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Wednesday, October 2, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Oscar Peña’s work is on display at Sisters library
By Helen Schmidling
Correspondent
As a youngster growing
up in Mexico City, Oscar
Peña loved to draw. He stud-
ied art along with his other
subjects, and his grandfather
gave him a book about how to
draw animals. He sketched a
lot, but even if art was a pas-
sion, it wasn9t destined to be
his career. He set aside his
sketchbook and went out for
soccer.
He opted to further his
education at the Universidad
Iberoamericana, graduating
with a degree in electrical
engineering. He worked for
technology companies and
lived in Mexico, Brazil, and
the United States.
When it came time to
retire, Oscar and his wife,
Gabriella, wanted to move
to the mountains, after liv-
ing in Florida for 15 years.
Colorado didn9t feel quite
right. They drove around the
country, and 7,000 miles later,
visited some friends that they
knew from Florida who were
living in Bend. Three months
later, they moved to a new
home in Sisters on December
31, 2016.
Peña laughs now as he
recalls that winter9s heavy
snow. What it did was give
him a chance to pick up a
project that he9d begun some
45 years earlier 4 paint-
ing and drawing. A series of
Peña9s portraits and a land-
scape are framed and on dis-
play in the Computer Room
of the Sisters Library through
October 30.
His first new drawings
were with charcoal, as he rec-
reated scenes from his cross-
country travels. He found
that people liked his work,
and he began to get commis-
sions from friends and neigh-
bors. He dove into his work,
experimenting with pastel,
oil, watercolor, acrylic, and
scratchboard.
Since retirement, Peña has
traveled to several countries,
enjoying nature and getting
to know the arts and cultures
of different lands. He enjoys
getting closer to nature and
wildlife. On one such visit, he
got very close to a mountain
gorilla, and made a portrait he
calls <Silverback.=
<He looked into my eyes
for a very long time,= Peña
recalled.
The memories and photo-
graphs of his travels provide
material for his paintings.
So do photographs of ani-
mals. Look for a pair of Saint
Bernards hanging their heads
through the back window of
a car; a happy black lab, two
boxers 4 one serious and one
not so much.
Besides travel, Peña
enjoys hiking, playing golf,
and taking photographs.
He loves to read, especially
novels, in both Spanish and
English (he speaks fluent
Portuguese as well).
He still alternates the dif-
ferent media in his paintings,
but his portraits of both peo-
ple and animals are very close
PHOTO BY HELEN SCHMIDLING
Eyes on Oscar Peña’s portraits at Sisters Library.
to his heart. It has a lot to do
with the eyes that seem to
communicate from the page
to the viewer.
Peña keeps on learning,
and he has studied techniques
in all media by watching hun-
dreds of online videos. He
particularly enjoys scratch-
board, where he can experi-
ment in playing with the light.
<I just follow my instincts
and the videos,= Peña said.
<The incredible Sisters artis-
tic environment motivates
and helps me. I enjoy other
artists9 work, and I love to
learn from them as well.=
Friends and family con-
tinue to encourage his artis-
tic pursuits, and Peña will do
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Just 1 week
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Debuting inside
The Nugget
10-9-19
commissions upon request.
The Art Committee of
the Friends of Sisters Library
(FOSL) arranges monthly
exhibitions in the library.
Also this month, look
for a display of work by
the Central Oregon
Spinners and Weavers in
the Community Room. Stay
tuned for news on the FOSL
Annual Exhibit, which
takes place in January and
February. A call to artists
will be issued in the next few
weeks for early January.
The Sisters Library is
open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday through Friday,
and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on
Saturdays.
CBD producer
sues hemp
seed seller
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _
A Kentucky-based company
that produces CBD has filed
a $44 million lawsuit against
an Oregon company it claims
sold it nearly worthless hemp
seeds that ruined a giant 2019
crop.
The
Oregonian/
OregonLive reports the crop
was destined to help ful-
fill the country9s booming
demand for CBD, a plant
extract soaring in popular-
ity as a treatment for health
problems from anxiety to
insomnia.
But Elemental Processing
of Lexington, Kentucky,
claims those plans tanked
when HP Farms of Troutdale,
Oregon sold it more than
6 million seeds that were
mostly <male.= The female
plants produce a CBD-rich
flower.
The suit says it was only
after the Kentucky company
had distributed the seeds to
farmers and those farmers9
crops had sprouted that the
company learned the seeds
were male.
Elemental Processing esti-
mates it lost at least $44 mil-
lion in profits.