(Above: The Winchester Bridge, by Shirley Reade, featured guest artist at the Emerald Art Center, is one of her many landscape paintings of Oregon scenes.)

Posted by Randi Bjornstad

The art on view at the Emerald Art Center during December and into early January offers an eclectic collection of works by guest artist Shirley Reade, featured center members Diane Hallstrom and fredX, plus new work by many other members of Emerald Art Center.

Here’s a rundown of what is on the walls through Jan. 6, 2023.

Family Outing, an acrylic painting by guest artist Shirley Reade, at the Emerald Art Center

Acrylic paintings by featured guest artist, Shirley Reade

Shirley was born in Portland and raised in the Tualatin Valley, where rushing waterfalls and vibrant colors of nature inspired her lifetime of artistic creation.

Her art ranges from florals to animals to seascapes to figures, especially children.

Besides creating her own art, Reade has demonstrated artistic technique and taught classes throughout the country, including at trade shows, painting seminars, conferences, and open houses featuring national television artists. She works primarily in acrylics, creating meticulous details that ranges from florals to animals to seascapes, to figures.

She now lives on the Oregon coast at Winchester, where she teaches private painting lessons in her home studio.

Alone, by fredX, is one of his many images from Burning Man gatherings

fredX, featured member artist

Burning Man is the name of fredX’s display at the Emerald Art Center, featuring photographs he has taken at the annual Burning Man gathering that takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The event lasts nine days and is on one hand a celebration of artistic self-expression and on the other the creation by attendees of a temporary but self-sufficient community of some 80,000 people. In the wider culture, however, it has the reputation of being a week-long, surreal “counterculture party party in the desert.”

fredX describes himself as a “late-bloomer with a checkered past,” who in his late 20s drifted around the country for five years and found himself, at 32, “sleeping on cardboard in Golden Gate Park,” a high school graduate with “no particular skills, friends or prospects.”

Ten years later, he was about to enter Laney, a community college in Oakland, Calif., as a part-time student, when he accidentally cut off several fingers with a table saw while assembling canvas stretchers, changing his life and his future. He enrolled instead as a full-time student and learned to draw and paint left-handed. After completing coursework at Laney, he entered UC  Berkeley and earned his bachelor’s degree, followed by a master’s degree from Harvard at age 52.

He became involved in teaching art, participating in virtual reality worlds, and creating virtual galleries featuring artists from around the world. At 62 — many of his milestone ages seem to end in “2” — he retired and moved to Nevada, where he discovered his affinity for Burning Man.

Then, at 72, he moved to Oregon, where he continued his art, his artist statement says, via “photography, 3D modeling, Zen, World usicx, Writing, Native American Ways, and Burning Man.

Bandon Bay, by Oregon artist Diane L. Farquhar Hallstrom

Diane L. Farquhar Hallstrom, featured member artist

A native Oregonian, Hallstrom grew up in the Willamette Valley, enjoying horses, sports, and camping. From her father, a professional photographer, she learned composition and developed a keen insight for artistically portraying ordinary subjects. She became intrigued by black-and-white photography and using darkroom techniques to create artistic photographic images.

Although she majored in business and law in college, Hallstrom also studied ancient through modern art history. Her first artistic endeavors, however, were in poetry and haiku writing, only later turning to painting and and beginning to show her work. She often pairs her poetry with her painted images. Through the years, her art became less abstract and more representational, both styles which she continues to create in both oil and acrylic mediums.

Her show at the Emerald Art Center is titled Kaleidoscope, reflecting her ability to switch easily between subjects and artistic styles.

On the walls at the Emerald Art Center 

When: Through Jan. 6, 2023

Where: Emerald Art Center, 500 Main St., Springfield

Special event: Second Friday Art Walk, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 9

Regular hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday (gallery will be closed on Dec. 31)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Emerald Art Center presents acrylic paintings by Shirley Reade. (see attached artist information page..) Also showing are featured EAC members, Diane Hallstrom and fredX.

Diane Hallstrom is showing,”Kaleidoscope”  a blend of abstracts and realism depicting a variety of subject matter and processes that are common to both styles. (see attached artist information page)

fredX is showing photographs from “Burning Man”. (see attached information page.)

Plus new work from members of the Emerald Art Center.

Show dates are November 29th to January 6th, 2023.

Second Friday Art Walk is December 9th from 5-7:30pm.

Gallery is open Tuesday- Saturday 11-4pm

(closed 12/31)

Emerald Art Center. 500 Main St. Springfield, OR