August 2024

Let us help design and showcase your art with our wide array of mats, frames and fillets to bring the best look to your walls in your home, office or getaway place! We can custom frame pretty much anything you can imagine from unique old photos to any form of art or memorable keepsake! So many options, custom framing creativity is our reality. Make all your events at your home, office or getaway place have the perfect custom framed art to enhance any environment!

In addition, we are showcasing various artists’ works showing the beauty of summer through images, colors and overall feeling! The exhibition will feature fantastic fine art prints and originals including landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, city scenes and more. As well we will be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, many regional nostalgic movie star postcards, historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These original antique prints date from the 1500s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand-colored copper engraving, hand-colored lithography and black & white engraving. Add some ephemera but have become collectible antiques to your walls!

Have a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, we would be happy to find it for you. Want to reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or watercolor paper, we do this!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, watercolor paper, photo paper and to custom frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Original Art • Fine Art Prints • Sculpture • Jewelry • Soy Candles • Tiles • & more

PEARL GALLERY & FRAMING
2250 NW 22nd Ave. Suite 404
Portland, OR 97210

Map to Pearl Gallery & Framing in the New York Building – see us in Suite 404

Visit family-owned Pearl Gallery & Framing

Gallery Hours:
9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Weekdays
11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturdays
And by appointment

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In addition to our featured artists, we have gifts and a large selection of fine art to brighten your life! You can discover something for everyone: one-of-a-kind jewelry, historic images of Portland, locally made photo coasters, botanical etchings, original chalk pastels, ceramics, metal sculptures, mini-encaustics, hand-pulled Rock & Roll screen prints, fine art prints, ready-made frames and much more! We are happy to work with you personally to frame your art, or envision the perfect art combination to liven up the space in your home or office.

We are happy to explain more about our products and services to showcase your unique piece or collection.

Previous Events

Please inquire about art from previous exhibits. We archive some work by each artist.

Spring: A Collection of Prints & Originals

March – April 2024

For the month of March & April we will be showing “Spring: A Collection of Prints & Originals.” We will be featuring newly added fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts, and city scenes. We will also be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells.

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or water color paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, water color paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Nostalgia in December

December 1st – 31st

“Fraa-jeel-aay! It must be Italian!” — The Old Man from A Christmas Story

From December 1st – 31st we are happy to showcase the large selection of our prints & originals from a wide variety of artists. Come on in and look at some fantastic fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes as well as handmade Jewelry, magnets and greeting cards. You might just find that perfect holiday art surprise for someone you’ve been looking for. We will also be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. If you’ve got items to get framed for the holidays or for the new year we are here to help you design and complete them with the perfect framing options to bring a smile to everyone’s face.

Come on in to frame up those items you’ve been wanting to, for you, or those special others you’ve been thinking of and find something in our large selection of prints and originals for that special someone for the holidays, or just treat yourself to some incredible art!

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or watercolor paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, watercolor paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Rolling into the Holidays Sale: 20% off Custom Framing 20% off Prints & Originals

November 20–22 & 24–30, 2023

Come in from November 20–22 & 24–30 for our “Rolling into the Holidays Sale”! Enjoy 20% off Custom Framing (*must be $100 or over) as well as 20% off a large selection of our prints & originals (*select prints & originals). Bring in those items you’ve been saving up to get framed and take advantage of this limited time custom framing sale! While you’re here, have a look at some fantastic fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes. We will also be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells.

Take advantage of 20% off Custom framing! Come on in to frame up those items you’ve been wanting to, for you, or those special others you’ve been thinking of and find something in our large selection of prints and originals for that special someone for the holidays, or just treat yourself to some incredible art with 20% off selected Fine Art Prints & Originals!

Barney B. Common Thread: Interconnections

Reception August 5th 5 – 9 p.m.
Show Runs August 5th – September 30th

Greetings art lovers, art followers and art collectors near and far! Starting August 5th Pearl Gallery is open for First Thursday again! We have come a long way in the past year, working behind the scenes while our world slowly turned around the sun, and what a journey this past year has been in all aspects! We are very excited to open our doors again for First Thursday events and let the exploration of art begin. We look forward to seeing you in person and sharing our new visions for the gallery! First Thursdays are now a thing of the Present! And what a gift this is! Welcome back!

Pearl Gallery is very excited to open its doors with “Common Thread: Interconnections” a visual interpretation of finding that common thread that connects each individual’s pieces and allows one to understand the creative choices they have. Through lines, points and intersections with thin bits and accents of subtle colors intricately placed within and around defined lines one can feel and envision a place in the mind of artist Barney B. and a common thread that interconnects us all within this Universe.

Though some pieces in the collection are void of colors, each allows us to reflect one’s own personal internal colors upon and within the pieces generating a common thread between the viewer and the art itself.

Ronald Irving Barncord (1950-2012), a native of Portland, Oregon, eventually settled in Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 1970s, where he spent the rest of his life. He reconnected with his estranged older brother, Robert, in 1994, and they renewed a brotherly relationship that lasted from then on.

Robert observed Ron doing elaborate drawings on any piece of paper that was handy while sitting in various environments. Ron had been doing these “drawings” since his early adult years. His brother Robert immediately recognized the innate quality of the drawings and the unusual talent and creativity that Ron was displaying so he convinced his little brother to begin turning this art into something more permanent and lasting, and purchased pens, pencils, sketchbooks, a ruler and compass for him. Eventually Ron added a contractor’s template.

He slowly improved his design and execution until around 1998/1999 he reached a level that made him comfortable with signing and dating his best ones. The first ones were signed “Ronald I. Barncord”, but by 2001 he had changed to a moniker – “Barney B.” and signed them all this way from then on.

In addition to the show it is also with great pleasure to announce Pearl Gallery’s partnership with the Portland Child Art Studio and Executive Director Devon Mitchell. Throughout the duration of this show Pearl Gallery will be donating a portion of the proceeds to Portland Child Art Studio! PCAS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the perceptual development of children through artistic learning in a studio environment. PCAS is also committed to providing equitable access to quality art education in our community.

At Pearl Gallery we feel that PCAS is an exemplary example of the connection between information, exploration, and imaginative directive that creates a powerful learning experience, leading the children to become knowledgeable, confident, and independent both inside and outside the studio environment.

We look forward to seeing and conversing with all art enthusiasts, collectors and viewers once again this August and we are more than excited about the coming Year!!

“If we are going to preserve the viability of life on this planet, we must strive to understand the connections, the interrelatedness of all things” – Laurence Overmire

Foxy Fox Arts: Worlds of Wonder

Facebook Event
July 2021

Pearl Gallery & Framing is happy to welcome guests!

“I believe it is important to test and gain creativity by stepping outside of your comfort zone, outside the box.”
– Foxy Fox Arts

For the month of July we are showcasing “Foxy Fox Arts,” a collection of impressionist portraits, horror pin-ups, and abstracts. With this series the artist steps out of the realm of traditional art by using various artistic techniques such as fluid painting, collaging, stenciling, spray painting, and sculpting on the canvas and works/styles such as graphic pinups, 3D textured cartoon sculptures, pop art, and impressionistic sci-fi character designs. This mixed-media series includes acrylics, ink pens, gouache, pouring mediums, yarn, gems, all sorts of trinkets, lots of glitter, and a full spectrum of colors and textures.

Foxy Fox Arts is a childhood dream. The artist was always interested in crafts, drawing , human faces and figures. Foxy Fox Arts is the vision of an artist who received formal education in drawing, painting, sculpture, airbrush, photography, printing, and art history. She has painted murals and received several art grants, won first place in the 2013 VFW art competition, which led to her being named art student of the year in 2014.

Foxy Fox Arts took to the road learning new techniques and styles by working with other artists (Mama Jax, Anthony Ortega, Jennah Snyder and J.J. Kinser). After being on the road, she took an artistic residency at Iverson ranch and became an artistic director for large scale livable art installments that helped shape 4 years at Burning Man. After the Burning Man experience, Foxy Fox Arts traveled the country painting murals for businesses and private clients. Currently Foxy Fox Arts resides in Portland, Oregon taking making commissioned murals and custom paintings.

We look forward to several exciting and creative shows in the coming months! Check back to learn more about future first Thursday gallery events.

MAPS: A Collection of Various Vintage Maps

October 2020
Facebook Event

We will be extending our show “MAPS” through the month of October! “MAPS” is a visual representation of the wonderful illustrations of specific and detailed features of various areas of geography. This show features a stunning myriad of collectible vintage maps, some of which have been hand-colored and have intricate artistic border treatments. At one point early in history, maps were more of a form of artistic expression and there was not a great concern with accuracy. In the second century A.D., the first attempt of making a map realistic was made by the astronomer/astrologer Claudius Ptolemy. However; his interest in making maps was actually to create accurate horoscopes as he was obsessed with astronomy and astrology. In order to create accurate horoscopes, he needed to place the precise birth town on a world map. Ptolemy plotted over 10,000 locations with his devised system of lines of latitude and longitude, flattened the planet onto a two-dimensional map and called his technique geography. Although we do not have any maps from Ptolemy in our show, we do have some very artistic original vintage maps from as early as the 1800s ready to be framed and adorn a wall of your choice!

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or watercolor paper!! We will scan, enlarge touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 x 10 or larger canvas or paper print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, watercolor paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Taking Flight in PDX: A Collection of Bird & Portland Themed Art

*Open for Viewing by Appointment
August 2020
Facebook Event

For the month of August we will be extending our show “Taking Flight in PDX” with newly added pieces.

Within the last few months, there has been a beauty and visual interplay of a variety of birds within the city of Portland landing on and flying around various architectural structures and natural elements and reminding me of taking a moment in these times to view and appreciate one’s surroundings. In doing so, I have felt a stronger connection to all that surrounds us, is intricate to our city and plays a part in our day to day lives. These fleeting moments are captured within our minds and allow us to remove ourselves for a moment in time and just feel. Taking Flight in PDX brings to the viewer some of these moments in time captured in artistic expressions of a once fleeting moment.

Upon my bike rides home within the last months, I noted that I have continued to see so many birds out and about all over in the city of PDX. It seems as though I continue to see more than the normal amount of birds around during these times, perhaps because there is fewer cars traveling and people around in general, but whatever the reason I thought of a show that was just specific to birds but continued to think of the visual interplay of birds in PDX. This show “Taking Flight in PDX” showcases a variety of art with city scenes within and around Portland as well as a variety of birds from all over.

I am constantly drawn into the color varieties, the graceful nature of flight, the calming feel of bird songs and bird calls and the unsurpassed survival skills of birds in the midst of changing and challenging times. I am also intrigued by the constant interplay of birds within the city and its structures and natural elements that surround us. Join us on social media and by appointment through August to see this wonderful collection of bird and PDX themed art take flight! -Tekoah Buchanan

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or watercolor paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, watercolor paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Visions of Birds: A Collection of Bird Themed Art
*Open for Viewing by Appointment
June 2020
Facebook Event

Upon my bike rides home within the last month, I noted that I have continued to see so many birds out and about all over. It seems as though I continue to see more than the normal amount of birds around during these times, perhaps because there are fewer cars traveling and people around in general, but whatever the reason, I began thinking of a show that was just specific to birds. Because I have continued to think of, see, and reflect upon the nature of birds in general, for the month of June, I am excited to exhibit “Visions of Birds: A Collection of Bird Themed Art.”

This show is intended to showcase a variety of Bird themed art new and old from various artists over time. I am constantly drawn into the color varieties, the graceful nature of flight, the calming feel of bird songs and bird calls and the unsurpassed survival skills of birds in the midst of changing and challenging times. Join us on social media and by appointment this June to see this wonderful collection of bird themed art take flight! -Tekoah Buchanan

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or watercolor paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color- manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, watercolor paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Please email [email protected] or call 503.274.9878 for questions or additional information.

Images in Time: A Collection of Photographs & Prints
May 2020
Facebook Event

“There is a constant moving vision for me to continue to create something new, yet reflective of the past, timeless.” – Tekoah Buchanan

Dear Friends of Pearl Gallery & Framing: It is our priority during this time to protect the health and safety of our staff and community. In keeping with recommendations from the World Health Organization & the Centers for Disease Control, we will be open by appointment for viewing of April’s show and for any custom framing needs you have.

All existing appointments, custom framing orders and shipments of sold artworks are continuing as scheduled. The frame shop will resume regular business hours as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we will be available M – F from 9 – 5 & Saturday 11 – 5 via phone, email or appointment.

Our shop is in a secured building that is cleaned frequently. We continue to ship worldwide, and we are flexible to meet your needs via video chat, sharing images via email, or talking about your projects over the phone to make your experience the best that it can be. It is still our aim to provide the best possible customer service to art lovers.

For the month of April, Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to show “Images in Time: A collection of Photographs & Prints”. The show will feature some of Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning photographic images of trains, bridges, ships, regional waterways, and local street scenes as well as other artist’s photographs and prints. Buchanan gives us his interpretation of the world around us in a positive light, a collection of images curated to represent our vitality amidst constantly changing architecture and time, capturing those acute moments that give him joy. This curated collection of images reveals Buchanan’s lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world in gentle tones of blue, warm hues of gray, and colors that pop off the substrate. Buchanan’s photographic images have a hand-colored look.

Tekoah Buchanan, a graduate of University of Oregon’s Electronic Media Production program, is obsessed with photography. His photographic eye is constantly trained on the world around him; he is a natural at capturing city scenes. He has spent countless hours in the darkroom, experimented with emulsion techniques, and worked on video production. Buchanan’s roots are in film and video, having mixed Super 8 Film shorts with video footage in his college days. He became intrigued with the idea of stopping film, and he began to create several series of still image photos from the footage that would typically be seen only as moving pictures.

He named his process of transforming moving images to still shots “industek visions ?” to capture his process, his style and his imagery. It is a combination of “industrial” and “Tekoah,” his unusual first name, meaning sound of the trumpet. The question mark represents our shared humanity, our attempts to understand the world around us, the way that we use our analytical minds to perceive, but our emotional bewilderment at the grandeur of life with a future unknown. “industek visions ?” represents an open-eyed look at reality that encompasses infinite possibilities.

Going Places: A Collection of Prints & Originals

Going Places: A Collection of Prints & Originals (Show Extended)
March & April 2020

Facebook Event

For the month of March we are extending the show “Going Places: A Collection of Prints & Originals”. We will be featuring newly added fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes. We will also be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. This show is sure to delight those who like to travel around as the shows focus is on movement and a variety of locations as well as a variety of artists from past to present. For the month of March we are also extending 15% off Custom Framing. If there is something you’ve been wanting to frame March is a great time to come in and get it framed up!

SOPHIE NAVARRO: Drawing Explorations

January 2020Facebook Event

“I see myself as a Fine Artist with a unique style that stands out on its own. I often use bright colors, words, gold paint, and glitter and usually have a theme that surrounds women empowerment.” –Sophie Navarro

This collection of illustrations come from a variety of Sophie’s journals, created on Bristol board and on Kona coffee paper. She uses a mix of micron pens, koi brush pens and watercolor washes. There is a mix of heart designs, fashion designs, comic doodles, affirmations and abstract pieces. Navarro pulls most of her ideas from dreams, style magazines, fashion, written journals and streams of consciousness. Her art pours out of her hands daily. For her, it is necessary to draw out the words, play with the swirls, colors, spirals and experiment with as many different types of pens. She loves how comics pour out of her out of the blue when she has had an uneventful day or how drinking her coffee can evoke poetry onto the page. Sophie loves creativity at its core and feels it tugging at her, beckoning her to play again and try new approaches. Many of these designs get turned into new paintings or series of paintings. Some of these pieces stand alone or could be seen as a series. These are Sophie’s drawing explorations that dive deep into her creative process.

The hallmarks of her work are stylized eyes and lips in her paintings of women. She enjoys using mixed media, specialized papers such as papyrus, and incorporating visuals such as musical notes. Looking closely at her vivid art pieces you can often find a word or a sentence in the flow of the hair, an embellishment in the coffee cup or a swirled line that disappears into a heart painting. Her art work honors themes of women goddesses, empowerment, spiritual connections, love, hearts and poetry.

Sophie started making art at a very young age and has been actively promoting her artwork for more than 30 years, primarily in Eugene, OR. At age 8, she sold her first collection of gift cards at the 5^th Street Public Market. She has always had a passion for, and gained inspiration from, fashion designs in old Vogue books, a love for the 1920-style flapper girls and classic New York-style fashion. She loves patterns, lines and color and enjoys details and textures. All of which can be seen within her art work.

As a child, she loved creating art alongside her mother and watched how she painted ceramic tiles in her own style. Her mother is from Paris, France and Sophie learned a great deal from her mother as she was shown her unique painting techniques. As she gets older her style has tended to change every five years as her life experiences inform her art’s evolution into new designs.

In her undergraduate years (September 1996 – 2003), she studied at Lane Community College and worked with Adam Grosowski and Craig Spillman. Navarro focused on her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon and studied under Ron Graff, Carla Bengston and Ken O’Connell. In August of 2000 she studied abroad in Siena, Italy where she took a watercolor painting workshop. In June 2018 Navarro graduated with her M.S. in Arts Management at the University of Oregon with a focus on Community Arts. She worked with Charly Swing for ArtCity and completed her internship from 2017-2018. Her thesis focused on arts entrepreneurship and she created a graphic memoir as part of that thesis.

In May 2019 Navarro received the Register Guard Reader’s Choice Award for the #2 Best Local Artists in Eugene, Oregon and in November 2015 she was selected as one of the artists for a small exhibit in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. She participated in the Cross Cultural Realities: Self Expression, Heritage, and Conflict, Art Opening Reception and was in Museum of Art Advocacy Council nominated show. In October 2018 Navarro had an art exhibit entitled “Your Value Comes from Within” in Aperture Gallery EMU at the University of Oregon.

Currently, Sophie teaches art classes to youth at Maude Kerns Art Center and YMCA in the summer and teaches at painting parties and workshops to adults in cafes, parks and other venues and has a passion for teaching children. She has a booth at Saturday Market where she sells her paintings, prints and magnets and often participates in First Friday ArtWalks with Lane Arts Councils from June – September. Navarro had two shows simultaneously at Park Street Café and Palace Bakery in June through August and had a collection of acrylic paintings in both cafes over the summer in addition to selling her artwork at the Saturday Market. She shows her art regularly in cafes, hair salons and galleries in Eugene, Oregon. Her art currently focuses on multimedia, using mixed papers for decoupage and acrylic paint. She writes and draws regularly in her journal and sketchbook which is where many of her ideas for new paintings emerge.

SOPHIE NAVARRO: Dear Future Partner . . .

Reception December 5^th 5 – 9pm
Show Runs December 5^th – December 31^stFacebook Event

The series “Dear Future Partner…” began as a collection of illustrations Sophie Navarro developed, which turned into paintings. Her “Dear Future Partner…” series is both a manifestation and representation of love letters to her future partner. Many of her journal entries connect to a specific design that has been turned into a painting or a collection of paintings. As she started journaling more and more, she noticed a strong connection between writing deeply from the heart and how that process organically extended into her process of making art. This themed show reveals the gifts from taking that time alone and waiting for the love that one deeply desires. Self-Love is also a big theme within each painting and is shown in her writings and paintings.

Dan Bernard & Carson Abbert – A Journey Out & In

Photographs and Paintings
November 2019
Facebook Event

A self-taught and aspiring fine art photographer since 1982, Dan’s earliest influences were the street photographs of Cartier-Bresson, the landscapes of Ansel Adams and the more abstract work of Andre Kertesz.

Inspired by these and other masters, Dan has spent the intervening years exploring the natural grandeur of Oregon and Utah, as well as the streets of France and Japan, building a body of black and white photographs that evoke exhilaration and wonder.

Despite having shown his earlier work in numerous Portland cafes and restaurants since the mid-80s, Dan’s emergence truly began when he was juried into the Portland Saturday Market in 2017. That same year he took part in several group shows, and was awarded an Honorable Mention for a photographic composite by The Lakewood Arts Festival in Lake Oswego. In 2018 he left the market and was invited to join The Alberta Street Gallery, in northeast Portland.

With this new two-person exhibition, “A Journey Out and In”, Dan has let go of his more traditional roots. In this dynamic and colorful collection, he explores exciting new ground based on more contemporary modes of photographic self-expression. Expanding his repertoire, he has digitally layered pairs of his photographs and used filtration to create an excitingly rich body of work.

