Artists display works at BBR show

Art shows are nothing new to Black Butte Ranch (BBR). The BBR Art Guild has been hosting its annual sale and silent auction, Art at the Ranch, for nearly 20 years.

And each year the show grows and becomes more sophisticated.

This year more than 40 artists exhibited their creations under the big tent near the BBR Recreation Center on Friday evening and Saturday, September 1-2.

Event chairman Lyn Jacobs, who was out of town attending her son's wedding, handed over the chairmanship reins to veteran chairman Lynda Sullivan. Sullivan spearheaded the event between 1998 and 2001.

"It is so much more involved now," Sullivan said.

The original idea behind Art at the Ranch was to raise money to purchase art work for common area buildings at BBR, such as the lodge and restaurants. Since no new buildings have been constructed at BBR for many years, the art guild has had no need to purchase additional art.

In recent years, the art guild has funneled its energy toward assisting art education and has used proceeds from the sale to award scholarships to Sisters High School art students. Additionally, the guild has donated funds to the elementary and middle schools to purchase art supplies and defer some of the expenses of hosting artist-in-resident programs.

"Some years we have been able to give $5,000 to $6,000 away," Sullivan commented.

Now that BBR is building its new recreation center and has plans to construct a new welcome center, some of the proceeds from this year's sale will be earmarked to purchase art for these facilities.

To exhibit at the show an artist must be a BBR homeowner, family member, friend or employee. Organizers also provide an area for Sisters High School art students to exhibit their works. Friday evening's artists reception and silent auction was also the kickoff event to September in Sisters, a month-long arts celebration. For detailed information visit http://www.visitsisters.org.

Art at the Ranch 2006 featured a wide range of crafts from paintings to pottery to sculpture to jewelry to quilts to wood carvings and even stained glass.

Long time participant Elven Anderson, a part-time BBR resident, crafts baskets from pine needles he picks-up at BBR during October. Anderson treats the needles with glycerin and water and weaves them together into baskets. To add color, he embellishes his baskets with raffia that grows in Madagascar.

Sisters resident and returning artist Jill Haney Neal, whose parents have lived at the Ranch for 28 years, paints women from a woman's point of view.

Haney enjoys focusing on the universal rowdiness of women that she says, "guys cannot capture." About her paintings Haney comments, "They go right over a man's head."

Haney, who has a gallery in Bend, has lived in Sisters the last two years; her work is just becoming known here, although she regularly exhibits throughout the U.S.

BBR resident Wally Hunter presented his wooden boxes, doll cradles and candle holders. Woodturner Robert Bousquet, whose wife is a former BBR employee, uses a wood lathe to turn bowls and vases from species that are native to Oregon, such as maple, juniper, walnut, madrone and rhododendron burl. Bousquet comments that the rhododendron burl is a "fun wood to work with."

First-time exhibitor Tim Outman moved with his wife and three children to BBR from McKenzkie Bridge. Outman, a sculptor, presented his abstract, figurative representations of the human form.

Outman works with bronze and creates high polished finishes and heat applied patinas. His work is regularly exhibited at galleries in Las Vegas and Seattle.

Michael Baynes, who teaches art at Sisters High School, exhibited his pottery, as did Sisters craftsman, Mitch Deaderick. Deaderick has been a potter for 35 years and a Sisters resident for 28. Deaderick, who sells to galleries as far away as Alaska, does custom mugs for BBR, Pronghorn and Lake Creek Lodge.