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Deborah DeWit,
Helga Winter
open new solo
exhibitions
CANNON BEACH — White
Bird Gallery opened two
new solo art exhibitions on
Sept. 1. Deborah DeWit is
showing new paintings in
“Boundaries and Hori-
zons,” and Helga Winter
is debuting new sculptural
paintings made of paper
and mixed-media.
DeWit will be present
for an artist talk from 3 to
5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.
The art shows run to Oct.
17.
DeWit is a well-known
Oregon artist whose
narrative paintings often
explore autobiographi-
cal subjects. The painted
scenes in “Boundaries
and Horizons” sustain
this theme, conveying
moments in time and
expressing familiar human
experiences.
“These paintings con-
tinue my attempt to cap-
ture the essence of my ex-
perience — living on four
and half acres on the edge
of an estuary, surrounded
by woods, bordered by the
sea, in a hundred-year-old
house on the North Oregon
Coast,” DeWit says. “If
it is possible to find all
the universal truths, the
elemental memories, in
one place, I mean to find
them here. My observa-
tions and thoughts become
imagery.”
DeWit’s mature paint-
ing style has developed
over the course of her
lengthy career, which
began as a photographer
in the late 1970s before
she took up pastel and oil
painting. DeWit now has
several books published
on her work, highlighting
her overarching themes in
photography, writing, oil
painting and pastels. She
lives south of Wheeler in
Tillamook County.
Her current paintings
are naturalistic depictions
in oil that combine loose
expressive brushwork
and layers of paint in a
realistic style to capture
essential details of a time
and place.
Many of her paintings
also suggest metaphors
about the larger human
experience through the
interplay of indoor and
outdoor environments in
sensitive and thought-pro-
voking compositions.
Known throughout
the Pacific Northwest for
her woodturnings, Helga
Winter’s newest endeavor
is the creation sculptural
paintings that are made
from deconstructed books.
Winter uses unwanted
book pages — the papers
are rolled, colored and
waxed to form composi-
tions where the original
book’s knowledge is
hidden.
These mixed-media
pieces are intriguing in
both the reformulation
of material as well as in
the way they suggest the
rethinking and reshaping
of what has been learned,
opening avenues for new
truths.
Winter has enjoyed a
remarkable career, begin-
ning with studies under
the tutelage of master
woodturners Rude Osolink
and David Ellsworth. Her
work is included in the
permanent collections of
the Smithsonian American
Art Museum as well as the
Arrowmont School of Art
and Craft. She also is hon-
ored to have been a past
juror to the prestigious Art
In The Pearl, an annual
art fair held in the heart of
Portland’s Pearl District.
White Bird Gallery is
located at 251 N. Hemlock
St. For more information,
call 503-436-2681 or visit
www.whitebirdgallery.com
Lot painting workshop
SUBMITTED PHOTO
“Roses in Winter” by Deborah DeWit.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
“Exploration in Depth and Texture #1” by Helga Winter.
ASTORIA — Award-winning
Portland artist Liz Walker
will lead the two-day class
“Marbled Paper to Finished
Painting” on Thursday and
Friday, Sept. 15 and 16.
Starting with marbled
papers, students will create
a strong design and then
paint with acrylic to create
vibrant, energetic works of
art. The workshop will take
place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
both days. The cost is $160.
For more information, call
503-325-4442 or e-mail
astoriaartloft@gmail.com
Walker was born in
Pennsylvania and raised in
San Antonio, Texas — a large
metropolitan city infused with
the culture, language, and
architecture of Mexico. This
experience has had a profound
and positive affect on her
life and inluences how she
chooses the colors and subject
matter in her paintings.
Walker was always inter-
ested in art, but a Bachelor
of Arts in art from Trinity
University was not a guar-
antee of a job. She switched
ields and found inancial
security in a career of tech-
nical and software writing.
After 10 years in the high-
tech world, she renewed her
passion for art and left the
240 11 TH STREET
ASTORIA, OR 97103
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A painting by Liz Walker.
corporate world.
Initially, Walker’s
medium of choice was
watercolor. But in 2005 she
started painting in acrylics
and in 2007 discovered
acrylic marbeling, and these
became her favorites. She
has won numerous awards,
and her paintings are in
many collections around the
U. S., including in Texas,
Massachusetts, California,
Colorado and Oregon.
She has exhibited at
Village Gallery of Arts and
Elizabeth Lofts Gallery in
Portland and Rose Spring
Center for the Healing Arts
in Hillsboro.