For Carson Abbert, “A Journey Out & In” represents the push by the artist to be bolder in his acrylic painting approach both visually, emotionally, and personally. The fragmented and sectioned areas of his paintings are meant to reference impermanence, time and transitions; but the presence of more solid shapes stand-alone hearts are meant as a statement of certainty and conviction. Of course, for him keeping it really means having both.

Mud. Love. Carson’s first memory of making art was when he was four and a half. An older girl in the neighborhood was visiting her grandparents. She invited him to make pies, mud pies. The feeling of mixing the mud and smoothing the tops was mesmerizing. And the memory of the heat as they put the clay-filled tins in the sun was burned into his heart forever. A life of mark making and working surfaces had begun.

While growing up in Northern Michigan and Central Indiana, the desire to draw, sculpt, and paint was always there for him, but while completing his B.F.A in Painting at Cleveland Institute of Art, he discovered that he was passionate about working with high key color and with a painterly approach that lent itself to an abstract/non-representational style. The emotional power that color could have in a painting had hooked him. Memory and nostalgia also became a topic he explored extensively during these years. He was recognized with three awards before graduating from his artistic endeavors.

Love as a theme is at the core of each of these paintings. They represent the idea that love is layered, messy, sometimes simple, often complex; but lovely and joyous as well. Carson’s love of the painting process and color is visible without doubt, but the hope for him is that it will be felt too, as an escape and as a chance to contemplate what is probably the most important thing in all of our lives.

Recently, Carson received recognition with an Artist Award from the Salem Art Association during its 2019 Salem Art Fair & Festival. He has shown paintings locally in numerous shows, art events, and businesses, including the 2018 Lake Oswego’s Art in the Park and a solo show at Olympic Mills Commerce Center (2018). Currently, his work can be viewed at Alberta Street Gallery in NE Portland.

MARTIN B. ANDERSON – Music: Happy & Sad

Acrylic Paintings
September & October 2019
Facebook Event

“My artwork has been about people for most of my life. I go out and listen to music often & sometimes make sketches & take photos. I use these as source material for my paintings.” – Martin Anderson

By popular demand, Pearl Gallery & Framing is delighted to extend the showcase of Martin B. Anderson’s work through October! The subject of Martin’s art is people. He works in acrylics, charcoal, pastel & mixed media. When he first started his art he worked in a completely abstract way (nonobjective). Then he discovered the surreal method of finding his subject in the tool marks of his media (brush marks in painting), like seeing a subject in the clouds in the sky. This fascinated Martin and his subject usually turned out to be people. Because he had always lived in the city this should not have been a surprise, but because this surreal method was so hard to manage subject wise, and he wanted to cover some human topics that he had feelings for, or was fascinated by, he abandoned most of this surreal method. Martin started using sketches & photos along with some accidental methods in his drawings & paintings. All Martin’s work has abstract, surreal and expressive elements in it. Much like Picasso he is more interested in line and shape then color but does feel that color has an expressive feeling.

Martin’s first interest in art was stirred by seeing a Van Gogh exhibit at the L.A. County Art Museum. He studied art at Long Beach City College (1970-1972) and then at California State University Long Beach (1972-1975). About 1976, Martin was drawn into an unusual art project by some friends in L.A. They did large collaborative paintings on the streets of L.A. Metro area (1976-1979). This culminated in several exhibits and was to Martin an outstanding life experience. With two of those friends, Martin became an art instructor at Metropolitan State Hospital Norwalk (1979-1980). A few years later he took up sign painting and eventual had his own business painting signs. These experiences gave Martin a broader and deeper view of what art was all about. All the while he had been developing his own style of painting. First it was non-objective, then it changed to surrealistic and finally about 1980 it took on a more realistic approach influenced by his sketches of night life. Martin would go out to hear & see music frequently and in the process he would sketch the musicians and audience. He would also sketch and take photos on the street. This all becomes resources for his art. Martin moved to Oregon in 1991 and met a woman (artist, art teacher & art promoter) who became very important in his life. They did art, art exhibits, promotions & life together until 2011 when she passed away. Martin is currently continuing on with his subject of people with a strong emphasis on musicians but has included two paintings with animals which will be part of this current show.

“Some of my favorite subjects are workers, musicians, street scenes. “ – Martin Anderson

Marisa Baragli Bevington – Street Art 1991: Argentina & Uraguay

August 2019
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For the month of August, Pearl Gallery & Framing invites you to look at images of street art in Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, La Plata and Montevideo, photographed by Marisa Baragli Bevington in 1991 when she received a Rockefeller fellowship offered to foreign language teachers. We ask that as you observe them to imagine you were there living that reality. In the late eighties, Argentinean artists painted many murals due to the sudden freedom to express themselves once the military government ended (1976-1983) and democracy returned. “Sacar el arte a la calle” (Take art to the streets) started, so that anyone walking, riding on a bus or car or just sitting at a cafe could see art at any time of day.

“The images presented in this show are the ones that kept coming to my mind out of hundreds of 35mm slide photographs I took. The messages range from cultural ones (tango, mate) to historical commentaries (the Carnaval mural showing black servants/slaves from two perspectives) as well as political ones (the Peronist party mural or the Communist Party’s mural criticizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq). However, the mural that most impacted me in 1991 was a wall painting of four men keeping a wall from collapsing while they kept hitting their heads against it.” – Marisa Baragli Bevington

Argentine born Marisa immigrated to the U.S. with her family during her teenage years. Her heart has always been torn between Argentina and the United States. Her long-term career was as a high school Spanish teacher at Gresham H.S. and Lincoln H.S. from where she retired. Throughout the teaching years, she constantly included Argentina’s art, music, films and literature since she also taught the higher levels.

Marisa started drawing and painting when she was 28 participating in three exhibits of Latin American Artists residing in Oregon. These were held at the World Trade Center in Portland as well one in Salem. She has also exhibited her watercolors at the now closed Onda Gallery on Alberta in 2005 and 2006. With her Argentine artist friends, she was part of an exhibit at Gallery Rene in Portland’s Old Town. She also participated in Partners of the Americas’ Art Exchange Oregon- Costa Rica in 2012 exhibiting with her fellow artists in Grecia, Costa Rica and upon returning to Portland at Director’s Park. Marisa exhibited three large wooden panels at the Milagro Theatre’s entry hall during 2013.

Her art studies include several classes taken at PCC (acrylics, watercolors, photography, creative writing), a sculpturing class and a drawing class at Portland Art Museum and several watercolor classes taken with Portland Parks and Recreation.

She became interested in murals when she was in her early 20’s while attending Portland State University and noticing the predominance of grey buildings becoming involved with a committee that wanted to beautify Portland by painting murals. Marisa was involved in the creation of a street mural in Sandy, Oregon, painted by Hispanic students under the mentorship of Mary Ealy, a local artist.

During a teaching exchange in La Plata, Argentina as a Fulbright teacher, in 1990, Marisa was so impressed by all the street art that upon returning to Portland she applied for a Rockefeller grant to photograph this type of art in the southern cone countries. The photographic slides she took were presented on March 18th 1992 at the Portland Art Museum and ere also used to teach a seminar at Lincoln High School.

Marisa’s paintings have been influenced by her Argentine background and culture and one of the best examples of this is a watercolor painting titled “They have been engaged for 15 years”. Her art has been published in Polyglot, a Lincoln High School literary and visual arts magazine, 2004 (Poems with art) and 1994 (artwork), We Share our World… Compartimos el mundo by Penny McDonald, 2016 (two paintings), and was included in Nosotros, the Hispanic People of Oregon, edited by Erasmo Gamboa and Carolyn M. Buan 1995.

MEGHAN PADDOCK FARRELL: ABSTRACT GARDEN

July 2019
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The Abstract Garden series was shot with a macro lens small enough to be placed inside the flowers to give the viewer a different perspective on life inside the garden. The series is a visual delight with colors and textures that amuse the imagination and satisfy the senses. Take a stroll through the rose garden after a rain storm or see what the workplace might be like for a bumblebee. The Abstract garden series is a whimsical, colorful celebration of the secret inner life of flowers. Above all, this series is a visual experience. Each image is an experience on its own, and when grouped with other images, they tell a story about patterns, ebbs and flows, and the cycle of life!

Meghan Paddock Farrell is a photographer and painter living in Portland, Oregon. She was born and raised on the salty coastline of Rhode Island, spent a decade working in sunny Los Angeles, and moved to the most beautiful state in the country (Oregon) ten years ago. She works as a photographer both in fine art and commercially. The Abstract Garden series was inspired in the fall of 2017 when times were at a new low, and she decided that rather than fall into despair, she would channel her energy into making art. Everyday there was something new to create. Inspiration was easily found out of doors in her own backyard. When she is not busy making art, working or getting her hands dirty in the garden she is enjoying life with her husband and their two wonderful children.

The images in this series are printed on a beautiful textured watercolor paper that absorbs the color and makes the images look closer to the texture of petals, and less like a glossy photograph. The prints have then been mounted to wood using Golden Soft Gel, and pressed. Once dry, a topcoat of Dorland’s Wax medium is added to seal the prints.

Meghan learned the skills of Photography and Painting at Rhode Island College where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography 2001. She has a love and creative drive for both mediums. While she leans more heavily on the photography side, she enjoys bridging the gap between the two when possible.

The vision behind this series of images is to showcase photographs in a way that is usually reserved for paintings. Meghan has been making art since she was in elementary school and never stopped. Her commercial work has been published in several beauty and fashion magazines and her retouching work has been published on the cover of Time magazine as well as in countless advertising campaigns globally. Her commercial work can be seen at www.meghanpaddockfarrell.com

UNCONVENTIONAL ROLLING ART: GRAFFITI CACOPHONY

May 2019
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For the month of May, Pearl Gallery & Framing will be showcasing a selection of photographs of graffiti by Lew Nunnelley. This selection of photographs, were made from graffiti images on railroad cars in the Willamette Valley.

“Although painting on railroad cars is considered vandalism by some, therefore painting or “tagging” should be done only with prior approval, many of the images here demonstrate significant artistic talent. Additionally, it is refreshing to see work by artists who are not concerned with the opinions of professional tastemakers in the art world. These can be enjoyed as temporary artistic, mobile works of art.” – Lew Nunnelley

Lew has been making photographs for many years. Like most photographers in the 35mm film era Lew has several shoeboxes of slides that take up space in his closet. About 20 years ago he decided to try to get better at making photographs so he began taking workshops with Galen Rowell, John Sexton, Henry Gilpin and others. Based on those workshops and his interests at that time he pursued traditional landscape photography. Lew still makes photographs with his trusty 4×5 view camera, however as time went on he began to develop an interest in observing and documenting the interaction of people with the environment – how people perceive and manipulate the environment. This more human oriented view of our environment led to his interest in photographing graffiti.

“Doing graffiti is different than most art. There is no career path. It’s usually anonymous. And the graffiti on railroad cars doesn’t usually stay put – it’s mobile, ephemeral and there is little hope of getting kudos from the professional tastemakers.”

The question Lew poses is “why would someone paint graffiti – especially on railroad cars when the railroad companies are usually not enthusiastic about the activity?” His conclusion is that there are several possible motivations of graffiti artists but the one, he believes, is that it is the creation of a work of art which livens up the train yard and hopefully is seen by many people, if only briefly. He feels it is a very unselfish and lighthearted way of altering the environment. In passing them, Lew notes that in his opinion, some of the “pieces” (as works of graffiti are called) exhibit a high degree of artistic talent.

I am not a professional photographer. I am a retired engineer. I do, however, wish to thank all the graffiti artists who have made my journey through life and place a little more colorful.” – Lew Nunnelley.

SCENES of SPRING: Various Artists Works

April 2019
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Join us this April and take a look at some wonderful Scenes of Spring! We will be showcasing various artists works which show the beauty of Spring through images, colors and overall feeling that will brighten up your days! The exhibition will feature some fantastic fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes. As well as Fine Art Prints and originals, we will be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These magnificent original antique prints date from the 1500s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand-colored copper engraving, hand-colored lithography, and black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become collectible antiques. Add a touch of Spring to your walls!

EPHEMERA
noun ephem·era i-ˈfe- mər-ə, -ˈfem- rə
definition: things that are important or useful for only a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value

March Mixed Bag Art Exhibition

Reception March 7th 5 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
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Show Runs March 7th – March 31st

Join us this March for our Mixed Bag Art Exhibition. We will be opening up a beautiful mixed bag of various styles of art by a variety of artists. The exhibition will featuring some fantastic fine art prints and originals including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes. As well as Fine Art Prints and originals, we will be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These magnificent original antique prints date from the 1500s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand-colored copper engraving, hand-colored lithography, and black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become collectible antiques. Don’t be afraid to open up this mixed bag of very creative art by various creative artists!

EPHEMERA
noun ephem·era i-ˈfe- mər-ə, -ˈfem- rə
definition: things that are important or useful for only a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value

FEBRUARY 2019 FINE ART PRINTS & EPHEMERA SALE
Reception February 7th 5 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
Show Runs February 7th – February 28th

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Join us this February for our Fine Art Prints & Ephemera Sale. We will be featuring some fantastic fine art prints including, but not limited to, landscapes, still lifes, abstracts and city scenes. As well as Fine Art Prints, we will be featuring a wide array of ephemera — genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These magnificent original antique prints date from the 1500s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand-colored copper engraving, hand-colored lithography, and black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become collectible antiques.

Come and find something for that special someone in February, or just treat yourself to some incredible art:
15% off selected Fine Art Prints & Ephemera through February 28th!

EPHEMERA

noun ephem·era i-ˈfe- mər-ə, -ˈfem- rə
definition: things that are important or useful for only a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value

Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. We offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or water color paper!!

We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color-manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, water color paper, photo paper and to frame anything to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

PATRICIA PONCIANO:

THE ETERNAL MAGIC OF OUR SOUL

Oil Paintings by Patricia Ponciano
Artist Reception January 3rd 5 – 9pm with live music
Show Runs January 3rd – February 4th
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We are excited to extend the show “The Eternal Magic of Our Soul” featuring Oil Paintings by Patricia Ponciano through the month of January. If you didn’t get a chance to come see this show in December please come on out this January and check out some amazing paintings!

“The mysterious magic of water lives within us. It is from which the spark of our conception shines, and back to which our soul reunites and becomes an eternal ebb and flow. We are merely manifestations of water possessing its creative force, magnificent power, gentle grace, dynamic emotion, and the depths of its mystery yet to be discovered.” – Patricia Ponciano

Patricia Ponciano is an internationally-known modern contemporary artist. Her paintings depict and reflect her journeys in to the realm of spiritual and transcendental consciousness and those representations that the human mind can conceive. Her works fuse a passionate love for what she calls “Freedom Form” depicting emotion and healing of the soul, through pure movement and color. Ponciano was first enlightened by the international language of art by the murals and paintings inside the ruins of “El Casino Del Agua Caliente” in Tijuana Mexico, at the age of six where her grand parents lived.

Ponciano paints passionately with vibrant colors and uses hidden meaning to draw the viewer in. An electric imagination — it’s immediately triggered when connecting with her work. Her paintings take you where your inner eye desires to go. When a viewer is engaged in an intimate connection with her work, Ponciano explains… “It is not surprising for me to witness an emotional viewer.” Ponciano considers herself a self-taught artist. Her paintings have been officially appraised for museums and collected by the most discriminating art collectors from around the globe.

CHRISTIAN J. BARRIOS: VIVIENDO MUERTO!

Inlaid Wood & Mixed Media
Artist Reception November 1st 5 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
Show Runs November 1st – December 3rd

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“Every time I start working on a new piece of art experiment with precious exotic wood and different materials to form my work, it becomes a new challenge for me and it motivates and inspires me to create new pieces.” -Christian J. Barrios

For the month of November we are excited for the show “Viviendo Muerto!” featuring the exceptional marquetry work of Christian Barrios! For this show Christian has created several large-scale inlaid wood pieces, photography and canvas paintings all specific to “The Day of the Dead”. These pieces embody the sentiment of his show title “Viviendo Muerto!”, which translates to: “What is dead is alive!”

Christian likes to focus on the importance of the visual art materials by learning about the types, the textures, where the materials came from, the history of this art and the material and the social implications of using these materials. Some wood is from the 1800s and that tree does not exist anymore, but it is still here in a different form. There is wood which came from Venezuela but why is it this color? It is this color because it came from a jungle a tropical place. Understanding the history, origin materials and how the origin affects its look and texture continues to intrigue Christian. He works in the mediums of photography, painting, marquetry (inlaid wood) and paper mache (3D).

Christian J. Barrios was born in Mexico City where he grew up in a traditional household, when he was very young he learned the art of ceramic painting and talavera as a family business. At the age of 16 he moved to the United States, and years later he met Gene Zanni who was a marquetry artist. Christian was his apprentice for 7 years and learned a great deal about marquetry and how the beautiful types of inlaid wood can create wonderful pictures. Christian also learned visual arts like acrylics and paper mache at this same time. Christian likes photography as well and he is always finding a way to enjoy different views of life through art to create new pieces.

He works in Oregon and Washington and has been featured in exhibitions as part of Latino Art Now at Portland Art Museum 2012, Portland State University 2012, Concientizate music, art and culture festival 2013 and 2014, Vancouver art walk 2013, Latin artists eXchange Portland 5 Antoinette Hatfield hall 2014 and 2015, The Dalles Art center, Linn Benton Community College SSH Gallery, Collins Gallery Multnomah county gallery, 360 gallery Vancouver, WA 2016, Armory gallery Seattle center 2016, and Concordia university 2017. He took part in the recology Glean residency and his work can be found in private collections in Mexico, Colombia, California and many more in Washington and Oregon including a mural at Oregon State University. He has worked at many organizations including The Right Brain Initiative and Latin network and he is an active member of Ideal PDX.

Christian J. Barrios: Past, Future & Beginning

Inlaid Wood and Mixed Media
Artist Reception October 4th 6 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
Show Runs October 4th – October 30
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Christian likes to focus on the importance of the visual art materials by learning about the types, the textures, where the materials came from, the history of this art and the material and the social implications of using these materials. Some wood is from the 1800s and that tree does not exist anymore, but it is still here in a different form. There is wood which came from Venezuela but why is it this color? It is this color because it came from a jungle a tropical place. Understanding the history, origin of the materials and how the origin affects its look and texture continues to intrigue Christian. He works in the mediums of photography, painting, marquetry (inlaid wood) and paper mache (3D). This show entitled Past, Future & Beginning brings together a variety of Christians works including inlaid wood and mixed media.

VERONICA ARQUILEVICH GUZMAN: OCEANS
Oil Layered With Pigmented Encaustic

Artist Reception September 6th 5 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
Show Runs September 6th – October 1st
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“My intricate fascination for the ocean comes from the idea of studying the waves, the movement of them and the natural healing this brings.”
–Veronica Arquilevich Guzman

This show entitled Oceans is a representation of the rich and deep beauty that Veronica sees and feels within the ocean. One of Veronica’s first ocean paintings she ever did was around the year 2000 after seeing a video in IMAX Theater about life in the oceans. After deciding she was not going to become a surfer to be near the ocean, she started analyzing waves, colors and movements. First she analyzed them on a screen, then in real life by taking several visits to the ocean. Veronica has never been tied to a specific medium, but rather many different art mediums, including, but not limited to, watercolors, oil, egg tempura, encaustic, ceramics, printmaking, collage, and papier maché . The various art mediums that she works in give her the opportunity to express the specific texture, color or movement that she wants to represent. She started in art with encaustic, but has since also implemented the use of oils as well, because on specific scenes, using just encaustic or oil do not provide the final results that create the look and feeling she is trying to evoke through her art.

Veronica starts with oil as a base and then prepares the encaustic from scratch (using an old recipe used by Michelangelo) and applies layers of this encaustic wax mixed with pigment, firing the layers with a torch or a hot gun in between giving them a very rich and deep look that evokes the true feeling of Oceans.

“When I’m creating art, I travel with my mind to the places that inspired that piece in my life; I remember the country, the street, the people, what did they say, the smell, the flavors and the colors. For me my art is what I am. My very deep life experiences and heritage and that is why I like to recreate that moment I want to come back to that instant in my life for a moment in the quietness of my studio and live it again. I want the viewer to feel, see the story behind the colors of my art materials, even if is just an “alebrije” looking armadillo, water scene, fish in a pound, or a street scene, there is always something to discover.” -Veronica Arquilevich Guzman

Ceramics has been Veronica’s main medium, but she also expresses creativity in many other art mediums. Her father, who was a biologist with a deep love of nature, encouraged her to follow her heart in whatever direction she envisioned. She has followed the wisdom of her heart ever since. Although she grew up in Mexico she has lived in more places than most people have visited in their lifetime. These countries include China, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, Italy and now the United States.

