Art show draws Sisters area crowd

By Tom Chace

A Grand Art Show and Gala was held at Sisters Episcopal Church Community Hall. photo by Tom Chace

An overflow crowd of admirers turned out for Central Oregon's largest juried art show last Friday, August 8, and Saturday, August 9 in the new Community Hall at Sisters Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration.

The show kicked off the church's annual Country Fair.

Forty-eight artists from throughout the area presented more than 150 pieces, many selling into the thousands of dollars, according to Margery Guthrie, co-chair for the event.

"The turnout and the number of artists participating was very special," she said.

In addition to showing off the work of many fine, local artists, the two-day event raised thousands of dollars for church programs.

Meredith McKittrick, chair of the 2003 Country Fair, said that 100 percent of all the proceeds from the raffle, held in conjunction with the Art Show and Fair, goes back to the community by way of the church's Outreach Program.

"This, in itself, amounts to several thousands of dollars," she said. "One of the benefits of our efforts is being able to give back to our community substantial gifts to a dozen or more organizations who make this such a fine place to live."

Among the artists showing at the art show were Joanne Donaca, Oscar Spliid, Bill Duff, Don Zylius, Jerry Polan, Michael Hooey, and Robert and Karen Evans. All were on hand for the opening Friday night gala.

Neil Wineman, appropriately named, was seen serving complimentary wine personally selected and provided by Don Boyd, wine steward at Ray's Food Place, which donated all of the beverages.

"They have been overly generous in helping us with our Fair this year as in past years," said McKittrick.

Also seen at the festive party were Jim and Barbara Rimmer, Mimi and Bill Miller (Mimi was co-chairman of the Fair this year), Lloyd and Genny Kendrick, Dick and Sue Kellogg, and Lee and Dell Henrich.

Bob and Mary Hargreaves were on hand as well (Mary was responsible for the fund-raising raffle). So were Howard and Esther Den Hart, Roger and Dixie Fairfield (Dixie is Senior Warden for the church), Dave and Eloise Berry, and Len and Karen Atkins.

The Atkins' daughter-in-law, Nancy Gates, provided the gourmet hors d'oeuvres, heated and served by Patience Croll and Edie Jones.

Gates owns Thyme Savor, a personal chef service.

Joanne Donaca judged the wide array of art pieces, assisted by Frank and Margery Guthrie. It took the better part of a week to go over the more than 200 entries, then re-judge the 15 finalists.

"We used a numerical table," said Donaca. "We gave a value of up to five for each of five categories: composition, color, technique, framing and creativity. We ranked composition slightly higher, giving up to 10 points."

Award winners won show ribbons in various categories.

The art submitted by the nearly 50 artists included sculpture, pottery, wood carving, acrylic, pastel, water color and oil paintings.

Jan Baldwin and Ronnie Duff were hostesses for the evening and were busy as cashiers handling the large number of pieces sold during the three-hour event.

The Art Show continued through Saturday as part of the Country Fair.