Manley Art Center announces the opening reception for the July Art Exhibit, held Saturday, July 9th, 2022 from 3 to 6 PM at The Manley Art Center, located at 433 Oak Street in Brookings, Oregon.
The exhibit, on display from July 5th through July 31st, features artist Kristen O’Neill’s Oregon Coast Trail painting series. This series focuses on recreating and exploring a time and place found during hikes. The Oregon Coast Trail series spotlights trails that follow the entire Oregon coastline as hiked and photographed by Pete Miller in the summer of 2016.
Kristen left the safety and knowledge of her own artistic experiences and journeyed out to portray an experience she had yet to have. She had painted someone else's perspective a time or two with paintings from photographs, yet this was the first time she vicariously hiked an entire trail via a series and documented it through her art. In this series, she painted locations accurately but prioritized the essence of a place by eliminating unnecessary details. This painterly approach generates landscapes with fidelity to the colors and forms that comprise the coastal terrain.
Her artistic influences include Neil Welliver, the Group of Seven, Richard Bosman, Katsushika Hokusai, Alex Katz, and Jennifer Bartlett. Kristen shares, "I am interested in what landscape painting can become as we use it to explore, capture, and preserve a place."
The rest of the exhibit will be filled out with a variety of art created by the Manley Art Center members. Each month Manley Art Center displays a new collection of members' artwork. Artwork in the gallery is changed out on the first Monday of every month, and all Art Center members are welcome to participate. Proceeds from the sale of artwork are shared between the artists and the Manley Art Center. The Manley uses its portion to further its mission to promote, through education, the appreciation, distribution, and enjoyment of fine arts and crafts.