She majored in graphic design at University Autonoma de Guadalajara in Guadalajara, México and has continued her studies in all the places she has lived. Veronica started with an interest in painting and design, but branched into ceramics while living in Malaysia. Ceramics has been one of her major interests ever since and more recently oil and encaustic painting.

HEIDI MARIE BALMACEDA: NATIVE METALS

Metallic acrylic paints layered with metal leaf by Heidi Marie Balmaceda
Artist Reception First Thursday, August 2nd 5 – 9 p.m. (With Live Music)
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Show Runs August 2nd – September 3rd

Heidi Marie Balmaceda is an artist from Portland, Oregon. She studied at Portland State University and has lived in the area for the last 30 years. She has been profiled in Oregon Home Magazine, featured in El Hispanic News and had an article in PDXmagazine. Her current pieces are metallic acrylic paints layered with metal leaf pieces. It is a technique she developed over the last few years. Due to the nature of the materials used and their application, no two works are ever alike. Unique in their patterns of heated foils and designs, they change as the light around them changes, from softness and depth to brilliant flashes. As a little girl she spent time with her family in Chile and Columbia. Her Latin heritage lends itself to vibrant and rich colors in her artwork.

A Native Metal is any metal or alloy that is found existing in its natural form in the Earth. These selections of Heidi’s work all exhibit a version of a native metal representing some other natural element. Trees and waves leafed in golden and bright metal sheets; cut and burned into shapes reminiscent of landscape portraits. Rolling hills are given layers of texture by using shredded metal leaf. Solid lines of silver cut through ocean waves and anemones. Birch Trees shimmer in light reflecting from their silver trunks, interrupted with shredded foil that pushes into the limbs of these delicate branches.

The intense shimmer of colors of some backgrounds only made sense to her because it lifted the brilliance of the metal even more; while also reflecting some of the heat-changed colors of the metal leaf. Pops of blues, greens, reds and purples are highlighted by using the bright purples and blues in those backgrounds. Heidi likes the idea of using a medium like Metal Leaf which is not usually interpreted as Natural. It appears as a contradiction but in reality, it is not.

“Painting and creating art is what brings me the most pleasure. I enjoy the process of discovering how to bring my vision to life in whatever medium that I am working in. Right now, these metal leaf on canvas pieces inspire my need for texture and light. I layer and layer until the movement is just right. The fact that there is no way to copy or translate my work is perfectly fine with me. I will continue to play, experiment and work in new mediums, hoping to push and stretch myself to new areas. My latest addition to the metal leaf series involves thickening the acrylic paint to add an additional movement in the color.” – Heidi Marie Balmaceda

Music & Emotions
Paintings by Martin B. Anderson

July 2018

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“My artwork has been about people for most of my life. I go out and listen to music often & sometimes make sketches & take photos. I use these as source material for my paintings.” – Martin Anderson

The subject of Martin’s art is people. He works in acrylics, charcoal, pastel & mixed media. When he first started his art he worked in a completely abstract way (non-objective). Then he discovered the surreal method of finding his subject in the tool marks of his media (brush marks in painting), like seeing a subject in the clouds in the sky. This fascinated Martin and his subject usually turned out to be people. Because he had always lived in the city, this should not have been a surprise, but because this surreal method was so hard to manage subject wise, and he wanted to cover some human topics that he had feelings for, or was fascinated by, he abandoned most of this surreal method. Martin started using sketches & photos along with some accidental methods in his drawings & paintings. All Martin’s work has abstract, surreal and expressive elements in it. Much like Picasso he is more interested in line and shape then color but does feel that color has an expressive feeling.

“Some of my favorite subjects are workers, musicians, street scenes. “ – Martin Anderson

Tami Gaston: Departure
Acrylic Paintings by Tami Gaston

May – June 2018

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“Approaching a blank canvas is exciting and very freeing of the mind. It’s a way of expressing oneself through color and texture. There are no rules and I am free to paint whatever my mood inspires me to paint.” — Tami Gaston

Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature the Acrylic paintings of Tami Gaston. Tami is a native Oregonian and has been compelled to create since early childhood through various creative mediums — currently, it has been through abstract acrylic painting.

Currently she is developing a cohesive line of home goods, pillows, prints and accessories that have a touch of colorful painterly whimsy. “Painting has soothed my soul and blessed me with many opportunities that I never imagined possible.” Tami’s paintings have been on display at various businesses in the Portland area, and she’s actively working on commissioned paintings. She works full time as a graphic designer and freelance artist.

“The Departure collection is about a journey to a place out of this world – to Heaven. It was inspired by the recent death of a friend as well as others in the past several years. It portrays the release and happiness one must feel upon departing and entering into a new realm – an eternal one called Heaven.” – Tami Gaston

Tekoah Buchanan: A RETROPECTIVE ?

April 2018

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“There is a constant moving vision for me to continue to create something new, yet reflective of the past, timeless.” – Tekoah Buchanan

Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature a retrospective of Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning photographic images of trains, bridges, ships, regional waterways, and local street scenes. Buchanan gives us his interpretation of the world around us in a positive light, a collection of images curated to represent our vitality amidst constantly changing architecture, capturing those acute moments that give him joy. This collection of images reveals Buchanan’s lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world in gentle tones of blue, warm hues of gray, and colors that pop off the substrate. Buchanan’s photographic images have a hand-colored look.

Convergent Landscapes: Acrylic Paintings by Tricia R. Evenson

February – March 2018

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Held over through March by popular demand – Convergent Landscapes, acrylic paintings by Tricia Evenson. Join us to celebrate this amazing body of work with refreshments and live jazz First Thursday, or stop by in March to take home one of these stunning paintings!

Convergent Landscapes is a compilation of work inspired by Evenson’s love of the outdoors, its beckoning serenity as well as its hostility and frailty, paradoxes and contrasts.

“I am continually finding resonance with and passion for the abstract and expressive use of texture, color and light. I find myself compelled towards the inclusion of the horizon line, woven into the natural design and unconstrained abstraction of the landscape where water and land meet sky and the hours of the day become self evident and resonant. Through the fluid and unbound process of creating these perspectives, I am unequivocally exploring and expressing themes within myself; the longing for freedom from control, finding calmness within our chaotic world, and above all sharing my love and deep respect for our vulnerable earth.” Tricia R. Evenson

Tricia Evenson has been an artist and designer for the greater portion of her life. Evenson was an Art Studio major at the University of California, Santa Barbara for two years, and later received her BFA with honors from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1985. For the past 30+ years, Evenson has worked professionally as a graphic designer, creating award winning brands, print collateral, packaging and digital design for companies large and small. Most recently she has been shifting her creative energies to immerse herself into the world of fine art painting. Primarily painting with acrylic on canvas, she generates her art spontaneously and without conscious reasoning, usually without a vision of what it will be once complete. Evenson’s paintings are extemporaneous expressions of the energy that is flowing through her in the moment and in her process.

Over the decades, Tricia has served as Creative Director and Designer for such notable clients as Infiniti, Nissan, USC, UCLA, The Getty Center, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Tournament of Roses and Disney, to name a few. She has also received awards from internationally recognized design organizations in addition to being featured in several well-respected design publications. In addition to working as a Designer and Creative Director at acclaimed design firms in the Los Angeles area, Tricia owned and operated her own design studio, Treehouse Design, for nearly a decade. In 2008, Tricia returned to EDG to forge a more dynamic partnership with her husband, CEO, Stan Evenson, having stepped into the role of President and Creative Director of Evenson Design Group. As President, Tricia continues to serve in the many functions that her years of experience have given her as well as the daily business operations of the company.

NOSTALGIA: An Art Retrospective

Featuring Originals & Prints From Past to Present
December 2017 – January 2018

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Join us in December and January to view some great originals and prints from past to present available for purchase during this holiday season. Come and see a wide selection of works from local and regional artist as well as nostalgic maps, antique prints, and more. Complete your holiday shopping with unique gifts and top-of-the-line custom picture framing.

Pearl Gallery & Framing will exceed your expectations every time you visit us for your custom framing needs. No job is too small or too large, too simple or too complex. We help you select the best options that are “just right” for your art piece. We have endless ideas and the technical expertise to implement them, and a large selection of mats, fillets and frames to showcase your art. We custom build shadow boxes and cases, and we have the best glazing options available, from plexi to museum glass.

BRIDGES

Paintings & Prints by Christopher Mooney
October – November 2017

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For the month of October Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to showcase BRIDGES, an exhibition of the work of Christopher Mooney. Mooney has made substantial contributions to the visual documentation of urban landmarks in Portland. As a painter of Oregon’s transportation architecture, Mooney reveals Portland as a city of rivers and bridges, showcasing the character, function and form of these icons. He is fascinated by the way in which geometric shapes of steel girders frame the landscape of the city.

People cross bridges every day by foot, bike, automobile and train and with each new crossing we are able to witness the powerful engineering achievements these feats of architecture represent. The bridges of Portland improve commerce, connect communities, and unite the city. Mooney honors bridges by painting them from unusual points of view, giving them dramatic perspectives, rendering them both realistic and abstract. Light plays an important role in his paintings, illuminating structures, casting shadows, and encouraging viewers to see bridges in new ways, directing our attention to details that we might not otherwise observe.

Mooney has a BFA in illustration from Parson’s School of Design, New York, New York. His work has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions. He is a member of Portland Open Studios and has won several awards for his painting. His work, cityscape was used as the cover and poster publicizing the book, Rental Sales Gallery, Portland Art Museum, The First 50 Years, in 2009. His work has been featured in Hawthorne Bridge, Celebrating 100 Years in Art and Words, a 2010 calendar supporting the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial Celebration. He continues to gain notoriety for his paintings. We are proud to feature this local artist; BRIDGES will surely transport you!

Expression of Female Embodiment

By Tamae Frame, Kumi Yabuuchi, and Momoko Okada
September 2017

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Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to showcase the artwork of Tamae Frame, Kumi Yabuuchi, and Momoko Okada for the month of September! This show will feature three Japanese-born women who use female embodiment as subject matter within their work. All nature, plants, animals, and humans, share the same feminine imagery. Various ways of expressing it with different materials and processes will enhance the deep meaning of the feminine.

Tamae Frame uses clay to create soft and calming figures, yet shows female strength within them. She creates figurative ceramic sculptures. Using the female figure as her primary subject, she portrays various spiritual and psychological states in her work. Tamae makes hollow figures in clay with her hands and a few simple tools. She attempts to re-create vital forms that come up from within her subconscious and are further induced by the tactile sensation of the clay. Later she applies combinations of glazes and under glazes on the pieces and fires them multiple times in her electric kiln, until she achieves surfaces that resonate with her concepts.

Kumi Yabuuchi produces her idea about inner and outer body connection by using metal and thread to intertwine those two materials. Kumi is a from Nara prefecture and enjoys hammering metal to create body image. She studied at Kanazawa College of Arts in Japan and holds doctorate degree in metalsmithing. Her mixed-media series “inter-body” consists of hammered metal and embroidery techniques to express her idea about inner and outer body connection by weaving thread through metal. She hopes to show the mystic and aesthetic body images through her work.

Momoko Okada expresses maternal energy resonant with the movement of hair and roots using soft pastels. Embrace the female body, mind, and nature. Momoko Okada is a Japanese artist studied in US, UK, and Japan. She holds MFA from Kanazawa College of Art, Japan, and Bowling Green State University. Her work consists of imagery of organic life forms in both drawings and sculptures. She has been showing her work around the world and won various awards. Her work can be seen on “500 Metal Vessels” or on her website www.okadamomoko.com.

“Trees are objects of my veneration, and imagery: their power of growth, and the persistent energy of their roots, inspires me to create. Taking nature as my guide, I feel responsible for contributing my creation to transform this precious place, just as nature gives and accepts effortlessly.” — Momoko Okada

MARY FRAN ANDERSON: Visions in Color
Watercolor Paintings by Mary Fran Anderson

August 2017

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Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mary Fran moved to Oregon over twenty years ago, long enough to fully absorb the Northwest landscape. She has had a notable career in special education for the visually impaired. Her art background is mainly self-taught with many classes and workshops with artists of renown, including a memorable 5-day workshop with Frank Webb in Bend, Oregon, who intrigued his students with the study of colorful and interconnected positive and negative shapes. She also took classes from Gene Gill, a notable Oregon artist who has since passed away.

Mary Fran will delight you with her subject matter which includes landscapes inspired by the Northwest and other paintings with capture the beauty in the world around us. Water and the play of light and reflection on it are a recurring favorite theme in Mary Fran’s paintings and her artwork makes you think of your own favorite memories of boats and otherwise splashy places.

A spirit of joyfulness floods her works, and if a human form is part of the composition, it inhabits the space with a quiet reflection all its own. If you ask her why she paints, she will tell you that “Making art fills some need in me that isn’t fulfilled in any other way. It has been like this since childhood.”

Mary Fran is an active member and award winner of the Watercolor Society of Oregon and the Keizer Art Association. She is also an active member of Oregon Society of Artists, and WOW (Wild Over Watercolor).

Her recent body of work titled “Visions in Color” is a collection of paintings with emphasis on light and color.

Circles of Life: Acrylic Paintings by Tami Gaston

July 2017
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For the month of July, Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature the Acrylic paintings of Tami Gaston. Tami is a native Oregonian and has been compelled to create since early childhood through various creative mediums — currently, it has been through abstract acrylic painting.

Shortly after her mother passed away from cancer, Tami realized that life goes by quickly and she decided to return to school. Being a creative person and having a passion for package design, Tami enrolled in a Graphic Design program. During the program she became tired of digitally designing and switched to Visual Arts/Painting. Painting opened up a whole new world for her, and she soon discovered a love for abstract painting with bright and vibrant colors. After attending Surtex, a surface design trade show in New York, Tami soon realized that she could combine her love of graphic design and painting into textile design. Currently she is developing a cohesive line of home goods, pillows, prints and accessories that have a touch of colorful painterly whimsy. “Painting has soothed my soul and blessed me with many opportunities that I never imagined possible.” Tami’s paintings have been on display at various businesses in the Portland area, and she’s actively working on commissioned paintings. She works full time as a graphic designer and freelance artist.

“The thought and inspiration for this body of work, titled Circles of Life, is based on everything we experience in life; love, loss, grief, joy and many other emotions. It also represents a celebration of life and thankfulness to our Creator.”

CHRISTIAN GABRIEL : The Garden Collection

Acrylic Paintings by Christian Gabriel (NEW WORK ADDED!)
June 2017

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“Love saved my life. I looked everywhere to find it, but I finally found it in myself. We never know how much longer we have on this earth. Tomorrow was never promised. Be yourself, be GREAT!” – Christian Gabriel

Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature Christian Gabriel’s paintings. Christian Gabriel is an American artist born in Amityville, NY in 1984. Being a war veteran who struggled with PTSD, he found his outlet through painting. It was after going to local art shows that he became inspired & his monochromatic world turned colorful, a world where you can do anything or be anyone. Christian started painting in 2007. In 2010 he opened Christian Gabriel Art, a fine art studio that specializes in traditional commissions as well as digital design. He studied Media Arts & Animation at the Art Institute of Las Vegas where he earned his Bachelors in 2013.

After college, Christian gained professional experience working at a high volume fine art production company. In 2017 Christian relocated to Portland where he was invited to join the advisory committee for The Oregon Society of Artists. Gabriel’s most recent addition, “The Garden Collection”, was created as a symbol of growth & new beginnings. Christian uses bright and vibrant colors that represent his personality. His flower people imply movement whether they are dancing or simply meditating. The painting “One Mind, One Garden” was featured in an episode of the IFC hit TV series Portlandia (2017).

industek visions ? : 35mm

A Collection of Hand Printed Photographs from 35mm Film
by Tekoah Buchanan
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April 2017

“There is a constant moving vision for me to continue to create something new, yet reflective of the past, timeless.” – Tekoah Buchanan

Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature Tekoah Buchanan’s photographic images from 35mm film. Buchanan gives us his interpretation of the world around us in a positive light, a collection of images curated to represent our vitality amidst constantly changing architecture, capturing those acute moments that give him joy. This collection of images was shot in 35mm film and hand printed on fiber paper by Buchanan. Many of these prints were hand tinted, toned and hand colored. The exhibit 35mm is a window into Buchanan’s quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world in gentle tones of blue, warm hues of gray, copper and sepia.

Eliat Avivi: Fragments in Sight

March 2nd 5 – 9pm. 1st Thursday Artist Reception (With Live Cuban Music)
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Exhibited March 2nd – April 3rd

Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to exhibit the new work of Eliat Avivi. Eliat (Ellie) Avivi was born in Paris, France. She grew up in France, Iran, Turkey, Israel and The Netherlands. She describes creating art as a substantial force in her life. The architecture, landscapes, culture and people of the various countries where she has lived and traveled inform her work to this day.

Ellie has been drawing and painting for as long as she can remember and describes herself as self-taught. She is intrigued and inspired by color, form and the relationships between them. Ellie’s vibrant colors and bold forms have become her trademark. She uses focus and detachment in order to let her paintings become what they are meant to be. Ellie often uses the word “meditation” to describe her process.

For the past sixteen years Ellie has been working almost exclusively with acrylics on canvas. In 2014, she moved to the United States. Ellie is an actively working artist and a juried member of the Sequoia Gallery and Studios in Hillsboro, Oregon. Ellie has shown her work in a variety of venues including the Sequoia Gallery, Summa, and the Hart Gallery. Ellie’s art is currently on display at the Intel Jones Farm Campus. Ellie creates from Studio #10 @ Sequoia Gallery and Studios.

We are excited to showcase her new body of work titled “Fragments In Sight” which is a collection of paintings unified by a passion for exploring the relationship between color, form and negative space. The paintings are created by composing complete visual images out of exposed constituent parts. Each “tile” in these paintings is a crafted whole unto itself and each is a necessary and integral part of the finished painting. The process for creating these paintings is painstaking, meticulous and despite the illusion of straight lines and right-angles, the process is anti-linear. Many of these paintings are created by drippings of water which form the essential grid from which the painting emerges.

From the artist:

“I start out by painting random tiles, and carefully choosing which color best fits its neighbors. Each tile is painted with many layers of color to achieve a depth and accuracy of color in place. I determine each color for neighboring tiles in a way that I feel is harmonic but which also creates visual tension. These pieces are explicitly created to evoke the feeling of a whole which is made up of many pieces. As in life, these paintings bring together all the little bits and pieces which allow us to see the whole picture.”

Artist Statement:

“Painting is a necessary expression of my soul. I have been compelled to draw and paint since I was a young child. I am thankful for having this ability to express myself. Painting soothes and heals my soul. I honestly do not think I could live without it.

Approaching an empty canvas is always an exciting and somewhat frightening experience for me. I find my brush strokes and feel the colors that can convey the moods of my heart. There is a very real inner dialogue between my soul and the paints; between my emotions and color. The emerging painting and my artistic process each informs and changes the other as the painting comes alive. I work in many layers of color which directly represent the shifting layers of thought and emotion that slowly coalesce in a finished painting.

I like to find combinations of colors that are thrilling and exciting to me. I celebrate color and love to share my passion for color and shape with the viewer. My art explores the effect that colors have on our mood and wellbeing. My paintings are a visual expression of my emotion and perspective. I strive to create paintings where color and image are felt by the viewer without any need to think or explain. My paintings are indeed my Acrylic Moods.”

Mason Parker: Small Cities & Towns of Oregon

Exhibited February 2017
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Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to exhibit the work of Mason Parker, whose whimsical depictions capture local history and celebrate cityscapes and scenes from nature. Parker’s images are drawn in pen and ink and then hand-colored with watercolors.

We are proud to present Parker’s newest series entitled Small Cities and Towns of Oregon. This series represents his travels back to places he found while art was not on his mind. Some were on two lane highways that were the only roads that connected them, often in towns where their main industries had moved out and left behind rustic looking buildings and iron bridges.

Mason Parker moved to Portland in 2007 from Pioneer Valley farm country in Massachusetts. This was the first time he had ever lived in a city or near trains and was able to see a variety of activity at many intersections which inspired him greatly.

