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Landscape painter celebrates
three decades at White Bird
Gallery with show, painting demo
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
LEFT: “Involution/Evolution,” by Jim Unwin. MIDDLE: Jim Unwin RIGHT: “Odin Watches,” by Jim Unwin
Spirit, energy, form revealed
in woodcarver exhibit
OCEAN PARK, WASH. — Bay
Avenue Gallery in Ocean
Park, Washington, will
feature an exhibit of work
from the well-known carver
Jim Unwin.
Unwin, who creates
woodcarvings and sculp-
tures in the Northwest
style, will present work
with the theme “Incarna-
tion, Transformation, and
Liberation.”
The exhibit will open
Friday, Sept. 22, and run
through Saturday, Oct. 14.
An artist reception will be
held 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 23.
Then, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 30, Unwin
will demonstrate carving
techniques.
His is intended to be
universal and timeless, each
piece representing a force
or energy visualized as
form. According to Unwin,
art is about spirit illustrated
as form that becomes trans-
formed and liberating.
“Odin Watches” is a Ra-
ven carved of redwood and
alder. According to Norse
legend, Odin watched over
the earth by sending out two
Ravens who report back
what they have seen. Unwin
said this transformation
piece illustrates the journey
of spirit through form and
time.
A second piece, “Invo-
lution/Evolution,” made
of yellow cedar, shows the
spirit manifested in form.
The balance of negative
and positive space holds
the surprise, as the negative
space reveals the shape that
matter forms around.
For more information
about Bay Avenue Gallery
events, call 360-665-5200,
visit bayavenuegallery.com,
or follow the gallery on
Facebook.
The gallery (1406 Bay
Ave.) is open 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. Thursday through
Tuesday, and 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Sunday. It is closed
Wednesdays.
CANNON BEACH — For 31
of White Bird Gallery’s 46
years, Randall David Tip-
ton’s vibrant oil landscapes
have adorned its walls.
To celebrate that
long-running relationship,
as well as his latest show,
Tipton will hold a free
painting demo at the gallery
2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23.
White Bird founder
Evelyn Georges discovered
Tipton’s work in 1986, on
the walls of a bed-and-
breakfast in Santa Fe, New
Mexico. She phoned Tipton
immediately, offering to
show his work at White
Bird.
Tipton remembers
setting foot in the Cannon
Beach gallery for the first
time.
“I felt I was showing in
a gallery that had real se-
rious work, not just tourist
stuff,” he said. “And that
was important to me.”
While Tipton’s paintings
have shown at prestigious
galleries in Portland and
around the country, no
relationships come close to
his longevity at White Bird.
Not only their partnership,
but the gallery itself, is an
outlier.
“In general,” Tipton
said, “galleries don’t have a
real long lifespan. I’ve been
in lots that have just folded,
and many others that were
just beginning. And they’re
very excited, but then only
last a year or two. Galleries
that stick around this long
are very rare.”
“Usually it’s one per-
son’s vision,” Tipton added.
“And that person will either
go broke, die or get old,
and the gallery will close.”
No so with White Bird.
Current owner Allyn
Cantor, who worked with
Georges for a decade, made
the transition seamless.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Paintings by Randall David Tipton
Cantor recalls being im-
mediately taken by Tipton’s
work when she began at
White Bird.
“I walked in and saw his
paintings, and I thought:
This person sees nature and
trees and light like I do,”
Cantor said. “Of all the
painters here at the time,
he’s the one I connected
with most of all.”
“I still feel that way,”
Cantor added, walking over
to Tipton’s work. “These
are my colors,” she said.
“These pastels, I could just
crawl into this.”
Experience takes
over
Indeed, there is a strik-
ing level of depth in Tip-
ton’s oil-based paintings.
From a distance, they scan
as landscapes. Move closer
and the level of abstraction
abounds.
Tipton gathers inspira-
tion walking in nature —
be it the woods, the beach
or elsewhere. But, rather
than painting in plein air, or
from photographs or mem-
ory, his process is more
intuitive.
“It’s not that I know
ahead of time what an oak
tree looks like,” Tipton
explained. “But I’ve been
looking at them all my life.
When I’m painting, the way
it’s fun for me is to drop
paint on the surface, and
start moving paint around
with various tools, and
when it looks like an oak
tree I know it.”
This improvisatory pro-
cess makes it difficult for
Tipton to teach. As such, he
prefers painting demonstra-
tions.
“When I demonstrate I
try to verbalize my process,
and I can answer ques-
tions,” Tipton said. The
oddest thing is that these
demonstrations are often
some of my best work.”
“It really is striking,”
Tipton added, “the amount
of good works I get while
doing demos, it’s way
above my success in the
studio. A friend of mine,
a teacher and artist, thinks
it’s because I’m not sec-
ond-guessing myself, not
overthinking — that my
decades of experience just
take over.”
Tipton’s latest show
will hang through Monday,
Oct. 16. And, of course,
his works will be found at
White Bird long after that.
“Certain painters are
synonymous with White
Bird,” owner Allyn Cantor
said. “Randal David Tipton
is one of them.”