Strolling through Sisters' art

At Wild Rivers Gallery, artist Sally Bailey works on a series of bright sunflower paintings. photo by Susan Springer Artists created with their hands, paintbrushes, voices and bodies at the Third Annual Sisters Art Stroll sponsored by the Sisters Gallery Association.

Last Saturday, September 25, art appreciators saw belly dancing, heard live music and witnessed sculptures and paintings come to life.

High Desert Gallery's Todd Dow, who organized the event, said there was a steady crowd throughout the afternoon and evening. He said in recent years "we've seen an increase in fine arts" which has attracted more people from Bend, Redmond and the Willamette Valley to Sisters' events such as the Art Stroll.

"We're blessed in this community with wonderful artists," said Dow.

High Desert's themed show "O Sisters, Where Art Thou?" brought a variety of interpretations from local artists. Trisha Hassler's "Crescendo" in fiber, metal, hand batiking and beads celebrates the music found in Sisters. Hassler originally began as a quilter and now works in mixed media.

Also showing at High Desert Gallery, Jerry Werner's painting "A Breeze Through Sisters" is familiar to visitors of Barclay Park as the mural of Sisters' western buildings and quilts. High Desert Gallery is releasing a reproduction print of Werner's mural.

Painter Suzi Sheward arrived with her newest screen at Leavitt's Western Wear "still covered in paint" but happy to be showing in her first Art Walk. Sheward, who has painted the past two Sisters Rodeo posters, showed a three-paneled room divider with the Sisters mountains behind a man and woman on horseback.

She likes doing screens since they are "a form of artwork that's also functional." Sheward says she's always loved covers for dime novels from the '20s and '30s, a style reflected in her screen. She has enjoyed painting "since I could walk."

Photographer Chris Miller also showed her work at Leavitt's. Miller says she always carries a camera with her on her travels through Central Oregon and abroad to as far as Iceland.

"I'm not very good at sitting still," said Miller.

Artist Suzi Sheward peeks from behind her room screen that she was happy to show in the Sisters Art Stroll. photo by Susan Springer

She's been riding horses all her life, a passion seen in her black and white photographs.

Navigator News, a newly opened business next to Bedouin, featured several local artists. Jim Cummins opened Navigator as a community-oriented place to enjoy coffee, art, a small library of books on the Northwest, and his selection of 60 different magazines. He wants to encourage the arts, especially in local kids.

At Navigator News, Wendy Vernon showed her vivid color studies in mixed media. Vernon has been a working art therapist for 20 years and has a background in sculpture. Abigail Merickle, who studied art in Italy, showed a series inspired by the recent Sisters Jazz Festival. She drew quickly as musicians played so the excitement and movement would be evident in her "gesture" drawings.

Other artists created works of art on stepping stools that Cummins provided with part of the proceeds going to art programs in Sisters schools.

Art appreciators smiled in the summery weather as they strolled through more than two dozen galleries and businesses that stayed open late for the event. Here's a sampling of what they saw:

At Wild Rivers Galley, watercolor and acrylic artist Sally Bailey painted sunflowers in great bursts of color. "I like lots of color!" said Bailey.

At Ghiglieri Gallery, Lorenzo Ghiglieri put the finishing touches on a bronze sculpture of mother and child. That evening, he also started a new stagecoach painting.

Three Sisters Floral enjoyed its first Art Stroll featuring pastel painter Norma Holmes.

Holmes said she is inspired by the mountains, desert and water around her Sisters home.

"If it's nice, I'm gone," Holmes said of her love of creating art outside. She was finishing a landscape called "First Snow" which she'll release soon as a print.

"The art and the flowers go together," said Ruth Raizin, the new owner of Three Sisters Floral.

Cliff Scharf Gallery featured Cliff's fine jewelry and Nancy Watterson Scharf's ghost series paintings inspired by a trip to New Orleans. Nancy Scharf, who teaches art at Sisters Middle School, enjoyed seeing a group of her students visit the gallery.

At The Tasting Room, Charles Chamberlain showed his rural American scenes, which he creates in acrylic on masonite, while strollers sipped fine wines from Napa's Elyse winery.

Strollers and artists called the event "wonderful" and "refreshing."

Dow said, "People were happy!"