Parker prefers his depictions to be as accurate as possible but tones down or eliminates obstructions and occasionally turns the scene back in time to how he first remembered it to reveal the beauty he sees. His goal is to keep it professional enough to be easily recognizable by local residents but fun enough to not look like a photo. He also believes that the surrounding elements are equally as important as the main subject in his paintings.

The son of two librarians, Parker was immersed in books, particularly nature guides and children’s books, and depictions of architecture melding with nature, particularly the castle in the movie, The Dark Crystal. His representations of our world reflect this love of stories and storytelling. Parker has illustrated two children’s books, Althea’s Window Box and the Land of the Slumber, by Jason Britsas.

From the artist:

“From my very beginning, while as a student of living masters James Hendricks and Richard Yarde at Umass Amherst, I have done all my paintings plein-aire. But, sometimes elements in a scene change fast, so I take a photo anyway, just in case I need help rendering it to how I first remembered it. I get out a sheet of standard 140# hot press paper and make sure I pencil in my reference point parts small enough so I have enough space for everything I want to put in, then ink the scene, and the watercolor is added last. This method allows me to get the kind of detail I want and the rooty, fairy tale look that I like, much like my favorite album covers that were done by artists like Rodney Matthews and Dan Seagrave. Over time though, I have given my requirements for realism slightly less importance than the overall essence more.”

PORTLAND, OR – Portland Themed Artwork

Exhibited December 2016 and January 2017
Celebrating art of, from and/or about Portland, OR. We have a selection of artworks that share the theme of Portland, OR, plus nostalgic maps, antique prints, jewelry, and more. We offer unique gifts and top-of-the-line custom picture framing. New work added for January — original watercolors by Mason Parker, acrylic paintings by William Hernandez, handmade jewelry by Momoko Okada, and Portland themed Ephemera. We showcase work from a variety of our local artists — Chris Haberman, Lisa Manning, Tekoah Buchanan, Mason Parker, Athena Salvador, Gary Houston and Kelly Williams, to mention a few — and time periods that have something to do with Portland, OR. We have many artworks of bridges and local scenes from all around the Portland, OR area.

Celebrating the promise of the New Year & reflect on Portland, OR., we are showing a variety of original art by local artists as well as our newest selection of genuine antique prints and maps, etchings, (many of them hand colored) all having to do Portland, OR. Many landscape scenes, bridges, street scenes from the past and present. We will also have on hand a few of our fine art Giclee reproductions of select images (many of them regional), including historical maps street scenes of Portland,OR. These magnificent original antique prints range from the 1600s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand colored copper engraving, hand colored lithography, black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become instant collectible antiques. Giclees are printed on canvas by Pearl Printing, hand-stretched to give them a timeless look — ready to hang on the wall! Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or water color paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color-manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, water color paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office.

Portland is Oregon’s largest city and sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, in the shadow of Mount Hood. Portland is known for its parks, bridges and bicycle paths, as well as for its eco-friendliness and its microbreweries and coffeehouses. Iconic Washington Park encompasses sites from the formal Japanese Garden to Oregon Zoo and its railway. The city hosts thriving art, theater and music scenes.

Lift Urban PDX

Thanks to everyone who donated to Lift Urban Portland in November/December 2016. With your help, we helped reduce hunger and improve the lives of low-income residents of Northwest and downtown Portland.

Shop Hop

Thanks to those who participated in the Slabtown neighborhood shop hop. Winners of the prize baskets full of local goods were announced Dec 22; see the Slabtown Facebook page for more local news.

EPHEMERA

Exhibited November 2016

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EPHEMERA
noun ephem·era i-ˈfe- mər-ə, -ˈfem- rə
definition: things that are important or useful for only a short time: items that were not meant to have lasting value

Join us this November to see our newest selection of genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards (many of them regional), including historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These magnificent original antique prints range from the 1500s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand colored copper engraving, hand colored lithography, black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become instant collectible antiques.

In November, we will have a bin for your donations to Lift Urban Portland – Please donate to help reduce hunger and improve the lives of low-income residents of Northwest and downtown Portland: Most Needed Items

Ghosts, Ghouls & Otherworldly Things
A Myriad of Seasonal Art

Exhibited October 2016
Map to Pearl Gallery & Framing in the New York Building – see us in Suite 404
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Join us Oct. 6th 5-9 p.m. for seasonal art, soothing music, and tasty beverages — wine, beer thanks to Deschutes Brewing, and treats — at our new location in the New York Building at 22nd and York, #Slabtown!

For October, we are showcasing fun art with a holiday twist, celebrating spooky creatures, fictional characters, historic images of Portland’s origins and otherworldly things to enhance our All Hallows’ Eve experience.

This curated show features Chris Haberman, Tyler Smith Owings, Mario Robert III and other artists, plus vintage prints collected through the ages.

Learn More about Chris Haberman on Oregon Art Beat

We gave away two tickets to Little Shop of Horrors at Portland Center Stage — thank you for your entries into the contest!

Buzz Siler: Moving Through Water and Other Flights of Fancy

Exhibited September 2016

Map to Pearl Gallery & Framing in the New York Building – see us in Suite 404
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Artist, Inventor, Entertainer, and Entrepreneur, Buzz Siler joins Pearl Gallery & Framing for September 2016 to exhibit his amazing abstract impressionist paintings. We will have some original paintings and also archival quality prints of Siler’s work to showcase. Please join us, and add a piece of his art to your collection. Siler has shown in New York, Paris, and we are privileged to share his unique body of work in this curated collection, “Moving Through Water and Other Flights of Fancy” — a show to be remembered.

I paint with the purpose of trying not to show a brush stroke. And so I want to have that very liquid feel, almost as if the paint laid itself down on the canvas rather than me putting it on the canvas. Everything I do in splashing the water against it, in making it so thick it runs all over the place, and letting the different colors blend with each other naturally rather than me trying to mix them ahead of time and put them on the canvas—I try to do it on the canvas itself and let those paints mix in a very liquid way. That gives me that… free form, flowing motion. — Buzz Siler

GRAND OPENING AT OUR NEW LOCATION

Pearl Gallery & Framing has relocated to the New York Building!

Beer & Wine Reception with Live Cuban Music: 1st Thursday August 4th, 6 – 9 p.m.

PEARL GALLERY & FRAMING
2250 NW 22nd Ave. Suite 404
Portland, OR 97210

Visit our new location with ample free covered parking — there will be cake.
The New York building, situated between NW 21st Avenue and NW 22nd Avenue, is a short walk or bike ride to NW 23rd, only 1.5 miles from downtown, accessible by bus or streetcar; Hwy 30 and I-405 make it easily accessible.
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Map to New Location

Pearl Gallery & Framing offers top-quality custom picture framing & showcases art:

Featuring emerging, established, regional and international artists
Offering antique prints, a wide selection of images, Bridgetown images spanning 100 years
Extensive selection of mats, including fabric-wrapped, linen, suede and more
Options for archival preservation and several glazing options, from plexi to museum glass
Custom mounting options for any object; custom built shadow boxes, cases and frames
Family-friendly, serving individuals, designers, artists, and businesses
Endless ideas and the technical expertise to implement them
Specializing in completing large orders for companies
Family-owned, offering museum-quality custom picture framing; we ship anywhere

Original Art • Fine Art Prints • Hand Blown Glass Ornaments • Jewelry • Soy Candles • Tiles • and more

Visual Harmony
Paintings by Farooq Hassan
Photography by Donn Anning Jones

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Beer & Wine Reception
1st Thursday June 2nd, 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibited through July 5, 2016

We are pleased to showcase the work of Farooq Hassan and Donn Anning Jones for the month of June.

Over the course of 50 years, Farooq built a standing as a national and internationally renowned Iraqi artist whose work has hung in galleries in London, Amman, Basrah and Baghdad. He designed over 80 stamps for the Iraqi post office.

In 2003, when hostile forces looted and stripped Baghdad’s National Art Museum, Hassan lost 10 of his large paintings on display there.

His daughter reported for the Washington Post, and she urged her family to leave Iraq. “At the beginning my father and mother, they are not convinced about coming [to the United States],” says Dalia Altameemi. “Because ‘we have our fame, we have our house, we have our history, and now we will lose everything.’ ”

In 2010, at age 71, Hassan and his wife, Haifa did follow their daughter to the United States. And they did lose everything. They have made a new life for themselves in a modest, two-bedroom apartment in Beaverton. “It’s small, but my wife’s heart is very big,” says Hassan.

Hassan took up his paint and brushes, and turned his tiny kitchen into a studio.

“Colors are like music … there are many tones. I’m like a composer who writes a piece of music. There is harmony and contrast. When I see an empty space, I put something to cover that emptiness.” ~ Farooq Hassan

Donn Anning Jones discovered photography when he was 11. A family friend had stopped by one night and gave him a camera, a Ricoh 500. Jones began photographing everything around him and after a few days he put film in the camera and than things really took off! By the age of 13, he built a very basic darkroom in his closet and began to print his images.

“Photography articulates the significant but fleeting moments of daily life in shapes and shades, that when balanced, refresh the soul as much as music or silence or love.”
-Donn Anning Jones

Photography became a process of reflection to Jones in many respects. It had heightened his sense of life passing. Jones learned that one could never re-photograph something. If an image were to be re-done, it had to be seen new. Even the most static objects like buildings or streets changed day to day and even hour to hour. The light, the objects around them, the sky, clouds — everything is moving all the time and opportunities never remain the same.

Jones began to reflect on the nature of creativity in the context of an infinite creation. In essence he had observed that really we create nothing! More accurately, we see life around us and articulate what we find relevant but we borrow everything; the shapes, the colors, the feel. Art is at its best when it connects with the viewer, when it articulates experiences that are common to the human soul. In a world of 7 billion people facing complex but common challenges, self-expression is narcissistic.

“When the elements of an image come together and the viewer can resonate with that harmony and say, “yes, that is relevant to my life as well”, I feel I have succeeded in contributing something worthwhile.” Donn Anning Jones

Jones’s new work of Coastal Abstracts, are the result of another evolution in his image-making process. The majority of his work is black and white but at times, the qualities that black and white usually does so well, the geometry, surface textures, and juxtaposition of tone, are better rendered in color. These images are his response to the incredible quality of the Oregon Coast.

Roam Far & Wide
New Work by Laura Walker Scott

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Beer & Wine Reception
1st Thursday May 5th, 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibited through May 31, 2016

We are pleased to showcase the newest work of Portland-based artist Laura Walker Scott, whose vibrant chalk pastels light up our hearts and warm our senses. She has most recently traveled through Greece and her new work is very much a reflection of her journey. Come and see this beautiful new work!

Walker Scott has developed a unique style that is fresh and surprising. Her subjects include starry skies, juicy fruit, flowers and oceans she has encountered through her travels as well as more conceptual pieces illustrating topics such as heartbreak and joy. Her bold style has captured the attention and praise of collectors far and wide.

An unlikely path led Laura to her current passion. Working as a grocery clerk, she was often recruited to make chalkboard signs. Although she had never drawn before, over time her confidence grew and she added small sketches to the signs. Her skills improved and creating chalkboard signage became her full-time job. Five years later, Laura pursued her passion fully and became the chalk pastel artist that collectors know and love.

Laura started drawing in 2005 at the age of 35. Drawing has helped her develop a deeper spirituality. “I’ve found that creating something out of nothing is an exercise in discipline and prayer. Allowing the art to ‘Flow’ requires surrender and faith and hope. Once completed, letting it go reminds me that everything is transient.” Walker Scott loves color and vacillates between simplicity and complication in her themes. Her projects usually start with the need to see certain colors and then the subject matter follows. She likes Pastels because they allow for spontaneity and quick changes. “I am satisfied with a piece when the colors dazzle my eyes and the composition flows.”

Portland & Beyond
An Exhibition by Chris Haberman

Beer & Wine Reception
1st Thursday April 7th, 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibited through May 3, 2016

Haberman Exhibit HELD OVER from March– new pieces added for April.

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Portland & Beyond is the latest exhibition by Chris Haberman, our local treasure and friend to many Portlanders. Haberman creates folk art on found objects, reflecting the complexity of our culture.

Sam Adams has said that Chris Haberman is the hardest working artist in Portland. Haberman has been featured in Juxtapoz Magazine, the Oregon Art Annual, countless other exhibits, and he has been featured on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Art Beat.

Chris Haberman is a working painter, writer, muralist, curator and musician, native to Portland, Oregon. Aside from painting, he has published poetry, journalism and fiction; being awarded the Tom Doulis Fiction award, the Wilma Morrison award for excellence in journalism from Portland State University and is a lifetime member to the Academy of American Poets.

All of Chris Haberman’s artwork is created from recycled objects, found material from the streets and alleyways of his hometown. A discarded cabinet door or table top quickly becomes the backdrop for an integrated puzzle-poem of figures and text, focusing on subjects like people, politics, the region, pop-culture, media, music, film and literature.

Chris’ first curatorship was a show for Adams in City Hall of Portland, Oregon, (Portland Pride, 2007). He has also shown art in hundreds of venues, including “Oregon Art Annual” and is a frequent contributor to local artwalks, school fairs and open studio tours. In July 2012, Chris recorded selling over 10,000 original works since 2001; and he was a feature artist for Oregon Art Beat on Oregon Public Broadcasting and awarded “Portland Artist of the Year” for Barfly Magazine. In Jan, 2011, he and fellow artist Jennifer Mercede won a national artist contest in Las Vegas, competing with artists’ from 10 other cities.

Besides making art, Chris is also a teacher and a fervent freelance curator and arts advocate, coordinating hundreds of Portland art exhibits with regional artists since 2001, founding first a non-profit Portland City Art and then Chris Haberman Presents and The People’s Art of Portland in Pioneer Place Mall (with fellow artist/curator/buddy, Jason Brown, The Goodfoot) to help local artists show their work. In 2011, he illustrated a book with Oregon television icon, K.C. Cowan detailing a humorous selection of Catholic Saints. In the same year he also completed a 219 wood panel album reproduction for an office mural for record label Kill Rock Stars, and a 100 piece show of about the History of Oregon for Portland State University. In 2012/2013 he completed a 140 foot mural about “The History of Hawthorne Blvd.” for 50th SE Hawthorne on the Eagles Fraternal Lodge funded by a grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council; and currently is the Art Consultant/Curator/Art Department Staff for TV show Portlandia (Seasons 3, 4 and 5). In 2014, he helped present the 15th annual Oregon Art Beat exhibition of 350 artists with Oregon Public Broadcasting, and appeared as a working artist on Ovation channel’s reality show, “One Man’s Trash.” Summer 2015 Chris completed a large-scale outdoor mural for the City of Milwaukie, OR, in partnership with TriMet for the new Orange Line Train line.

MEDULLA OBLONGATA
An exhibition by Nathan Petz

Beer & Wine Reception
1st Thurs. Feb. 4th 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibited through March 1, 2016

Facebook Event

For the month of February, Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to host MEDULLA OBLONGATA, an exhibition of Nathan Petz. Petz is a Portland-based artists whose oil paintings are imaginative internal creations flowing outwardly onto the canvas. In this body of work there is a direct theme, Medulla Oblongata, that flows through each painting. Some are very literal and others present the theme through artistic parallels. By definition, Medulla Oblongata is the continuation of the spinal cord within the skull, forming the lowest part of the brainstem and containing control centers for the heart and lungs.

Petz is a world traveler, having been a working artist in Germany. He owns a successful tattoo shop in Portland. Petz has over fifteen years of sketching, painting and tattooing experience. Over the past ten years, he has been perfecting his oil painting techniques and developed a style all his own. These paintings are a collection of works that reflect influences, paying homage to inspirational painters and tattooers who paint.

Nostalgia: An Art Retrospective

DEFINITION of Nostalgia:
1. the state of being homesick: homesickness,
2. a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. (First Known Use: 1729)

Exhibited Dec. 2015 & Jan. 2016

Join us in December and January to celebrate the artists featured at Pearl Gallery & Framing in 2015.

Offering a selection of works by the year’s gallery contributors, we will showcase those works you may have missed, plus nostalgic maps, antique prints and more. Complete your holiday shopping with unique gifts and top-of-the-line custom picture framing.

We are showcasing work from 2015 artists, including: Michael Feely, Marc Koller, Tekoah Buchanan, Brian Carter, Noel Taylor, Laura Santi, Dean Wade, Consuela Herrera, Amanda Myers, Andy Vic Lindblom, Mason Parker and Alejandro Ceballos.

Join us this December through January to celebrate the promise of the New Year & reflect on the nostalgic past. We are showing our newest selection of genuine antique prints and maps, old movie/theater poster advertisements, nostalgic movie star postcards along with our fine art Giclee reproductions of select images (many of them regional), including historical maps and original plates of plants and shells. These magnificent original antique prints range from the 1600s through the 1900s and many were done by the practices of wood-engraving, hand colored copper engraving, hand colored lithography, black & white engraving. Some were intended as ephemera but have become instant collectible antiques. Giclees are printed on canvas in-house by Pearl Printing, hand-stretched to give them a timeless look — ready to hang on the wall! Let us know if there is a special interest or theme that you are looking for in an antique collectible print, and we would be happy to find it for you. And we offer a special personal service – reproduce your own family photos or memorabilia in large-scale on canvas or water color paper!! We will scan, enlarge, touch-up/color-manage and reproduce your precious moments. Turn that small-scale picture of your grandparents into an 8 X 10 canvas print; collage those concert tickets with your photos! We are happy to work with you to print on canvas, water color paper, photo paper and to frame anything you may need to preserve your memories and brighten your home or office. Stop by First Thursday from 6-9 pm to sample Deschutes Beer and take home a bit of nostalgia for your promising New Year!

Sunset: A collection of oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings and screen prints from past to present

By Alejandro Ceballos

November 2015

“What is important for me in art is not to reproduce reality, but to express the meaning of it.” — Alejandro Ceballos

Pearl Gallery & Framing is thrilled to host Mexico-born international artist, Alejandro Ceballos. The paintings included in this exhibit are whimsical yet romantic, colorful and playful. Ceballos’ paintings belong to many private and public collections in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, and were shown at the Portland Art Museum in 2013. He is known for his murals, such as the the Park Avenue and Rocco’s Pizza painting created in 1996, and murals at Trillium and Applegate Schools. Since 1991, Ceballos has produced murals and shown exhibitions in Mexico and the Pacific Northwest – some venues include art galleries in NW Portland (1992-96), The Park Avenue (1992), La Salle University (1994), House of Culture -Hermosillo Sonora (1996), Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement (1997), Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (1998), Washington State University in Vancouver (1999), Oregon State University (2004), Lake Oswego (2005), Marylhurst University (2007), Newport Visual Arts Center (2010), Farragut Park Mural (2012), and Portland Art Museum (2013). Other solo and collective exhibitions include Guadalajara, Mexico City and the State of Sonora, Mexico. Commissions include: Album Covers, posters, animation and post cards, murals and Paintings: (1998-2013).

Local Landmarks — Pen & Ink, Watercolors
by Mason Parker

Exhibited October

From the artist:

Artist Website: Mason Parker Watercolors

Wonders of the Northwest: Photography by Andy Vic Lindblom

First Thursday Artist Reception Sept 3. 6 – 9 p.m.
Exhibited September 3 – 29, 2015

Facebook Event

Andy Vic Lindblom grew up with a love for the beautifully framed shots in movies. He moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles, where his apparent passion for movies was transformed, and he realized it was the love of a well-framed shot that drives him.

Now, nature-inspired Lindblom focuses on what is between the cities and what makes our world unique.
His latest work is a series of photographs printed directly on aluminum, bringing a new medium to photography. The metal substrate gives the photos an essence that begs to be seen in person. This lively series of prints brings the excitement of nature indoors.

Lindblom was formally educated in ecotourism to learn more about the natural world. Photography helps him focus on the moment, and the Pacific Northwest is his muse. His work has been exhibited regionally in galleries and at art events. Several of his prints are in the permanent collections or regional clinics and law offices.

This show is about the NW and the wonders that can be found in it.

“I don’t limit myself to a certain subject, besides what is found. The variety that exists in the natural world is wonderful. From the landscape to the animals and objects we’ve created and put back into nature.” – Andy Vic Lindblom

A few of the images in this body of work called out to Lindblom for more than what the camera captured and have been transformed in Photoshop; not with additional imaging, but playing with what already exists in the picture.

