The Northwest Landscape: An Invitational Exhibit
January 31 - March 16, 2024
First Friday Artwalks and Receptions: February 2nd and March 1st, 5:30-7:30 pm
Karin Clarke Gallery is pleased to present a large invitational exhibit featuring some of the Pacific Northwest’s most dynamic contemporary and historical landscape painters. Each artist’s very distinctive work captures and celebrates the Northwest landscape in ways that deepen both our perception and appreciation of it.
Featured Artists:
Mark Clarke (1935-2016), a fifth-generation Oregonian and former student of David McCosh’s at the University of Oregon, was best known for his soft acrylic paintings of the Willamette Valley, for which he felt a deep love and commitment. Working both on site and in his studio, he developed a complex layering technique that gave his acrylic work the depth and texture of oil. Luminous fields of color convey the mood of a season, a place. Light appears filtered through a pervasive Oregon mist, lending his paintings an atmospheric, dreamy quality. Sometimes, a mysterious, lone human silhouette appears. A sense of peace and serenity emanates from his landscapes. His work is in numerous public and private collections, notably in Oregon museums.
Margaret Coe, an Oregonian since adolescence, also studied under David McCosh (in whose class she met her future husband Mark Clarke) and later also taught at the University of Oregon. Coe is a tremendously gifted, deeply probing, painter, whose work never ceases to evolve and reinvent itself. What she paints on site often serves as a preliminary reference for further reinterpretation in the studio. In her oil landscapes, she captures the texture of the elements – vegetation, rocks, water – and even geology comes to life. Light, in her later paintings, often acquires a spiritual dimension. Her paintings remain suggestive, allowing unexplored depths for the viewer’s imagination to wander into. Her work has been widely exhibited and collected since the 1960s, and features in the collections of numerous museums and public institutions in the US and abroad.
Bets Cole, who lives on an eighty-acre farm in Oregon and shows her artwork nationwide, works primarily in the plein air tradition. According to Cole, her “pieces evolve slowly:” “I continually rework my surfaces, layer upon layer, which in turn allows the piece to gain depth, a sense of history and a voice of its own.” Yet her pieces are striking for their sense of immediacy and aliveness. They remain suggestive while conveying a strong sense of the structural components of the landscape. Decisive strokes communicate not just the colors and quality of light specific to each place but its vitality and dynamic qualities. Cole mostly works with water media, sometimes augmented with charcoal. She holds a BS degree in art from Cornell and an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Oregon. Her work has been included in many public and private collections.
Carl Hall (1921-1996) studied at the Meinzinger School under the highly regarded painter Carlos Lopez (1908-1953). He then settled in Oregon and taught art at Willamette University from 1947 to 1986. A 1948 Life magazine article brought him national recognition, calling him a “magic realist.” John Casey described his style as "a blend of realism and formalism of abstraction...suggestive...thus engaging the imagination of the viewer". For Roger Hull, it combined “bravura brushwork with meticulously rendered textures and detail”, his paintings often based “on sharp lines defining clear textures and forms.” Hall believed that “Art teaches awareness... it’s a way of exploring the world and yourself." Noted for his paintings of the Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast, Hall was also a writer, poet, and art critic. His work features in numerous permanent collections at prestigious institutions.
Hart James grew up on a farm, spending her time in nature. Since moving to the Northwest, first to Oregon, then settling in Anacortes, Wash., she has become known for her stylized, slightly abstracted, landscape paintings that often feature flowing water and mountains. She works quickly, using a palette knife, rag, and charcoal in order to capture the essence of the moment and to express the raw energy of nature: “Painting must be done quickly to retain freshness, to capture the energy. The act of painting quickly requires an inner attunement.” At the same time, her bold mark-making creates a solid, chiseled look. James studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as under Anne Truitt, Vera Berdich, and Ed Pashcke.
David McCosh (1903-1981) studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he began his teaching career. He then taught at the University of Oregon from 1934 to 1970, influencing several generations of art students and the direction of painting in the Pacific Northwest. His work, which became increasingly abstracted over the years, reflected his engagement with his visual surroundings and an emphasis on direct observation of nature. “Learning to paint,” he believed, “is learning to see—not to recognize only familiar things.” As noted by JSMA McCosh curator Danielle Knapp, abstraction was not for him a theoretical concept but the result of intense observation. The essayist and curator Roger Saydack further described “the thrilling, fresh point of view he realized through the close and careful observation that motivated his painting.” Color became an organizing force in his compositions. McCosh received national recognition throughout his long painting career. The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art holds the McCosh papers and the largest body of works by and relating to the artist.
Erik Sandgren was born in Corvallis, though his art studies took him to Yale and Cornell, and his travels and teaching to England and France. His father was the noted painter and OSU art professor Nelson Sandgren, and he himself taught for several decades at Grays Harbor College in Aberdeen, Wash., before retiring in Portland. Landscape, especially in the Northwest, has been a lifelong subject matter for his acrylics and watercolor paintings. For Sandgren, a painter’s task is “to show some of the invisible realities of the landscape. The landscape painting to me isn’t a snapshot. It’s not scenery. It’s a layered experience." Often started outdoors but further developed in the studio, his work displays a deep affinity for geological formations and the architecture of the landscape, while the rhythm of the colors and brushstrokes conveys a sense of energy, movement, and aliveness. His work is to be found in numerous public and private collections.
