News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Artist Don Zylius. photo by Elise Gourguechon
Sisters artist Don Zylius has been named California Ducks Unlimited Companion Artist of the year. His work will be featured in the conservation organization's state art package for 2003-04.
Zylius is well-known for his watercolor work, with his ethereal and evocative portrayals of natural and sporting scenes. For the Companion Artist piece, Zylius was asked to provide a fly-fishing scene.
Other than that minimal guidance, he was free to work as he pleased.
Some of his other conservation-oriented commissions have been more specific.
California-Oregon Fish Enhancement, Inc. commissioned two Zylius paintings, one of the Smith River in Northern California and one of the Chetco River in Southern Oregon.
Zylius specializes in wet-on-wet watercolor, a technique that, Zylius cheerfully acknowledges, forces the artist to relinquish absolute control. The lack of precision is more than made up for by the way the technique allows the painter to create mood and feeling.
"I love the gamble of watercolor," the artist said.
Sporting themes come naturally to the artist, who earned his spurs as a staff artist for a Chicago newspaper in the days when papers had such things.
His work has appeared in the august Gray's Sporting Journal, among other hunting and fishing publications.
"I've been a sportsman all my life," Zylius said. "I always loved fishing." Sportsmen, especially the conservation-oriented members of such organizations as Ducks Unlimited, seem especially drawn to artwork that evokes the lifestyle and pastimes they so ardently love.
That's no mystery to Zylius.
"Most people now live in an urban environment and they don't have the advantage of getting out near as much as they'd like," the artist said. Surrounded by glass, metal and concrete, sporting and wildlife art "gives them a little bit of an instant escape," Zylius said.
The painter moved to Bend in 1970, where he worked as a commercial painter for a few years before turning full-time to fine art watercolor.
He moved to Sisters in 1994 and has built a successful career. His work is featured at Soda Creek Gallery in Sisters, Lahaina Gallery in the Old Mill District of Bend, Wingbeat gallery in Shasta, California and the Good Ol' Daze gallery in Oakhurst, California.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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