See More on the Artist’s Website: Andy Vic Photography

Divas, Damsels and Divans:
New Paintings & Fine Art Dolls

by Amanda Sue Myers

Facebook Photos

Exhibited August 2015

“I have always been a maker, artist, and creator for as long as I can remember.” – Amanda Sue Myers

Pearl Gallery & Framing welcomes the talented Amanda Sue Myers.

Previously a tattoo artist and still the owner of Infinity Tattoo, one of the Northwest’s premier studios, Myers brings lifetimes of visual design experience to her flawlessly executed works. Myers creates fine art dolls and paintings inspired by nature, mythology, historical and cultural costumes, and beautiful strange places seen during her travels. She has a BFA in costume design from the California Institute of Arts, and applied her skills for several years working in Oregon and Alaska repertory theaters before moving to Portland.

Her work has been shown in the greater Portland area in small cafés, breweries, and several local Galleries. In her new series of dolls and paintings, Amanda once again takes us on a splendid trip of fantastical escapism. This time her dolls have their own little worlds, adding even more mystery and intrigue to their stories. Divas and supporting characters fill the meticulous little rooms that have been created just for them. Amanda has also painted a group of tiny portraits of various girly characters to decorate the walls of their chambers.

Myers Describes Her Doll Creation Process:

“My dolls are made with a structured wire armature, padded and covered in soft fabric, making them not only sturdy, but nice to hold. I incorporate polymer and paper clay, natural and synthetic fibers, and my old crochet hook to fabricate every tiny detail. All of the large wood panel paintings are made with acrylic paint and markers.”

All dolls are gently bendable and can be posed or placed in a stand.

Containers of the Soul: Explorations in Breaking Conventions

Exhibited July 2015

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Dean Wade: Abstract Paintings

Dean Wade is an advocate for the Multnomah County National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Wade and NAMI are working to re-frame perceptions of mental illness and improve quality of life for people living with mental illness. The artist donates 10% of all sales to NAMI. Wade, although he struggles with Bipolar disease and ADHD, channels his creative energy and restlessness into his dynamic and captivating paintings. Join us in welcoming his abstract intensely moving oil paintings on canvas.

From the Artist, Dean Wade:
The path of my life was confusing at best! Being diagnosed bipolar with schizophrenia brought things clear to those who loved me through the years, and helped me to better understand this reality. The Twisted series is a collection of work from a six-month period of mania when I could only display my experience of life through manically painting. I tried to release inner emotions through this cathartic art therapy process, and I did realize a sense of peace. As the collection becomes more fluid, it reflects a calming state of mind. This series is a work in progress. Thank you to the collectors who have identified with and embraced my paintings.

Consuelo Herrera: Decorative Boxes

In this small series of collaged boxes, Conseulo Herrera demonstrates influences of her culture, some dark visions of repressed erotic fantasies and the innocence of a curious child. Herrera is an emerging artist, a Chicana from Austin, Texas. She comes from a world where women are subservient. Her artistic expressions reflect her dreams of breaking though the bonds of conventional virtues. She refuses to follow in the footsteps of her mother and sisters who never left the ghetto. This series of boxes takes an unusual look at life through her gritty lens, and shows us that true beauty can be raw, lusty, strange.

From the Artist, Consuelo Herrera:
My love of creating art started at an early age. Many times I found myself hiding in different places, drawing, painting, writing and making sure that real life monsters and ghosts would not find me. I was influenced by surroundings, daydreams, and nightmares.

Traveling to Mexico as a child and teenager, I would see the influences of Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo. I could understand the unity, hard work and the politics of Diego’s murals. From Frida, I understood her pain and her unwilling nature to compromise her vision.

Erotica and the “strange and unusual” have always fascinated me. These amazing different human beings, judged as anomalies. For me, true beauty is found in imperfection. My current focus: erotica, and the repressed side of my sexuality; exploration of love verses lust.

Flux Realm: Frontier of the Visionary
Paintings and Prints by Noel Taylor

Exhibited June 2015: Upstairs Gallery

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“My work captures a place in creation itself. A place where things are still in flux and have yet to be completely defined or solidified; leaving organic images that are in constant fluid motion, each part exuding the next stage in an abstract vision.”

Having evolved through a career as a classical artist, mastering the styles of Rembrandt and the 16th and 17th century Dutch Masters, Noel has dared to expand into uncharted territory developing a truly bold and unique new style of painting. After a lifetime of painting, Noel has moved through the stages of painting from life “that which is seen by the eye,” to painting from concept “that which is seen by the mind,” to a new more instinctive painting style. Noel explains: “The feeling is as if I am observing myself and my technical skills being used to present something being gifted me from a higher source, resulting in paintings that could not have been conceived by the mind and which leave me, upon observing, amazed and in wonderment.”

Noel’s work is painted predominantly in a technique similar to mischtechnik using multiple layers of thin glazes of transparent color this allows the eye to mix reflected light through the layers of different colors giving his paintings a stained glass effect. Noel has studied with many of the great living masters including Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, David Leffel, Quang Ho and Daniel Sprick. He studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design, University of Northern Colorado, Colorado State University, and the Art Students League in New York City & Denver, and has mentored other artists on their paths to self-discovery. Noel’s work has been shown at Limner Gallery in New York.

“Art, at its best, is provocative. Even the artist can’t explain what has happened. This leaves the work open to endless interpretations allowing the viewer to participate in the creation of the piece itself.”

Thangka Paintings by Laura Santi

Exhibited June 2015: Downstairs Gallery

Internalize the Buddha qualities. Experience the inspirational works of Laura Santi, painter of Tibetan and Nepali traditional style Thangkas. Originals (NFS) are rendered in natural mineral pigments, gouache, and 22 carat gold on linen . We will be offering limited edition Giclée prints of these fascinating works of art.

Thangkas became popular with traveling monks because the scroll paintings were easily transported. Today, they continue to serve as important teaching tools offering depictions of the life of the Buddha and other deities. Santi’s paintings open the heart, serve as meditation tools and help bring us further down the path of enlightenment.

Before computers, Laura Santi studied graphic design. The focus of her education at University of Cincinnati was meticulous brushwork, clean-lined composition, and typography as art. Santi was later degreed in acupuncture and received training from Swami Chetanananda in the art of Thangka painting. She currently maintains a private practice in 5 Element acupuncture in Portland, Oregon.

industek visions ?
happy!

A Collection of Large-scale Photographic Prints from Past and Present

Featured Artist: Tekoah Buchanan

Exhibited April and May 2015

“There is a constant moving vision for me to continue to create something new, yet reflective of the past, timeless.” – Tekoah Buchanan

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Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature local gallery owner Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning large-scale photographic images of trains, bridges, ships, regional waterways, and local street scenes. The exhibit is called “happy!” to reflect that it’s all a matter of perspective. Buchanan gives us his interpretation of the world around us in a positive light, a collection of images curated to represent our vitality amidst constantly changing architecture, capturing those acute moments that give him joy. This collection of images reveals Buchanan’s lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world in gentle tones of blue, warm hues of gray, and colors that pop off the substrate. Buchanan’s photographic images have a hand-colored look, and they are printed large-scale by Pearl Printing on fine art photo paper, canvas and satin cloth.

Also Showing Work by Brian Carter

This month we will also feature work by Brian Carter, owner/operator of Pearl Printing. Carter is a Pacific Northwest graphic artist and illustrator. His work reveals beautifully layered images, offering a vivid spectrum of colors, urban environments with dramatic lighting styles and distinctive local landscapes. Carter loved to draw since he was a boy and was introduced to the world of computers at age ten. It wasn’t long before he began experimenting with “code” to create colorful drawings and designs. His interest began with a computer aided drafting course in High School. Carter went on to earn his degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Portland. The degree led him to the printing industry. His career as a printing operator and color work specialist have focused his eye for detail and helped to push his art to new levels. Carter owns and operates Pearl Printing, one of the nation’s most reputable fine art reproduction companies, specializing in archival digital printing on canvas and fine art papers, using archival inks.

The Doors of Perception: Fine Art Prints by Marc Koller

Exhibited March 2015

Accomplished silk screen artist Marc Koller is showing original work and prints of his serigraphs spanning four decades. Influenced by the works of Victor Vasarely and MC Escher, as well as the writings of Aldous Huxley, his style forces the viewer to see beyond the expected reality. Each design is created by hand, and originals are hand-colored using watercolors. Marc is also offering a wider variety of original works, taking advantage of the quality and perfect replication of giclée printing. Marc’s most recent show was at the Coastal Arts League & Museum in Half Moon Bay, California. This is the first showing of Marc’s work in Portland. Join us for the artist reception March 5, from 6 – 9 p.m. to meet Marc, have complimentary wine and Deschutes ales, or stop in during the month of March to see this unique exhibit.

Marc’s passion for art began early, when his mother, an artist herself, taught him to paint with oils at age 6. All through high school, Marc’s passion was for art, drafting and geometry. He began as an art student at State University at Oswego in 1967. Although it wasn’t an art school, the professors were all accomplished artists in their own right and were a powerful influence on young aspiring artists. Roy Lichtenstein was a former teacher at Oswego in the late 50s. During the 60s and early 70s, Marc’s art was focused on the psychedelic world of day glow posters. In 1971 he published a series of black light posters for Personality Posters of New York City. Sadly, none of these early works have been found.

Marc has degrees in architectural technology and educational technology, has taught architectural drawing at a vocational high school, and he taught at MIT.It was while teaching high school that Marc developed his skills as a silk screen artist.He built a silk screen studio in his garage and created his first limited edition serigraphs.He took his editions to New York City and developed a working relationship with HMK Fine Arts, distributor for Gramercy Park Fine Arts. Marc worked with the gallery to create his first 22-color serigraph edition.

Cuba At Last

Featured Artist: Michael (Mike) Feely

Exhibited February 2015
Artist Reception 6 – 9 p.m. February 5th
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Internationally recognized photographer, Michael (Mike) Feely captures Cuba’s natural beauty, sharing his photographic “awakening” he experienced in Havana.

There is a saying about Cuba that it is “difficult to embrace, but impossible to let go” – Feely’s photographic exploration of fascinating Cuba brings this idea into our hearts.

Feely’s photos have been well-received in galleries and at festivals, and he has earned several awards. He is known internationally for his charismatic representations.

Nostalgia: An Art Retrospective

Celebrating 2014 at Pearl Gallery & Framing

Exhibited December 2014 – January 2015

Join us in December and January to celebrate the artists featured at Pearl Gallery & Framing in 2014. Offering a selection of works by the year’s gallery contributors, we will showcase those works you may have missed, plus nostalgic maps, antique prints and more. Complete your holiday shopping with unique gifts and top-of-the-line custom picture framing. We will be showcasing work from 2014 artists, including: Shane Koehler, Lisa Manning, Andy Vic Lindblom, Christopher Mooney, Dean Wade, Khanh H. Huynh M.D., William Hernandez, Debra Shaffer, Alejandro Ceballos, Tekoah Buchanan, Brian Carter, D. (Don) Laurent Dahlke, Amanda Sue Myers and year-round artists like Kelly Williams, Nils Afzelius, Michael Brown, Chris Haberman, Sine Morse, Laura Santi, Devon Mitchell, Laura Walker Scott, Allan Bruce Zee, Vance Family Candles and Totally Blown Glassworks.

Original Art • Fine Art Prints • Hand Blown Glass Ornaments • Jewelry • Soy Candles • Tiles • and more

Urban Landmarks

Paintings & Prints by Christopher Mooney

Exhibited November 2014
Featured Artist: Christopher Mooney

Introducing Emerging Artist: Dean Wade

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In November, Pearl Gallery & Framing will feature new work by local celebrity in architectural painting, Christopher Mooney, who has made substantial contributions to the visual documentation of urban landmarks in Portland. As a painter of Oregon’s transportation architecture, he reveals Portland as a city of rivers and bridges, showcasing the character, function and form of these icons. In addition to showcasing bridges of the Pacific Northwest, Mooney has recently been funded by Regional Arts and Culture Council to pay tribute to the working heroes who constructed the Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People (set to open September 2015), creating a visual artistic record of the construction process and the people working on the design, engineering and building as part of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Project. Building bridges represents a fantastic human achievement. Tilikum Crossing is the first new bridge to be built in Portland in 35 years. We are connected to the workers through Mooney’s oil paintings, capturing our connection to this monumental achievement in human history.

Mooney has a BFA in illustration from Parson’s School of Design, New York, New York. His work has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions. He has won several awards for his painting and holds a number of honors for his achievements. His work, cityscape, was used as the cover and poster publicizing the book, Rental Sales Gallery, Portland Art Museum, The First 50 Years, in 2009. His work has been featured in Hawthorne Bridge, Celebrating 100 Years in Art and Words, a 2010 calendar supporting the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial Celebration. He continues to gain notoriety for his paintings.

In November, we are also introducing artist Dean Wade, Multnomah County advocate for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI: http://namimultnomah.org/

Wade and NAMI are working to re-frame perceptions of mental illness and improve quality of life for people living with mental illness. The artist donates 10% of all sales to NAMI.

Wade, although he struggles with Bipolar disease and ADHD, channels his creative energy and restlessness into his dynamic and captivating paintings. Join us in welcoming his abstract intensely moving oil paintings on canvas.

Artist Website

Natural Inspiration: Art as Education
Connections in Watercolor, Illustration and Photography

A Group Show at Pearl Gallery & Framing Featuring:
Shane Koehler, Lisa Manning, and Andy Vic Lindblom

Exhibited October 2014
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“I am inspired by the combination of science and art and strive to use art as an educational tool. The main theme in my work is interconnection between nature and humans and how we can all work together to make a healthier, safer and more sustainable world.” – Shane Koehler

A self-taught artist and conservationist, Shane Koehler delivers fun, brightly-colored watercolors that dazzle us with natural diversity. His dynamic wildlife-inspired paintings depict similarly colored plants and animals, bursting with life, and reflecting commonalities and interconnections within the natural world. Koehler hopes to remind us that our actions can either unravel these connections completely or strengthen them for future generations.

Koehler is an environmental educator who works with kids, urban communities and the public, teaching science, sustainability and environmental understanding through community-based art projects.
A naturalist, story lover, teacher, writer and artist at heart, Lisa Manning shares with us her first children’s book, Falcons in the City. The book will be for sale at Pearl Gallery & Framing, plus you will have a unique buying opportunity: framed original watercolors from the book! Also available: framed and unframed prints/watercolors.

A naturalist, story lover, teacher, writer and artist at heart, Lisa Manning shares with us her first children’s book, Falcons in the City. The book will be for sale at Pearl Gallery & Framing, plus you will have a unique buying opportunity: framed original watercolors from the book! Also available: framed and unframed prints/watercolors.

Manning has a Master’s in Outdoor Education and a biology degree. She lives in Portland with her husband and daughter, where she teaches elementary art, plays the ukulele in the Portland Megaband and designs wine labels and T-shirts.

Manning began doing the artwork for family Christmas cards at about age 8. She has worked as naturalist educator for OMSI, the Youth Conservation Corps., Upward Bound, and has been a Science and elementary teacher in the Portland area since the 1980s. She has also volunteered for the Portland Audubon Society and Neighbors for Clean Air.

Now, nature-inspired Lindblom focuses on what is between the cities and what makes our world unique.

His latest work is a series of photographs printed directly on aluminum, bringing a new medium to photography. The metal substrate gives the photos an essence that begs to be seen in person. This lively series of prints brings the excitement of nature indoors.

Beautoxacillin: A Remedy for Beauty

Oil Paintings by Khanh N. Huynh, MD

Exhibited September 2014
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Beauty as a concept has been neglected in mainstream contemporary art and even ridiculed mercilessly over the last century. However, there is a small fraction of modern artists who still embrace and faithfully record the wonders of nature in a realistic style. Khanh N. Huynh is one of those artists.

Huynh, a practicing physician and self-taught artist, paints common subjects, both figurative work and still life images of topics that might be considered mundane or ordinary, for example, a baby, a cow, a flower or an orange, but takes these subjects to new heights with a technique called alla prima brushwork. An Italian term meaning “first time,” alla prima is a method of oil painting in which a picture is completed by painting on the entire surface of the canvas all at once rather than traditional method which required a methodical building of the image piecemeal fashion with successive layers of paint.

Beautoxacillin: A Remedy for Beauty is a collection of oil paintings celebrating the intoxicating beauty of simple life. Using realism as his philosophy and alla prima brushwork as his method, artist Khanh N. Huynh, MD transforms “slice of life” concepts into beautiful paintings with the hope of remediating subjects that are sometimes considered too commonplace for fine art.

Teach Me to Believe:
Acrylic Paintings by William Hernandez

Exhibited August 2014
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“Teach Me to Believe” is an exhibit of the newest work by Portland-based Peruvian artist, William Hernandez. Opening night, meet the artist, William Hernandez, whose artworks are in private collections in Spain, Lima, Germany, Guatemala, Chile and of course, the United States. His style is transformational, surreal and breathtaking; this is a “must see” show for collectors, especially those who love Peruvian art and culture. Join our FB Event for this month-long celebration of the colors of Peru and Portland. Invite your friends!

This new body of work produced primarily within the last year, focuses on color-rich and magical urban life. Through his use of color, Hernandez alludes to his experiences as a Peruvian artist in Portland, depicting a diverse world of relationships, both imaginary and representational. William Hernandez offers to us in this current series his magical color palette, the hues and tones of real life. Hernandez has the ability to capture dreamlike qualities in his visionary figurative painting. His pieces are sometimes surreal and always playful.

William Hernandez trained at Lima’s Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (1995-2002), and moved to Portland in 2009. The work of William Hernandez has been exhibited in galleries and cultural centers from Lima to Portland, including Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Centro Cultural de Espana, and several venues around Portland. In 2007 and 2008, he participated in the U.S. Embassy’s Noche de Arte: the largest art exhibition in Peru, a show that generates funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2011, his work was exhibited throughout La Luna Nueva festival, a Portland event sponsored by PGE Foundation, The Oregonian, and supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been covered by numerous publications, including Diario EL Comercio (Peru), and many more journals and blogs.

Aside from painting, Hernandez worked as a graphic designer for both public and international institutions in Lima and worked as an art teacher for El Museo de Arte. Since moving to Portland, Hernandez has shown art at many cafes, stores and galleries throughout Portland. He was one of the organizers for the first Intercambio de Artistas Latinos (Latin American Artists Exchange), which aims to create a network of artists in the Northwest to share ideas, expression and art.

Animal Energy; Spiritual Landscapes
Oil Paintings by Debra Shaffer

Exhibited July 2014
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“I am fascinated by all things in Nature and the interplay of the physical realm and other realms — dreams, Spirit, imagination.” — Debra Shaffer

Pearl Gallery & Framing is showing the latest oil paintings of Debra Shaffer, an artist with formal training in shamanism and sociology. Opening night, our artist reception features musical artist Xavier Tavera and the Classic Band, and beer options from our neighbor, Deschutes Brewing. By definition, a shaman encounters and interacts with the spirit world and channels these transcendental energies into this world. Viewing Debra Shaffer’s work is an invitation to commerce with Nature for healing. These boldly colored oil paintings capture the Spirit of their subjects, the animal’s heart or the landscape’s history and presence, in a way that fills us with the energy of their lives. According to Debra Shaffer, she became an artist out of her desire to share and ground her spiritual and Shamanic work. This show includes many animals from around the world, alongside landscapes derived from an extended time in New Mexico. The power, magic and color of a spiritual life is translated into these paintings that run along a continuum from realism to surrealism.

The Birds: Paintings by Alejandro Ceballos

Exhibited June 2014
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“What is important for me in art is not to reproduce reality, but to express the meaning of it.” — Alejandro Ceballos

industek visions ? : urban landscapes

Urban Visions Crossover : Large-scale Collaborative Photographic Prints
by Tekoah Buchanan & Brian Carter

Exhibited April & May 2014
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Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature collaborative work that combines Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning large-scale photographic images with an image layering technique unique to collaborator Brian Carter; their merged talents achieve nostalgic-looking representations of Portland in today’s times. This exhibit showcases trains, landscapes and waterways of Portland. The development of the steam locomotive transformed the world. The “iron horse” carried many people and goods at unprecedented speeds all around the globe. America’s first steam-powered railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio opened in 1830, and within decades hundreds of thousands of railway miles crisscrossed the nation. Today, about two hundred years later, railroads continue to play a key role in our lives, moving millions of carloads of freight each year. The laying of tracks and railroad expansion is much like the process for Buchanan and Carter. Buchanan takes the still shot as if he is laying tracks for Carter, who moves the piece into new territories that are both expansive and ephemeral. The industrial photography of Tekoah Buchanan is taken to new levels at the hands of Brian Carter, whose urban landscapes series has received regional acclaim, and whose artistic expertise is reflected in these representations.

