(Above: Why Not? by Merrilea Jones, part of a show at the Emerald Art Center titled A Body of Work, spanning the career of the artist)

Edited by Randi Bjornstad

Exhibits in December

As the name A Body of Work suggests, the Emerald Art Center’s featured show during December takes a look at the career of center member Merrilea Jones.

Here’s how her artistic efforts have evolved, as explained in a recent news release:

Jones’s style has changed over time as she struggled to master challenges and find what mattered most to her.  She loved drawing, coloring and painting as a child and on through her working years when she “scrapbooked” in her spare time as an outlet.  It was not until she retired and moved to Springfield that painting became her focus. (She made and sold hundreds of Christmas cards to pay for her painting supplies.)

She took acrylic painting lessons for several years to learn the basics and joined the Emerald Art Center as a way to display her art.  Jones enjoyed working with acrylics but was dissatisfied with just reproducing a realistic photo, so she took an abstract class to “loosen up” her style, discovered a love of abstract art and never looked back.  During the Covid pandemic, she turned to YouTube videos that showed fluid acrylic painting, which changed her approach and style as she discovered a new way to express “the joy and freedom that vivid colors, wild shapes and utter chaos bring to the canvas.”

Hidden Cove, by Weldon Oliver

The EAC also is showing Oil Paintings by Weldon Oliver, who was born in Roseburg and grew up in the Umpqua Valley. He served in the U.S. Navy, after which he worked for a data communications company before discovering an interest in oil painting. He spent five years as an intern with artist Tom Anderson and then started his own painting instruction business.

In 2001, Oliver returned to Oregon, where he opened a painting studio and taught art to adults and children in the Florence area. Ten years later, he moved to Bend, and he now lives in Oakridge, where he has an art studio in the St. Vincent de Paul building on Highway 58 and where, he says he has found that “everything is here that an oil painter needs: mountains, lakes, trees, valleys, and river.

Wall moss art by Emma Shum

Linoleum block prints by Taffy Seifert

Then comes moss wall art by Emma Shum, based on “a deep passion for bringing the beauty and tranquility of nature into your home,” as well as acrylic linoleum block prints by Taffy Seifert, which she carves, prints, and paints in her studio.

Plus, as always there is a display of new art by many Emerald Art Center members.

 

 

 

Current shows at the Emerald Art Center

When: Through Jan. 3, 2025 (except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day)

Special event: Reception for the artists from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024

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

Regular Center Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

Information: emeraldartcenter.org or 541-726-8595