
That, is the art that I do.
Kathleen Kresa has painted nine murals in the Santa Cruz and Aptos area. Three of those are outdoor public murals. After moving to the northern California coast in 2004, she began planning to "paint the town" starting with the "Mermaid and the Orca", closely followed by the 40 foot "Return of the Yurok". The mural "Redwood Elk" was donated to Crescent City library on Christmas, 2006. Remax's Aleutian Geese mural was completed in March, 2007, just in time for the Aleutian Goose Festival.Kathleen more recently completed a historical mural of Mary Adams Peacock, who delivered the U.S. Mail with her string of mules between Grants Pass and Crescent City.
She now lives in Smith River, California, with her husband, three dogs and two horses.
James McCarten Inspired by the varied texture and light in nature, James uses oil and canvas to portray his "journey of imagery and color".
Michaeline McDonald is a jack of all trades artist. Her art mediums include painting, sculpting, and jewelry making. Michaeline also enjoys painting large murals. The subjects she paints vary widely as well. Michaeline considers herself an artist that is here to portray as many of life's loves as she can including animals, fantasy icons, fairy cats, and portraits! You can commission a portrait of a loved one or a child, a pet, a totem animal, or a favorite place or event. Michaeline enjoys recycling jewelry boxes and other items into pieces of art.
You can purchase her work locally at the Winchuck Gardens Nursery in Brookings or visit her website to commission or buy one of a kind pieces of art.
Tom Moody says his love for art began in junior high school, when he became interested in hotrods and motorcycles and would use his imagination to draw the kind he would like to own one day. "I was the one the teacher would rudely interrupt when caught sketching beneath my history and English beooks during class." His schools did not provide any formal art classes, but he did take a drafting class. After high school and his stint in the Marine Corps, Tom began taking classes at Southwestern Junior College as an Art Major, and received his Associate of Arts degree in 1972. He worked as an engineering technician for the Naval Weapons Station in Fallbrook, California. There he designed several mechanical fixtures for taking bombs and missiles apart and some electro-mechanical machines for testing explosive devices. While working for civil service he took refresher courses on drawing and found he was still pretty good at it. He began studying with Joe Garcia, a well known wildlife watercolor artist. Tom discovered acrylics and prefers that medium to watercolors. He does occasionally use watercolor plus colored pencil, pen and ink, alcohol ink, mixed media and wood carving. Tom Moody's work is included in private collections in Oklahoma, California, Washington, Oregon, and Texas. He has won several awards for his art, including the Brookings Azalea Festival and DNACA in Crescent City.
Christina Olsen. In addition to her whimsical originals in every size and shape, Christina has a wonderful line of Greeting Cards and framed and unframed Prints, as well as Plates, Bowls, Trivets, Platters, and Mugs. See Christina's pottery at Signatures Gallery in Brookings and her paintings at Bryan Scott Gallery in Brookings.
Jane Opiat Creates “one-of-kind” wearable art inspired by the flora, fauna, rivers and beaches of the Southern Oregon Coast. She weaves scarves, shawls and ponchos on her loom in her fiber studio in Brookings. You can purchase her work locally at Brian Scott Gallery. See Jane at Etsy.
Spencer Reynolds "I grew up where the ocean is cold, rough, and the skies are often cloudy. This coast is mysterious and majestic; in my opinion one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I cannot escape the ocean's deep influence on my art. It weaves itself into everything I create. Be it my representational wave paintings, of which I can attach, some of the deep wonder, delight and tragedy of life. Or finding creative inspiration in objects found on my local beaches, possessing nothing representational yet having the rugged quality of something that's spent time rolling around in the Pacific. Saltwater courses through my veins and brings the two passions of my life together, the ocean and my art."
Destiny Schwartz is "inspired primarily by nature, including politics and American culture in relation to it," and she has "devoted the past couple of years to making shrines and reliquaries to insects, lichens, twigs, seaweed, birds, etc..."
The late Bette Sherbourne created collages, pastels, watercolors, acrylics, and mixed media artwork. Her work is so purely creative that she usually did not know where the piece was going until she felt it was time to stop. Bette was juried into many shows and her work can be seen in Brookings and Gold Beach art galleries.
Eva Marie Tanner-Klaas offers original paintings and prints, garden art, bookmarks, and earrings. She also accepts commissions for cat portraits done in watercolor, acrylic, or pastel.
Luke Thornton Luke Thornton is a master artisan woodworker with over 40 years of experience. He has created an exclusive line of commissioned urns and keepsakes designed and created using the beautiful hardwoods of the Pacific Northwest. These handmade urns are one-of-a-kind with a natural beauty befitting a dignified memorial.
The wood that he uses is what sets his work apart from all others. Myrtle and pacific maple, hardwoods with exquisite color, texture and grain patterns, provide inspiration for him to create beautiful and dignified environments.
Valerie Tucker works primarily in oils and water media. She received a Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and also studied printmaking at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. Her award-winning paintings have appeared in numerous shows nationwide and her work was also included in Art Buzz, a juried hardcover publication showcasing contemporary visual artists. Valerie currently lives in Brookings with her husband, sheltie dog and two parrots.
“I want to capture not just a likeness, but the essence of a thing, a place, or a moment. That often leads me to abstraction as a way to isolate those intrinsic qualities. I pay close attention to intuition and the emotional responses in myself that occur spontaneously as I paint. Each new piece is a fresh beginning, a chance to explore and, if I’m lucky, another inspirational collaboration with serendipity."
Dale Wells Cars, boats, flowers, trees, landscapes, city scapes, whatever is in front of him - Dale has fun painting and creates watercolors that bring a smile to the viewer also. See his work at Brian Scott Gallery in Brookings.
Jam Session - mixed media painting by Horst Wolf
Horst Wolf has won many awards for his watercolors, and participates in juried regional, state, and national art shows. He moved to Brookings in April 2001 and is very active in the local art community. His work can be seen at Brian Scott Gallery and Wordsin Brookings and in a number of other Oregon galleries.