About the Artists

Tekoah Buchanan shares images that reveal his lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world. A graduate of University of Oregon’s Electronic Media Production program, Buchanan is obsessed with photography and film. His photographic eye is constantly trained on the world around him; he is a natural at capturing city scenes. He has spent countless hours in the darkroom, experimented with emulsion techniques, and worked on video production. Buchanan’s roots are in film and video, having mixed Super 8 Film shorts with video footage in his college days. He became intrigued with the idea of stopping film, and he began to create several series of still image photos from the footage that would typically be seen only as moving pictures. In his own words, “There is a constant moving vision for me to continue to create something new, yet reflective of the past, timeless. The thought of the end product, the art piece, being a collaboration of two artists at one time in history defines a new vision for me.”

Brian Carter is a Pacific Northwest graphic artist and illustrator. His work reveals beautifully layered images, offering a vivid spectrum of colors, urban environments with dramatic lighting styles and distinctive local landscapes. Carter loved to draw since he was a boy and was introduced to the world of computers at age ten. It wasn’t long before he began experimenting with “code” to create colorful drawings and designs. His interest began with a computer aided drafting course in High School. Carter went on to earn his degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Portland. The degree led him to the printing industry. His career as a printing operator and color work specialist have focused his eye for detail and helped to push his art to new levels. Carter owns and operates Pearl Printing, one of the nation’s most reputable fine art reproduction companies, specializing in archival digital printing on canvas and fine art papers, using archival inks.

A RESTLESS MIND:
A “Group Show” by D. Laurent Dahlke

Exhibited March 6th through April 1, 2014
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“If we are willing to accept a new mystery that provokes our thought process, then this confusion is only an interpretation that we are trying to understand.” – Don Dahlke

The tenacious and talented Don Dahlke, considered one of the most forward thinking painters and sculptors of our time, is the solo artist for Pearl Gallery & Framing’s March exhibition. Although our show will display the work of only a single artist, the content ranges widely, from Dahlke’s exacting and disciplined figurative style to his surrealistic work and to his abstract and playful pieces. His work is conceptually significant in its dissection of the psyche as representational art: deconstructionist, poignant, multidimensional and mature.

A truly rare jewel in the art world with a resume of exhibits spanning many decades and countries, he is one of the most diverse artists of the 20th and 21st century. Born Donald Laurent Dahlke in 1950, San Francisco to a merchant and housewife, Dahlke was often told that art was not a viable means of supporting oneself, yet at an early age Dahlke developed a zeal for the arts that never faltered. His grandfather, a stuntman, props man and back drop painter in Hollywood in the 1920s played influenced his interest in art, as did Richard Muller of Portland State University. Although he was tagged by many teachers as a bad student and regularly reprimanded for drawing in class, he was always a determined and rebellious thinker, and this tenacity has helped him become an internationally acclaimed and renowned artist.

Dahlke is one of the innovators of the agglomerate style of painting. He is a sculptor, printmaker, ceramist and designer who has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and lived abroad in numerous locales, such as England, Greece, St. Christopher, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mexico. He has devoted 53 years to the creation of art. Whether accepted by critics and curators or not, he has continued to overcome rejection. His restless mind and progressive thinking still leads him to an innovative process that changes the way art is created and perceived.

Concepts of this Exhibition:

Characters of Multitude: Pen, Ink and Pencil drawings

With the multitude of choices that are presented to us daily, and the chaotic pace we experience, it is hard to feel singular and focused on who we are. This work is an interpretation of how modern society makes us feel.
“A non-assertive and spontaneous approach to our lives in today’s society”

Abstract Entities: Mixed Media agglomerate painting

This work confronts the diversity we experience within in our everyday lives. We have ideas of what we understand and can relate to, but we are constantly confronted with Ideas and ideologies that challenge us – ideas in conflict with our interpretation of what is acceptable to us and what is not.
“A multiplicity of thought processes to represent a singular entity”

Pearl District Bunny Hop Saturday April 19, 2014
Craft Project: noon – 3:00 pm

It’s the annual Bunny Hop, a free family event. Everyone is welcome – kids especially! Hop by Pearl Gallery & Framing for special TREATS, adorn your outfit with a crafty BUNNY MASK, take home your own hand-colored BUNNY FINGER PUPPET or BUNNY CARD for your family.

Store-to-Store Easter Egg Hunt – Noon to 3:00pm

Bring the whole family, collect treats, do art projects, and search for this year’s “signature” Easter Egg cut-out that is creatively hidden in participating merchants’ windows or shops. Collect stamps to complete your map, vote for the best window displays, get “bounce back” offers for special deals in the future, and be entered to win raffle prizes.

Live Music, Treats and Raffle Winners – 2:30pm

Hop to Jamison Square to learn the raffle winners and listen to live music sponsored by We Village, featuring Jenna Ellefson and Amanda Breese – original Americana string music.

Toys & Tales: Acrylic Paintings & Fine Art Dolls

Exhibited February 6 through March 4, 2014
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“I have always been a maker, artist, and creator for as long as I can remember.” – Amanda Sue Myers

For February, Pearl Gallery & Framing welcomes the talented Amanda Sue Myers.

Myers Describes Her Doll Creation Process:

For 2014, her new dolls are made in the same general technique, but this year’s dolls are a bit smaller.

All dolls are gently bendable and can be posed or placed in a stand.

Nostalgia: Original & Reproduction Prints

DEFINITION of Nostalgia: 1. the state of being homesick: homesickness; 2. a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition;

First Known Use: 1729

Exhibited December 2013

See our selection of genuine antique prints and maps, along with our fine art giclee reproductions. This show will feature one image to give a sneak peek of the April 2014 show featuring artists Tekoah Buchanan and Brian Carter. Tekoah Buchanan has taken the photographs of Portland imagery and Brian Carter has used his layering technique to achieve a new, yet nostalgic representation of Portland in today’s times. We will also be showing our newest selection of genuine antique prints and maps along with our fine art reproductions. If you missed any of our shows from 2013, you can catch some selected originals from our featured artists of 2013. We will have a few hand selected pieces from these artists. (In partnership with Pearl Printing.)

35 x 35 x 35:

35 photographs over 35 years from 35mm film
by Allan Bruce Zee

Exhibited November 2013
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Allan Bruce Zee’s color photographs interpret nature’s landscape and man’s imprint upon it. His photography has been exhibited in galleries, one-person and group shows in 14 cities nationwide. His prints are included in numerous private, public and corporate art collections throughout the United States, including IBM, AT&T, Merrill Lynch, Sloan Kettering Hospitals, American Express Corporation, World Bank and Johns Hopkins Medical Center, as well as in Ansel Adams’ collection. In addition, his photographs reside in collections in Japan, France, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Australia and Argentina. Allan Bruce Zee has been exploring the art of photography since 1969. Now living in Port Townsend, Washington, Allan maintains a studio in Portland, Oregon, his home for 30 years. Allan was born in Chicago, Illinois, where his first artwork was exhibited at the age of 12 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

PEARL FOR THE PEARL
Two Artists: Two Shows: One Cause

Acrylic & Mixed Media by Jeanie Smith and Fine Art Photography by Ron Wolf

25% of Proceeds donated to the Zimmerman Community Center’s art program for under-served children and elders living in the Pearl District.

Exhibited October 2013
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Reception Locations:
Pearl Gallery & Framing
1017 NW Davis
The Geezer Gallery
600 NW Naito Pkwy, Ste. E

About the Artists:
Jeanie Smith has been involved with art all of her life. She began drawing and painting at the age of five, encouraged by her family of artists. Known as a colorist, she paints contemporary abstract, blending the mystery of shape and form to create emerging depth to each creation. Her sense of humor is often found in some painting detail and/or title, should the observer choose to participate. Featured in solo exhibits and group shows in Oregon and California, Smith was presented with the Partricia Burman “Most Original Painting Award” at the Palm Springs Art Museum in 2004. She has been awarded several Best of Show recognitions at Art Festivals and continues to show her art in Oregon. She has gained insight from the work of artists such as Joan Miro, Hans Hoffman, Hans (Jean) Arp, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josep Albers. Her travels to France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Belize, Mexico and the Caribbean have expanded her art appreciation and have provided depth to her understanding of art history. An artist and poet, Smith resides in Warm Springs and Portland, Oregon with her husband, Ken Smith and their silky terrier, Benni.

Ron Wolf first encountered photography in a 1954 Oregon City Junior High photography class. With his parent’s gift of a Kodak film processing kit, he began making 2″ by 2″ black and white prints of his photos. His unique composition style provoked a classmate to mockingly ask, “Are you trying to look like a professional?” Ironically, the adolescent criticism wasn’t the only negative message Ron received regarding his artistic bent. Despite the gift of the camera kit, family support for young Ron’s pursuit of photography as a career was decidedly lacking. Family emphasis on “doing good” that was helpful to others overrode Ron’s enthusiasm for a vocation deemed impractical for supporting a family and of little value as anything more than a hobby. Ron stored the miniature black and white prints in an old cigar box, but never discarded them. Ron spent decades serving others, first as a public school teacher, then as a credentialed counselor and later as a business owner. Photography was a hobby to record family history. Over the years he gradually came to the realization that art does help people. Ron believes there are three things in this world that people need: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Art is beauty, and “without beauty your life shrinks.” This profound truth empowered Ron to begin pursuing photography as an art form. In 1999, Ron discovered his black and white prints…left years ago in that old cigar box. Finding the tiny prints re-ignited his passion his passion for photography. He purchased a high quality digital camera and the fun began. Ron’s intuitive, natural talent enables him to capture the beauty wherever he goes – be it Italy, France, Russia, Mexico, or the western United States. A keen eye for architectural detail is reflected in many of Ron’s works. Images of window frames, doorways, and even door knockers evoke cultural nuance, paying homage to the artistic creations of gifted craftsmen and inviting the contemporary viewer to appreciate the ordinary artifacts of daily life. Light, color, and texture come alive through Ron’s unique perspective, transforming the mundane into magnificent works of art. Today, at 70, Ron feels a sense of liberation from the oppressing messages of his youth. He chooses to follow his artistic pursuits; finding it brings an “aliveness” to his life like nothing else. Ron’s hope is that older adults who are newly discovering (or rediscovering) their artistic abilities will be afforded the opportunity to show their creative work alongside seasoned professional artists. He believes that when society sees older adults producing quality, marketable works of art, it will lead to a revolutionary change in the way we all see our elder population. Ron has received the Ron Cohen Award from the Statesman Journal and the Aurora Colony Days People’s Choice Award.

Geezer Gallery is a unique nonprofit art gallery devoted to investment quality, master-level, senior artists 60 years and older.

Zimmerman Community Center improves the quality of life in Portland, Oregon by offering fun, affordable activities and space in an inviting environment for all. They offer programs that are financially accessible to a broad spectrum of people living/ working in the central city.

BRIDGES

Paintings and Prints by Christopher Mooney

September 5th – October 1, 2013
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Astoria, Ross Island and San Diego have something in common! They have been represented by our local bridge-painter whose stunning paintings will be displayed at Pearl Gallery & Framing in the show, BRIDGES, an exhibition of the work of Christopher Mooney. A local celebrity in architectural painting, Mooney has made substantial contributions to the visual documentation of urban landmarks in Portland. As a painter of Oregon’s transportation architecture, Mooney reveals Portland as a city of rivers and bridges, showcasing the character, function and form of these icons. He is fascinated by the way in which geometric shapes of steel girders frame the landscape of the city.

People cross bridges every day. See BRIDGES, and with each new crossing, you will celebrate the powerful engineering achievements these feats of architecture represent. The bridges of Portland improve commerce, connect communities, and unite the city. Mooney honors bridges by painting them from unusual points of view, giving them dramatic perspectives, rendering them both realistic and abstract. Light plays an important role in his paintings, illuminating structures, casting shadows, and encouraging viewers to see bridges in new ways, directing our attention to details that we might not otherwise observe.

Mooney has a BFA in illustration from Parson’s School of Design, New York, New York. His work has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions. He is a member of Portland Open Studios and has won several awards for his painting. His work, cityscape was used as the cover and poster publicizing the book, Rental Sales Gallery, Portland Art Museum, The First 50 Years, in 2009. His work has been featured in Hawthorne Bridge, Celebrating 100 Years in Art and Words, a 2010 calendar supporting the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial Celebration. He continues to gain notoriety for his paintings.We are proud to feature this local artist; BRIDGES will surely transport you!

UPON REFLECTION

Monochromatic Oil Paintings and Charcoal Drawings
by Gillian Freney

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August 1 – September 3, 2013
The bark on a street tree. An abandoned bird’s nest. The river viewed from a bridge. They’re common sights of a busy daily life in Portland. But upon reflection, any of these common sights has a complexity and elegance all its own. Noticing their patterns, shadows, and layers is a form of appreciation. Drawing and painting them is simply an effort to share that appreciation.UPON REFLECTION is an exhibit of oil paintings and charcoal drawings that focuses on the order we find in nature, for example: the elegant feats of diligence we observe in nest-making or the regular patterns of birch bark.
From the Artist:
I grew up believing I couldn’t draw. It was true. I couldn’t draw … because I never tried for longer than the ten seconds or so it took to hit a snag. Patience was not my strong suit, and drawing did not come easy. I’m still impatient, and drawing still comes hard, but somewhere along the line, I warmed to the snags. In fact, the snags became compelling. Once I took the time to get to know them, the snags became friends and teachers. I took up painting in earnest a couple years ago, relatively late in life. Between the demands of family and work, I never found time for classes. I’ve been accepted into two juried shows. I’ve sold paintings to individuals, and I’ve done commissions. I’m late-blooming and self-taught. I took up drawing in hopes that a better grasp of value might help me find the right colors as I painted. It started as a means to an end, but it became an end in itself. Lately I’ve extended the exploration of value to monochrome paintings. I go back and forth between drawing and painting. Each informs the other. I never feel like I know what I’m doing, and I hope I never will. I’m especially attracted to trees, nests, and reflections in water. They all have a sort of internal order that speaks to me. I appreciate the ways that trees embody the shapes of their mishaps (their bug bites, their broken branches). I love how water reflects its wobbly version of the solid world. Taking the time to look closely at these things is rewarding beyond measure. I think of each drawing or painting as an exercise in appreciation.
Materials: I started out working with sticks of compressed charcoal on paper. I like how dark it goes on, and I like the look when it’s erased. Eventually I added charcoal pencils, and also vine charcoal, in search of different effects. I smear and erase a lot. As for frosted Mylar, I tried drawing on it because I liked the glowy, smeary quality of charcoal-on-Mylar drawings. Painting on Mylar came about by accident, when I wiped a brush on a scrap of Mylar, then realized how easily and cleanly the wet oil paint comes off. I experimented with various methods of applying and removing the paint, and liked the results.

CONVERSATIONS

Abstract Paintings by Kelly Williams

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July 3 – July 30, 2013

CONVERSATIONS is an exhibit of abstract encaustic paintings, created with pigment and wax, exploring hidden meanings in the tradition of palimpsest. A palimpsest is a manuscript page from which the text has been scraped or washed off to be used again. Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be smoothed and reused, and the term palimpsest was used in the time of Cicero to refer to this practice. This series of encaustic works by Kelly Williams explores the idea of palimpsest. She represents powerful dialogues — CONVERSATIONS — through visually complex paintings with deep layers of meaning. Palimpsest is about what is hidden. Historically, it refers to the act of obscuring or scraping clean old text and overlaying it with new writing, leaving prior writing visible, but indecipherable. As with her previous series, Internal Landscapes, honoring the spirit and artistic depth of Mark Rothko, she continues to express the divergence between internal and external forces. Rothko had an invaluable ability to capture raw, emotional experience by using only washes of color. He is a source of inspiration for Kelly Williams. The layering process inherent to encaustic painting symbolizes the passage of time and the build-up of experiences, one covering another, blending and altering the final visible perception. The use of fire and heat in the creation process reveals deeply buried layers. Layers are also visible through the gouging, scraping, and marking of the wax. The end result is a complicated, intense tactile work. We invite you to gently touch the art, feeling both the subtle smoothness and rough qualities.

Kelly Williams is a Portland icon in the world of encaustic painting. Williams has shown extensively both locally and nationally. She is a philanthropist, a community-involved artist generously giving her time and skills to serve recovery programs, arts education and collaborative art collectives. Williams developed a Regional Arts and Culture Council-funded project entitled Recovery Panes, working with those affected by addiction. Her work is included in the collections of several local businesses, and has been featured in many local and national publications.

From the Artist: A symbolic narrative often weaves a course through my work, a progression of disentanglement, a developing story, layer by layer. Only upon close examination does one experience the intimate textures, subtle imagery, and imperfections that make up the whole. Secrets found within the layers add meaning to the final painting. The process of encaustic painting allows for this metaphoric layering, burning, burying, and exposing the imagery of my work. This ancient medium being used for contemporary expression further supports the timeless messages and questions that I seek to explore. As I paint, my mind wrestles with thoughts, ideas and feelings that are fragmented and unclear. I capture these fragments, write them out, only allowing them to exist for a brief moment of exposure before I take the torch to them and obscure them. Ideas are rendered openly and then returned to the abstract as unreadable and unknowable fragments, in the way that conversations are fleeting representations of our existence. I can protect the unspeakable while paradoxically giving it form, expressing the articulated thought through spontaneous writing between the layers of paint.

About Kelly’s Encaustic Painting Process:
Williams works in the medium of encaustic paint. Encaustic painting is an ancient medium dating back to early Greek and Egyptian art. The paint is made from melted beeswax mixed with pigment and resin. Each layer is fused with a heat implement such as a torch or iron before new layers can be added. Carving tools are used to incise lines and shapes and add sculptural elements, bringing the painted surface beyond its traditional two-dimensions.

Impressionism in Wax by Janet Amundson-Splidsboel

June 6 – July 2, 2013

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Special Thanks: Singer and song writer Dave Hu, who played at the First Thursday reception

The work of Janet Amundson-Splidsboel is simply captivating. She is a widely known local encaustic impressionist painter who creates mostly figurative, but also landscape and still life artwork.

Amundson-Splidsboel dreamt of becoming an artist as a young girl, and now her dream is reality. Her paintings have been featured in newspapers, such as the Hollywood Star and Lake Oswego Review, on the cover of the Portland Fine Arts Guild brochure, and in the forthcoming book, Embracing Encaustic by Linda Womack. Her paintings can even be seen on the walls of the 2013 Portlandia TV series. Amundson-Splidsboel has exhibited her work in numerous Portland galleries, theatres, public buildings, fundraising events and designer showcases. She is a juried member of the Oregon Society of Artists and Watercolor Society of Oregon. Her work has gained entry to many juried shows and invitation-only events. Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to showcase her latest encaustic paintings in June 2013!

Amundson-Splidsboel donates a sizable portion of her proceeds to causes such as horse rescue and groups working to rescue animals destined to be euthanized in our public animal shelters.

About Janet’s Encaustic Painting Process:
Beeswax and damar resin are melted and dry pigment is added for color. The tins of molten wax and colored pigment are kept in a molten state on a heated griddle. Bristle brushes are dipped into the molten wax and quickly used to paint upon the painting surface, which is usually a board such as untempered masonite, wood, or some form of art panel. Each time wax is added to the painting it must be fused into the previous layer of wax by torch. Various scrapers are used to scrape off unwanted areas of wax as the work progresses. This process is repeated many times. There are usually 20 or more layers of wax in a completed piece.

Sine Morse: Immersed in Nature: Journeys in Paper

May 2 – June 4, 2013

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Featured Artist in our Upstairs Gallery

Sine Morse is a paper artist extraordinaire, and this is her first solo show. She will be featuring her larger pieces, never before displayed or shown. Her work has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and throughout Oregon. She paints thick watercolor paper with acrylics to create vibrant colors, and then cuts each detail of her composition by hand, drawing from her imagination to create paper shadow box scenes. To give dimension and depth, Morse layers vivid colors of paper and rolls paper into cylinders. Her work is enchanting and whimsical, and her brightly colored unique creations depict a natural world that pops with life. See images on Facebook.

Shane Koehler: Abyss

Guest Artist in our Downstairs Gallery
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Abyss showcases marine wildlife with emphasis on deep sea creatures and their interactions. Koehler takes a mixed media approach and uses watercolor and acrylic paints. He is an emerging artist whose work has been shown locally only one time before. We are excited to host this exhibit of nature-inspired work.

SOLO EXHIBITION OF LARGE-SCALE PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES

by Tekoah Buchanan
April 4 – April 30, 2013

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More About this Artist (Prints Available)

April 2013 is Portland Photo Month! Join us in celebrating the art, history and practice of photography during Portland’s city-wide focus on photography. Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature local artist Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning large-scale photographic images of ships and waterways. The exhibit focuses on ships and waterways with an up close and personal perspective. Tekoah Buchanan shares images that reveal his lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world. Buchanan’s photographic images have a hand-colored look, and they are printed large-scale by Pearl Printing on fine art photo paper, canvas and satin cloth. Tekoah Buchanan, a graduate of University of Oregon’s Electronic Media Production program, is obsessed with photography. His photographic eye is constantly trained on the world around him; he is a natural at capturing city scenes. He has spent countless hours in the darkroom, experimented with emulsion techniques, and worked on video production. Buchanan’s roots are in film and video, having mixed Super 8 Film shorts with video footage in his college days. He became intrigued with the idea of stopping film, and he began to create several series of still image photos from the footage that would typically be seen only as moving pictures. He named his process of transforming moving images to still shots “industek visions ?” to brand his process, his style and his imagery. It is a combination of “industrial” and “Tekoah,” his unusual first name, meaning sound of the trumpet. The question mark represents our shared humanity, our attempts to understand the world around us, the way that we use our analytical minds to perceive, but our emotional bewilderment at the grandeur of life with a future unknown. “industek visions ?” represents an open-eyed look at reality that encompasses infinite possibilities. We welcome photography-lovers to see this well-respected artist’s industek vision.

VUE MONDIALE: FRAGMENTS AND MEMORIES

An Exhibit of Mixed Media Collage by J. S. Salter
March 7 – April 2, 2013
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Artist J. S. Salter is an international artist who has shown her work extensively since the early 1990s, having participated in two dozen expositions all over the world, with popularity in Canada. She creates mixed media collage focusing on regional culture. A sampling of her work represents majestic Greek statues and simple found objects. J. S. Salter was born in Nova Scotia and received her artistic education in Boston, and also France, and she graduated from Montreal’s John Abbot College. We are pleased to exhibit this internationally acclaimed artist.

From the artist, J. S. Salter: I began my first collage about 18 years ago, after a visit to New York City with my college group. However, I only returned to this medium a few years ago, as a change from ‘just painting.’ Drawings are the mainstay of my collage. In the 1980’s before picking up a brush, I drew every day for three years, so am not short of material. Although just as challenging as painting, the search for appropriate and authentic material lends interest to this collage process. I paint from my ‘mind’s eye’; this approach is most difficult but gives me a feeling of accomplishment. About the title piece, Paris and More Paris, I have tried to show a little of this city through the ages. The streets on the map brought to mind the heroes and the not so heroic whose names grace the city.

Pearl District Annual Bunny Hop

March 30, 2013 Noon – 3:00 p.m.

It’s the annual Bunny Hop, a free family event. Everyone is welcome – kids especially! Hop by Pearl Gallery & Framing for special TREATS, adorn your outfit with a BUNNY MASK or color a BUNNY CARD.

A D R I F T: An Exhibit of Screen Prints

by Travis Taylor
Feb. 7 – March 5, 2013

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Artist Travis Taylor was born in Santa Barbara, California, in 1980 after which he spent the first ten years of his life moving from place to place and living in remote settings with no electricity or running water. After a turbulent and unproductive 2 ½ years of high school, Taylor dropped out (with a G.E.D.) and began pursuing a B.F.A. degree which was completed at the University of Montana in 2003.

Taylor often shifts between a variety of media including painting, sculpture, photography, screen printing and music. In his ongoing music project Convenient Noise, he uses synthesizers and samplers to produce strange and barren musical backdrops which are accompanied by live lyrics and spoken word. Taylor looks for inspiration in many places but especially in the grey areas of his own mind. By allowing the subconscious to play a strong role in the process of his art, his work becomes an avenue for expression and exploration.

The surreal subject matter of these small hand pulled silk-screen pieces is an attempt to look beyond the everyday world and give physical presence to subconscious thoughts in hope of re-examining our own inner workings. Taylor feels that visual art can be a gateway to the self and a connection to one another that transcends written words or language. It can change and grow through the power of interpretation long after the work is completed. As an artist, he feels a responsibility to keep searching and exploring regardless of medium.

BLOOM: AN EXHIBITION OF BOTANICAL ETCHINGS

January 2013 Curated Installation

U.S. Bank, NW 23rd & Lovejoy, Portland OR

Artist Statement by Sandra Carlson
Drawing the perfect flower has been a preoccupation of mine ever since I started making art as a child in my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Shy and introspective, I found a refuge in my obsession with the micro-world of desert plants, reptiles and insects. It is this world of serpents and beastly vegetation that I respond to in my work even now. Since I have a natural inclination to draw, etching provides an excellent vehicle to explore my personal expression and aesthetic. My artwork is influenced by illustrations of early botany, memory, imagination and invention. An emphasis is placed on representing these imagined “rarities” of nature as portraits of “hybrids.” I will often compare and contrast the fundamental similarities of structures in human anatomy to organisms in vegetation and in that way, blur the boundaries of organic hierarchy in an attempt to add humor to my imagery in a distinctively personal way. Line etching allows me to spontaneously create inspired gestures of mark making that resembles the methodical labor-intensive qualities of engraving in a fraction of the time. A variety of grays are achieved with the use of Aquatint. A second printmaking technique I have explored in this series is Chine-collé. Rice paper is cut into shapes and collaged onto the print, adding texture and color. Most of my work is printed on Murillo printmaking paper. It is excellent for picking up the plate tone I want, and imitates the aged look of old botanical illustrations. The largest piece in this show is printed on Arches printmaking paper. Chine-collé is added for color accents at the root ball and the flower head. These abstract graphic representations emphasize my view of the fantastic, ethereal, and other worldly qualities that I still find in nature.

Nostalgia: An Art Retrospective

Celebrating the year’s artists!

December 2012 – January 2013

Original Art • Hand Blown Glass Ornaments • Silk Scarves • Ceramics • Jewelry • Soy Candles

PORTLAND

An Exhibit of Paintings and Wire Sculpture

by Zak Gere

Nov.1 – Dec. 4, 2012
(upstairs gallery)

PORTLAND, features Zak Gere’s photo-realistic large-scale paintings of our great city. alongside his amazing wire sculpture. Native-Portlander and self-taught artist, Gere has been independently showing and selling art since 1999. Gere’s paintings vary greatly in subject and style from photo-realistic portraits to highly stylized figures and landscapes. Zak also produces wire sculpture which he builds from steel into incredibly detailed solid forms. Interviewed by Urban Art Network, an organization dedicated to creating a thriving arts culture for independent artists, Gere described his artistic journey’s beginning. He was eight years old, and he perfected the Tippy the turtle drawing, the “famous reptile in cap and turtleneck that graced so many magazine and matchbook ads for art school.” From his early recognition that he could be an artist, his work shifted from inventing comic book characters, drawing mountains, and depicting women in reading chairs.

Gere had some formal training at Clackamas Community College, where he was first introduced to painting. It was there that he learned he didn’t need to be schooled in art to pursue his dream, and he is now successful through his sometimes monk-like commitment to his work. He was inspired to sculpt with wire in his early youth, as a freshman in high school. He makes animals from wire using basic tools: a hammer, pliers, and his own muscles.

In Our Imagination:

An Exhibit of Acrylic Paintings

by Devin Bernard

Nov. 1 – Dec. 4, 2012
(downstairs gallery)

Sponsored in part by Geezer Gallery, In Our Imagination is a show about ideas and possibilities. It is a collection of images that we would be lucky to see in our dreams. Bernard’s work is mystical, archetypal and dreamlike with its daring depictions of stories unfolding. His work combines portraiture and landscape styles common to Renaissance painting, but also shows influences of the Mogul paintings from India and Latin American painting styles. His work is highly detailed, with striking colors and images that resonate. Bernard’s acrylic paintings are revelatory in the way that they draw us toward an idea, concept or story, and yet leave us with a sense of mystery, full of wonder. Devin Bernard holds a BA in Art Education. His preferred medium is acrylic paint on board or canvas. His work has been shown at several well-known Portland galleries, including the Geezer Gallery.

About Geezer Gallery
Our featured artist is represented by our new neighbor, recently relocated Geezer Gallery. The Geezer Gallery is devoted to investment quality, master-level senior artists, dedicated to featuring world class works by artists age 60 and older. A nonprofit 501c3, proceeds help fund art as therapy and creativity programs to enable seniors’ brain cell growth, dexterity and self-expression.
New Location: 600 NW Naito Pkwy #E, Portland Or 97209

HABITS AND HUMOR

An Exhibit of Figurative Sculpture
and Velvet Paintings

by Jennifer Kenworth

Oct. 4 – 30, 2012

Whose work has been featured in HBO’s series, True Blood, is held in the private collection of Danielle Steel and appears on Nike sportswear? None other than Jennifer Kenworth, also known by her pseudonym, Juanita. Kenworth is the famed painter of fuzzy fabric and sculptor of caricatures from six inches to seven feet tall! Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to host Habits and Humor, a solo exhibit of figurative sculpture and velvet paintings by local artistic celebrity, Jennifer Kenworth.

Kenworth began painting when she was five years old, and was formally educated in ceramic sculpture at California College of the Arts. After showing and selling her ceramic sculptures for many years in the Bay Area and Portland, she discovered velvet painting. She continues creating life-sized figurative sculptures and paints regularly on velvet. Her artwork has been shown all along the west coast including Los Angeles and Seattle.

Kenworth captures the humor of everyday ordinary life in her figurative ceramic sculpture, and represents pop culture in her velvet paintings. Her work has been nationally recognized in well-known venues including the Tonight Show and Oregon Art Beat. You can see her work in the book, Black Velvet Masterpieces: Highlights from the Collection of the Velveteria Museum. She’s been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and National Geographic Traveler Magazine, and she has served as a visiting artist for Oregon College of Art and Craft and Lewis and Clark College.

In her own words: The figurative sculptures I create are snapshots of people I see around me in my daily routine. It’s fascinating to me how people present themselves to the world while moving through their daily lives. Someone waiting at a bus stop or in line at a store could inspire me simply by the color of the clothes they are wearing or by the way they are standing. It is these ordinary things in life that catch my eye and inspire me. As Juanita, I capture humor in life through kitsch and icons of American pop culture.

Shanon Playford Various & Sundry
with Emerging Artist Sheri McGrath

Sept. 6 – Oct. 2, 2012

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Pearl Gallery & Framing is proud to exhibit the work of the amazing Shanon Playford. Owing to an interest in art history and contemporary culture, Shanon Playford is something of a painting chameleon. She allows her ideas (or subjects) to dictate the style and approach taken for each new series. Her work demonstrates an unstoppable curiosity for the “what if.” Embracing inconsistency as her signature style, she identifies herself as a project/theme-oriented artist. Shanon Playford works primarily in oil. She infuses her work with a keen knowledge of – and playful irreverence to – traditional skills and techniques.

Having decided she wanted to be an artist in kindergarten, she has been steadily painting & drawing ever since. Shanon Playford graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997 and studied at the School of the Museum Fine Arts in Boston. She lives and paints in her native Portland, Oregon. Her work has been showcased in the United Kingdom and galleries throughout the United States. Her collectors will be thrilled to see Shanon Playford’s nostalgic paintings on paper, panel and canvas. This exhibit is not to be missed!

Special thanks to musical group, D.N.A. for providing live sitar sounds at the art opening.

In our downstairs gallery, we are featuring Sheri McGrath, emerging artist from Bandon, Oregon. Pearl Gallery & Framing is exited to showcase McGrath’s latest mixed media series of work entitled, Swing Me to the Song of Mockery. Although her current series includes images of mocking birds, each piece includes some other aspect of irony or mockery. For example, embedded in one of her original collages, you can find a locking box and key designed for special documents, such as a diploma that one might normally see framed to highlight an achievement, but instead it can be safely and secretly stored within the artwork. Mcgrath is a self taught artist who uses recycled materials to create ironic folk art. Her work has been exhibited at several Oregon coastal galleries, including Whistling Gallery, SAGE Gallery, Second Street Gallery and Cest Vert, in eastern Oregon at Easy Frame Art Gallery and Sozo, and at The Nickel in Port Orford and Sharkbites in Coos Bay.

A B R E A T H O F I M P R E S S I O N I S M

F E A T U R E D A R T I S T J O D I B U R T O N

guest artist Tina Gleave

August 2 – September 4, 2012

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Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to host A Breath of Impressionism, an exhibition of En Plein Air and Still Life Paintings by Jodi Burton, with Silk Wall Hangings and Scarves by guest artist Tina Gleave.

Jodi Burton, in the tradition of the French impressionists, paints “en plein air,” meaning in open air. Artists have long painted outdoors, but this style of painting flourished in the late 1800s when toothpaste-like tubes of paint became available, and French painters like Claude Monet began recording their impressions of the landscapes. In addition to some studio painting of still life, she paints landscapes outdoors in the daylight, rendering breathtaking images filled with the quality of natural light. Although her paintings can be compared to French impressionists, Burton is wary of how style can be limiting, and also of realistic rendering. She doesn’t try to paint photographically. She prefers to push herself in a disciplined way, not just telling the story as she sees it, but including the other or the unknown, discovering and representing something new about each landscape. Jodi Burton is a member of the Portland Plein Air and Studio Painters.

Fun fact: Jodi Burton was commissioned to paint Oregon scenes on the 1921 CW Parker carousel at Jantzen Beach.

Pearl Gallery & Framing is proud to showcase the WEARABLE fine art and wall hangings of California textile artist, Tina Gleave, whose hand painted silk scarves and wall hangings make excellent gifts. Her vivid and vibrant patterns are reminiscent of stained-glass or impressionist paintings. Her style reminds us of the ethereal and dreamy bliss of our natural world, its changing seasons and brilliant gardens. Subjects include irises, sunflowers, orchids, calla lilies, hydrangeas, poppies, Birds of Paradise, dogwoods, aspens, monarch butterflies and more. Gleave is a member of Silk Painters International.

First Thursday, August 2, 2012, we supported the Oregon Women’s Sailing Association’s first annual fundraising event, Sailing through the Pearl, as one of a limited number of galleries that hosted the organization’s Word Puzzle Scavenger Hunt. Organized in 1994 by the efforts and enthusiasm of local women sailors, the not-for-profit OWSA exists to promote and facilitate the participation of women in sailboat cruising and/or racing events in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

C H R O M A T I C M I X T U R E S 2

WILLIAM HERNANDEZ
Solo exhibit

July 5 – July 31, 2012

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Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to host CHROMATIC MIXTURES 2, an exhibit of acrylic paintings by Portland-based Peruvian artist, William Hernandez. Here is your chance to meet the artist, William Hernandez, whose artworks are in private collections in Spain, Lima, Germany, Guatemala, Chile and of course, the United States. His style is breathtaking; this is a “must see” show for collectors, especially those who love Peruvian art and culture.

This new series, CHROMATIC MIXTURES 2, focuses on color-rich urban life. Through his use of color, Hernandez alludes to his experiences as a Peruvian artist in Portland, depicting a diverse world of relationships, both imaginary and representational. William Hernandez offers to us in this current series his magical color palette, the hues and tones of real life. Hernandez has the ability to capture dreamlike qualities in his visionary figurative painting. His pieces are sometimes surreal and always playful.

William Hernandez trained at Lima’s Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (1995-2002), and moved to Portland in 2009. He creates both figurative and abstract paintings with his distinct vision, incorporating intense colors, warm figures and humor. In January 2010, Hernandez showed a new body of work consisting of influential figurative paintings entitled “Chromatic Mixtures.” The current exhibit draws on themes from that show, telling stories about and through color.

The work of William Hernandez has been exhibited in galleries and cultural centers from Lima to Portland, including Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Centro Cultural de Espana, and several venues around Portland. In 2007 and 2008, he participated in the U.S. Embassy’s Noche de Arte: the largest art exhibition in Peru, a show that generates funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2011, his work was exhibited throughout La Luna Nueva festival, a Portland event sponsored by PGE Foundation, The Oregonian, and supported in part by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been covered by numerous publications, including Diario EL Comercio (Peru), and many more journals and blogs.

If you can’t make it to the Art Opening, First Thursday, July 5, 2012, be sure to stop by anytime in July to see this exhibit.

GARY HOUSTON SHOWS US THE BLUES:
AN EXHIBIT OF LIMITED EDITION HAND-PULLED PRINTS

an installation for:
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE GALLERY LEVEL

April 13 – July 13, 2012

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In honor of It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues, we are curating an exhibit at the Portland Center Stage Gallery, featuring the work of master Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Screen Printer, Gary Houston, whose commitment to portray musical artists is nothing short of amazing. He captures his subjects, especially blues artists and events, in a way that is “gravelly and gritty,” yet comedic, all the while “full of salvation, uplifting” (in his own words). He is an artistic genius who is pleased to work as a traditional screen printer in the vein of the medium as it was invented by the Chinese over 2000 years ago. He has been creating posters for Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, whose mission is to raise funds to benefit Oregon Food Bank, since 2001, and many have turned into collector’s items. Picasso’s “Old Guitarist” (1903) with the bony fingers and the deep blue oil paint, inspired one of the blues posters featured in this exhibit, “Man Plays Guitar,” from Waterfront Blues Festival 2006. Other images featured in Gary Houston’s work include flaming guitars, bridges and bicycles.

Gary Houston is one of the great American poster artists. Under the name Voodoo Catbox, he is best known for making silk-screen posters for music concerts, particularly for local venues like the Edgefield or for touring bands like Willie Nelson, Al Green, Los Lobos and hundreds more. His posters are traditionally made – hand drawn and hand cut or scratchboard originals, and of course, each is hand-pulled. Each poster commemorates a show, special event or tour. Each poster is a limited edition, every one numbered and signed by Houston himself. As each edition is sold out, no more posters of that image are reproduced.

Houston has been doing poster art “for a lifetime.” He drew since he could hold a crayon. He attended Wichita State University and Bethany College in Kansas, studying sculpture, art history and drawing. Houston has graciously donated his time and skills to charitable events and causes, including the Portland International School’s annual auction, and p:ear, an organization whose focus is to build positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth. His work has been featured in countless venues and covered by notable reviewers, including Oregon Music News and Oregon Art Beat. We are proud to share his work with you in honor of the great blues artists and the visual artists whose legacies are far too magnanimous for us to comprehend.

Pearl Gallery & Framing offers unframed prints of each poster on display and more work by Gary Houston.

It Aint Nothin’ but the Blues, a powerful PCS production running from May 22 – June 24, 2012, reveals a world where “its songs soothe the ear, occasionally work mischief on the funny bone and always raise the spirits.”
—The New York Times

AN EXHIBIT OF CHALK PASTELS
BY LAURA WALKER SCOTT
AND ORIGINAL ZIMBABWE ART

an installation for:
PORTLAND CENTER STAGE STUDIO LEVEL

April 13 – July 13, 2012

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In honor of Black Pearl Sings, we are curating an exhibit at the Portland Center Stage Studio Level Gallery, featuring the work of Portland-based artist Laura Walker Scott, whose vibrant chalk pastels light up our hearts and warm our senses. Walker Scott has developed a unique style that is fresh and surprising. Her subjects include starry skies, juicy fruit, flowers and oceans she has encountered through her travels as well as more conceptual pieces illustrating topics such as heartbreak and joy. Her bold style has captured the attention and praise of collectors far and wide. We have unframed limited edition prints of each Laura Walker Scott piece on display and more work in our Gallery.

An unlikely path led Laura to her current passion. Working as a grocery clerk, she was often recruited to make chalkboard signs. Although she had never drawn before, over time her confidence grew and she added small sketches to the signs. Her skills
improved and creating chalkboard signage became her full-time job. Five years later,
Laura pursued her passion fully and became the chalkboard artist that collectors know and love.

In support of the Zimbabwe Artists Project, we are featuring the work of women artists (and a few men) from rural Weya in Eastern Zimbabwe to help them become more economically self-sufficient. Women of Weya are subsistence farmers, mothers, and householders as well as artists. Most women live on their own, providing for families. Some are widowed; others are single heads of households because throughout Zimbabwe, men leave the rural areas to seek work in cities. Women’s income from agriculture is unpredictable and limited. Sales of their art helps women afford food, clothing, school fees, medicine, transport, seeds and fertilizer. Since the market for Weya art in Zimbabwe is extremely limited, sales in the United States are critical. Zimbabwe Artists Project pays much more than any other buyer, delivering cash at the time of purchase. Equally important, Zimbabwe Artists Project provides health care to all of the artists, including care to artists who are HIV positive. All proceeds go directly to the artists.

To learn more, visit http://zimbabweartistsproject.org/

L I M I N A L F L O W: L A N D S C A P E S A T T H E E D G E

DEVON MITCHELL, Solo Exhibit

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June 7 – July 3, 2012

Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to host Liminal Flow: Landscapes at the Edge, an exhibition of abstract landscape paintings by Oregon artist, Devon Mitchell, sponsored in part by Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Special thanks to Deschutes Brewing, the Vintner’s Society, Flamenco guitarist, Garth Brenamen and everyone who made the First Thursday art opening so very special!

Devon Mitchell’s work reveals the confluence of the industrial and natural worlds. The juxtaposition of these contrasting realities is at the heart of her amazing compositions. From her Portland studio, Mitchell paints overlooking Forest Park where it abuts Highway 30. She captures provocative images at these margins. Her paintings reflect places where colors and textures meet and converge.

Her process is like a mini-evolution. She begins with wood panels and rabbit skin gesso, pouring and dripping inks to create an initial layer of texture and color. With subsequent layers of oil paint and cold wax, Mitchell transforms random texture and color into suggestive forms and landscapes. Her conceptual exploration ultimately leads her to produce paintings that embody the dynamic tension between abstraction and representation.

Mitchell began painting when she was two years old at the Berkeley Child Art Studio in California. Over a ten year period, she developed her passion for artistic expression under the guidance of Miriam de Uriarte. This magical and messy studio, its walls and floors blanketed with drips of paint, inspired Mitchell’s earliest explorations into painting, and continues to serve as a source of inspiration for her work and in her latest endeavor. She is the founder of Portland Child Art Studio, a new nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon that will recreate for a new generation of children the inspirational studio experience that served as a springboard for Devon Mitchell’s art career.

Mitchell received formal training in Colombia and at Portland State University. While living in Bogota, she served in a private apprenticeship with Miguel Moyano, who provided her with an intensive educational introduction to formal drawing and painting. She has since completed a BA in painting from Portland State University. Her work has been shown in both group and solo exhibitions, and was most recently shown in the 2011 Sitka Art Invitational.

Devon Mitchell’s work is stunning and collectible.

SOLO EXHIBITION:

KELLY WILLIAMS

INTERNAL LANDSCAPES

May 3 – June 5, 2012

Sneak Preview Held at Portland Center Stage
Facebook Photos

Internal Landscapes is an exhibit of encaustic paintings in honor of Oregon-raised Artist, Mark Rothko. Williams seeks to express the fact that what happens on the outside and what exists on the inside often differ dramatically. These paradoxes are explored through color and texture, physically manifesting the reflection within the artwork. The layering process inherent to encaustic symbolizes the passage of time and the build-up of experiences, one covering another, blending and altering the final visible perception. The use of fire and heat in the creation process reveals deeply buried layers. Layers are also visible through the gouging, scraping, and marking of the wax. The end result is a complicated, intense tactile work. We invite you to gently touch the art, feeling both the subtle smoothness and roughly gouged qualities.

This body of work, very different from Williams’ more representational work, is the artist’s attempt to map her own internal landscape with luminous color and texture, much as Mark Rothko sought to do in his work. Rothko had an invaluable ability to capture raw, emotional experience by using only washes of color, both intense and subdued, along with implied texture within the paint. His work is an exceptional inspiration in Williams’ own quest to symbolize the universal paradoxes of the human condition.

Kelly Williams has shown extensively both locally and nationally. She is a philanthropist, a community-involved artist generously giving her time and skills to serve recovery programs, arts education and collaborative art collectives. Williams developed a Regional Arts and Culture Council-funded project entitled Recovery Panes, working with those affected by addiction. Her work is included in the collections of several local businesses, and has been featured in many local and national publications.

Williams works in the medium of encaustic paint. Encaustic painting is an ancient medium dating back to early Greek and Egyptian art. The paint is made from melted beeswax mixed with pigment and resin. Each layer is fused with a heat implement such as a torch or iron before new layers can be added. Carving tools are used to incise lines and shapes and add sculptural elements, bringing the painted surface beyond its traditional two-dimensions. Her work is full of life, one-of-a-kind, collectible, and stunning. See some of the works shown in a sneak preview installation held at PCS Mezzanine.

SOLO EXHIBITION: TEKOAH BUCHANAN

industek visions ?

More About this Artist (Prints Available)

April 5 – May 1, 2012
(Upstairs Gallery)

It’s Portland Photo Month! Join us in celebrating the art, history and practice of photography during Portland’s city-wide focus on photography. Pearl Gallery & Framing is excited to feature local artist Tekoah Buchanan’s stunning large-scale photographic images of Portland, Oregon, fantastic representations of our very own bridges, waterways and streets.

The exhibit focuses on industrial areas of Portland from an up close and personal perspective. Tekoah Buchanan shares images that reveal his lifelong quest to translate our fast-paced industrial world into pictorial works, revealing the beauty of our everyday world in gentles tones of blue, warm hues of gray. Buchanan’s photographic images have a hand-colored look, and they are printed large-scale by Pearl Printing on fine art canvas and satin cloth.

He named his process of transforming moving images to still shots “industek visions ?” to brand his process, his style and his imagery. It is a combination of “industrial” and “Tekoah,” his unusual first name, meaning sound of the trumpet. The question mark represents our shared humanity, our attempts to understand the world around us, the way that we use our analytical minds to perceive, but our emotional bewilderment at the grandeur of life with a future unknown. “industek visions ?” represents an open-eyed look at reality that encompasses infinite possibilities.

We welcome photography-lovers to see this well-respected artist’s industek vision, on display through April.

SOLO EXHIBITION: BRIAN CARTER

URBAN LANDSCAPES

More About this Artist (Prints Available)

April 5 – May 1, 2012
(Downstairs Gallery)

We are pleased to exhibit the work of Pacific Northwest graphic artist and illustrator, Brian Carter. His work reveals beautifully layered images, a photographic world unhindered by limitations. His subject matter varies greatly, offering vivid spectrum’s of color, urban environments with dramatic lighting styles and distinctive local landscapes.

Carter loved to draw since he was a boy and was introduced to the world of computers at age ten. It wasn’t long before he began experimenting with “code” to create colorful drawings and designs. His interest began with a computer aided drafting course in High School. Carter went on to earn his BS degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Portland. The degree led him to the printing industry. His twelve-year career as a printing operator and color work specialist have focused his eye for detail and helped to push his art to new levels.

Brian owns and operates Pearl Printing, one of the nation’s most reputable fine art reproduction companies, specializing in archival digital printing on canvas and fine art papers, using archival inks. Pearl Printing also offers a highly professional approach with a staff that is friendly, knowledgeable, and willing to take the time and care to bring you a reproduction of your work that truly lives up to the original.

BRIDGES:
AN EXHIBITION OF THE WORK
OF CHRISTOPHER MOONEY

March 1 – April 3, 2012

Pearl Gallery & Framing is thrilled to host BRIDGES, an exhibition of the work of Christopher Mooney. A local celebrity in architectural painting, Mooney has made substantial contributions to the visual documentation of urban landmarks in Portland. As a painter of Oregon’s transportation architecture, Mooney reveals Portland as a city of rivers and bridges, showcasing the character, function and form of these icons. He is fascinated by the way in which geometric shapes of steel girders frame the landscape of the city.

People cross bridges every day. See BRIDGES, and with each new crossing, you will celebrate the powerful engineering achievements these feats of architecture represent. The bridges of Portland improve commerce, connect communities, and unite the city. Mooney honors bridges by painting them from unusual points of view, giving them dramatic perspectives, rendering them both realistic and abstract. Light plays an important role in his paintings, illuminating structures, casting shadows, and encouraging viewers to see bridges in new ways, directing our attention to details that we might not otherwise observe.

Mooney has a BFA in Illustration from Parson’s School of Design, New York, New York. His work has been the subject of numerous group and solo exhibitions. He is a member of Portland Open Studios and has won several awards for his painting. His work, cityscape was used as the cover and poster publicizing the book, Rental Sales Gallery, Portland Art Museum, The First 50 Years, in 2009. His work has been featured in Hawthorne Bridge, Celebrating 100 Years in Art and Words, a 2010 calendar supporting the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial Celebration.

We are proud to feature this local artist, his BRIDGES will surely transport you!

INTERNAL LANDSCAPES SNEAK PREVIEW
AN EXHIBITION OF THE WORK OF KELLY WILLIAMS

March 14 – April 6, 2012
Sneak preview of May 2012 Exhibit

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE
MEZZANINE LEVEL
128 Northwest 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209

This show, entitled Internal Landscapes, seeks to express the fact that what happens on the outside and what exists on the inside often differ dramatically. These paradoxes are explored through color and texture, physically manifesting the reflection within the artwork. The layering process inherent to encaustic symbolizes the passage of time and the build-up of experiences, one covering another, blending and altering the final visible perception. The use of fire and heat in the creation process reveals deeply buried layers. Layers are also visible through the gouging, scraping, and marking of the wax. The end result is a complicated, intense tactile work. We invite you to gently touch the art, feeling both the subtle smoothness and roughly gouged qualities.

This body of work, very different from her more representational work, is Williams’ attempt to map her own internal landscape with luminous color and texture, much as Mark Rothko sought to do in his work. Rothko had an invaluable ability to capture raw, emotional experience by using only washes of colour, both intense and subdued, along with implied texture within the paint. His work is an exceptional inspiration in Williams’ own quest to symbolize the universal paradoxes of the human condition.

Williams works in the medium of encaustic paint. Encaustic painting is an ancient medium dating back to early Greek and Egyptian art. The paint is made from melted beeswax mixed with pigment and resin. Each layer is fused with a heat implement such as a torch or iron before new layers can be added. Carving tools are used to incise lines and shapes and add sculptural elements, bringing the painted surface beyond its traditional two-dimensions. Her work is full of life, one-of-a-kind, collectible, and stunning. In May 2012, Pearl Gallery & Framing will feature Kelly Williams in our Gallery.

ANNUAL BUNNY HOP

Saturday, March 31st – 11am to 2pm

It’s the annual Bunny Hop, a free family event. Everyone is welcome – kids especially! Hop by Pearl Gallery & Framing for special TREATS, adorn your outfit with BUNNY EARS or make a stand-up BUNNY CARD. We’re excited to participate once again in this growing Pearl District event!

COLLABORATIONS: NATHAN PETZ AND EMILY KAY

February 2 – February 29, 2012 (Upstairs Gallery)

For the month of February, Pearl Gallery & Framing is pleased to host COLLABORATIONS, an exhibition of the combined work of Nathan Petz & Emily Kay, two Portland-based artists whose collaborative oil paintings are sure to beautify your space. Most unique about this show is the fact that these artists share the canvas. Yes, that’s right, these artists actually work on the same canvas, each adding his or her own unique style to the same canvas. Petz and Kay execute unique oil paintings presenting images that are sure to enrich your home or office. Showcased images in the series we are proud to exhibit this February include owls, dogs and floral works that are sure to make you smile. The paintings in this collection are the first in these artists’ shared venture and are sure to become collectible.

Petz is a world traveler, having been a working artist in Germany. He owns a successful tattoo shop in Portland. Petz has over fifteen years of sketching, painting and tattooing experience. Over the past seven years, he has been perfecting his oil painting techniques and developed a style all his own. Kay studied printmaking, drawing, sculpture and painting in college and pursued her career in tattooing afterward, where she met Petz. Now together, they are collaborating in creating oil painting series.

SCENES FROM EASTSIDE PDX: SHAWN DEMAREST

February 2 – February 29, 2012 (Downstairs Gallery)

For the fabulous month of February, we are also featuring the unrivaled work of Portland artist, Shawn Demarest, in our downstairs gallery space.

Demarest has been a featured artist in galleries regionally and nationally, having had group exhibitions as well as solo shows in Taos, New Mexico & Portland, Oregon.

She says, “My work is a response to my surroundings. Whether painting from observation or in the studio, my natural drive is to represent the visual world I find myself in. Currently as a resident of Portland, Oregon, I am painting neighborhood views. Notably, much of this work represents city streets I walk, bike, or drive on. I seek out compositions, patterns, light, and weather scenes that speak to me and respond by drawing out and expressing their essential qualities. I also paint from observation, often along the Willamette River that cuts through Portland. All of my paintings, both studio and observation, begin as loose, gestural drawings. As they develop, my interest turns to more formal aspects of painting ,edge, contrast, and composition.”

Her paintings are unbelievably realistic in the way that glass windows reflect surrounding images, yet there are qualities to the images so intangible that you are drawn into the paintings completely – this is just purely amazing collectable art for your unique space.

Don’t miss this show at Pearl Gallery & Framing this February. In addition to our featured artists, we have gifts and fine art to brighten your life! You can discover something for everyone: silver rings, gemstone earrings, glass pendants, images of Portland, floral photo coasters, botanical etchings, original chalk pastels, ceramics, wire sculptures, mini-encaustics, hand-pulled Rock & Roll screen prints, lithographs, prints, ready-made frames and much more!

We are happy to work with you personally to frame your art, or envision the perfect art combination to liven up the space in your home or office.

Want to take home a piece of Portland?

Looking for gifts?

Pearl Gallery & Framing features local artists, emerging and established. Media include original oil paintings, encaustic, limited edition prints, pencil/chalk drawings, one-of-a-kind jewelry, ceramic and metal sculptures – something for everyone, including limited edition rock posters, botanical etchings, colorful pastels and images of Bridgetown spanning 100 years. We also sell antique prints (botanical images, birds, bridges, circus scenes and more), offer canvas stretching and more.
Please inquire.

Visit family-owned Pearl Gallery & Framing:

9 am to 5 pm Weekdays
11 am to 5 pm Saturdays
and every First Thursday until 9 pm

Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Events

Previous Events

Spring: A Collection of Prints & Originals

Nostalgia in December

Rolling into the Holidays Sale: 20% off Custom Framing 20% off Prints & Originals

Foxy Fox Arts: Worlds of Wonder

MAPS: A Collection of Various Vintage Maps

Taking Flight in PDX: A Collection of Bird & Portland Themed Art

Going Places: A Collection of Prints & Originals

SOPHIE NAVARRO: Drawing Explorations

SOPHIE NAVARRO: Dear Future Partner . . .

Dan Bernard & Carson Abbert – A Journey Out & In

MARTIN B. ANDERSON – Music: Happy & Sad

Marisa Baragli Bevington – Street Art 1991: Argentina & Uraguay

MEGHAN PADDOCK FARRELL: ABSTRACT GARDEN

UNCONVENTIONAL ROLLING ART: GRAFFITI CACOPHONY

SCENES of SPRING: Various Artists Works

March Mixed Bag Art Exhibition

PATRICIA PONCIANO:

THE ETERNAL MAGIC OF OUR SOUL

CHRISTIAN J. BARRIOS: VIVIENDO MUERTO!

Christian J. Barrios: Past, Future & Beginning

VERONICA ARQUILEVICH GUZMAN: OCEANSOil Layered With Pigmented Encaustic

HEIDI MARIE BALMACEDA: NATIVE METALS

Music & EmotionsPaintings by Martin B. Anderson

Tami Gaston: DepartureAcrylic Paintings by Tami Gaston

Tekoah Buchanan: A RETROPECTIVE ?

Convergent Landscapes: Acrylic Paintings by Tricia R. Evenson

NOSTALGIA: An Art Retrospective

BRIDGES

Expression of Female Embodiment

MARY FRAN ANDERSON: Visions in ColorWatercolor Paintings by Mary Fran Anderson

Circles of Life: Acrylic Paintings by Tami Gaston

CHRISTIAN GABRIEL : The Garden Collection

industek visions ? : 35mm

Eliat Avivi: Fragments in Sight

Mason Parker: Small Cities & Towns of Oregon

PORTLAND, OR – Portland Themed Artwork

Lift Urban PDX

Shop Hop

EPHEMERA

Ghosts, Ghouls & Otherworldly ThingsA Myriad of Seasonal Art

Buzz Siler: Moving Through Water and Other Flights of Fancy

GRAND OPENING AT OUR NEW LOCATION

Pearl Gallery & Framing has relocated to the New York Building!

Visual HarmonyPaintings by Farooq HassanPhotography by Donn Anning Jones

Roam Far & WideNew Work by Laura Walker Scott

Portland & BeyondAn Exhibition by Chris Haberman

MEDULLA OBLONGATAAn exhibition by Nathan Petz

Nostalgia: An Art Retrospective

Sunset: A collection of oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings and screen prints from past to present

By Alejandro Ceballos

Local Landmarks — Pen & Ink, Watercolorsby Mason Parker

Wonders of the Northwest: Photography by Andy Vic Lindblom

Divas, Damsels and Divans:New Paintings & Fine Art Dolls

by Amanda Sue Myers

Containers of the Soul: Explorations in Breaking Conventions

Dean Wade: Abstract Paintings

Consuelo Herrera: Decorative Boxes

Flux Realm: Frontier of the VisionaryPaintings and Prints by Noel Taylor

Thangka Paintings by Laura Santi

industek visions ?happy!

A Collection of Large-scale Photographic Prints from Past and Present

The Doors of Perception: Fine Art Prints by Marc Koller

Cuba At Last

Featured Artist: Michael (Mike) Feely

Nostalgia: An Art Retrospective

Celebrating 2014 at Pearl Gallery & Framing

Urban Landmarks

Paintings & Prints by Christopher Mooney

Natural Inspiration: Art as EducationConnections in Watercolor, Illustration and Photography

A Group Show at Pearl Gallery & Framing Featuring:Shane Koehler, Lisa Manning, and Andy Vic Lindblom

Beautoxacillin: A Remedy for Beauty

Oil Paintings by Khanh N. Huynh, MD

Teach Me to Believe:Acrylic Paintings by William Hernandez

Animal Energy; Spiritual LandscapesOil Paintings by Debra Shaffer

The Birds: Paintings by Alejandro Ceballos

industek visions ? : urban landscapes

A RESTLESS MIND:A “Group Show” by D. Laurent Dahlke

Pearl District Bunny Hop Saturday April 19, 2014Craft Project: noon – 3:00 pm

VERONICA ARQUILEVICH GUZMAN: OCEANS
Oil Layered With Pigmented Encaustic

Music & Emotions
Paintings by Martin B. Anderson

Tami Gaston: Departure
Acrylic Paintings by Tami Gaston

MARY FRAN ANDERSON: Visions in Color
Watercolor Paintings by Mary Fran Anderson

Ghosts, Ghouls & Otherworldly Things
A Myriad of Seasonal Art

Visual Harmony
Paintings by Farooq Hassan
Photography by Donn Anning Jones

Roam Far & Wide
New Work by Laura Walker Scott

Portland & Beyond
An Exhibition by Chris Haberman

MEDULLA OBLONGATA
An exhibition by Nathan Petz

Local Landmarks — Pen & Ink, Watercolors
by Mason Parker

Divas, Damsels and Divans:
New Paintings & Fine Art Dolls

Flux Realm: Frontier of the Visionary
Paintings and Prints by Noel Taylor

industek visions ?
happy!

Natural Inspiration: Art as Education
Connections in Watercolor, Illustration and Photography

A Group Show at Pearl Gallery & Framing Featuring:
Shane Koehler, Lisa Manning, and Andy Vic Lindblom

Teach Me to Believe:
Acrylic Paintings by William Hernandez

Animal Energy; Spiritual Landscapes
Oil Paintings by Debra Shaffer

A RESTLESS MIND:
A “Group Show” by D. Laurent Dahlke

Pearl District Bunny Hop Saturday April 19, 2014
Craft Project: noon – 3:00 pm

35 photographs over 35 years from 35mm film
by Allan Bruce Zee

PEARL FOR THE PEARL
Two Artists: Two Shows: One Cause

Monochromatic Oil Paintings and Charcoal Drawings
by Gillian Freney